Transferring Credits Between Colleges
For many students attending community colleges or other two-year education institutions, transferring academic credits from one school to another is an important part of achieving a college degree. Many states are working with their colleges and universities to improve credit transfer policies, but some careful pre-enrollment planning by the student can also smooth the way for transferring credits later on.
Colleges consider many factors when reviewing requests from students to transfer in from another school. Here are some tips for understanding the credit transfer process.
Accreditation is key in transferring credits
Accredited schools will consider accepting transferred credits only from another accredited school. There are two primary types of higher education accreditation, regional accreditation and national accreditation. Regional accreditation is awarded to qualifying schools that offer an academic curriculum. National accreditation is awarded to qualifying schools that generally offer vocational or technical education leading directly to employment. Because they are different education tracks, their similar courses and programs are not automatically considered equivalent. Credits earned at a nationally accredited school may not transfer smoothly to a regionally accredited school.
Regional accreditation makes transferring credits easier
Regionally accredited colleges and universities are not supposed to refuse transferred credits solely on the basis of national accreditation, but this still happens. If your education goal includes starting at a 2-year college and transferring your associate degree credits to a 4-year college, consider doing your first two years at a regionally accredited community college or career school. Check the accreditation of your 2-year school carefully. A school with campuses in more than one state may not have the same accreditation in every state.
Good grades are important too
Most 4-year schools will not consider accepting credit transfers of any courses in which you earned less than an average grade, and in some cases the minimum grade requirement may be higher than average.
Credit transfer policies
All schools are required to have credit transfer policies and make them available to the public. Ask the 2-year schools you're considering if they have transfer agreements with local 4-year universities. Ask the 4-year schools you may eventually want to transfer to for an explanation of how they evaluate credits and courses from other schools. One or more may have agreements with local 2-year schools to accept certain course credits quickly, based on the grade received.
Course articulation agreements
Course articulation is a more complex part of the credit transfer. During the articulation process, the transfer-to school evaluates the requirements and content of the courses you want to transfer in comparison to their own courses. Course articulation is important because it will assure you that you won't have to repeat a course due to mismatching course requirements. Without the articulation process, you may successfully transfer the credit hours of a course but find out later that the credit was accepted only as an elective, not to fulfill a Core requirement. That means you would have to repeat the course at your new school, even though they accepted the credit hours.
Many colleges and universities have articulation agreements as well as credit transfer agreements with other schools in the area. When you talk to admissions representatives at the schools you're considering, ask to see their articulation agreements. You may be able to arrange the best combination of 2-year and 4-year schools for you just by confirming before you apply which schools already have transfer and articulation agreements with each other.
Common and core course numbering systems
Another way that state 2-year and 4-year schools are beginning to cooperate with each other is to establish a common course numbering system for equivalent courses. That is, these schools have agreed ahead of time which courses they will consider the same in both schools and assign the same catalogue number to those courses. This way, if you take Math 101 at your 2-year school, you should be able to smoothly transfer the course credit to any 4-year school participating in the same course numbering agreement, as long as you achieve the required grade.
Common course numbering is especially helpful when applied to Core courses. The more Core course credits you can transfer to your 4-year school, the more quickly you'll get to your degree goal.
Transferring online program credits
Accredited online program credits are no different from credits earned on campus. So long as the school and program are accredited by an authorized accrediting agency, your course credits should be transferable according to the same transfer and articulation agreements that would apply to campus credits.
However, nationally accredited online courses may be particularly hard to transfer. If you think you may eventually want to earn a bachelor degree, consider applying to a regionally accredited school that offers both associate and bachelor online degrees.
Talk to school advisors or admissions representatives about transferring your credits
We're sorry—CourseAdvisor can't help you with transferring credits! Only the authorities of the school you want to transfer to can determine how many of your credit can be transferred. Before you pay any tuition, talk to an admissions representative at that school you're interested in and find out how many of your credits they will accept. Try to get all your core requirement credits transferred and articulated so you don't have to repeat any entry-level education courses.
If you request information about a school through the CourseAdvisor Education Wizard or CourseAdvisor Education Directory, an admissions representative from the school will contact you directly. This is the person who can help you with the credit transfer process.
For a full list of national accrediting agencies , see the U.S. Department of Education accreditation page.
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Sources:
1) U.S. Department of Education
2) Council for Higher Education Accreditation