I’m just curious. A friend’s son has been attending grad school in a master’s program and has been very disappointed with almost everything about it. He has a 3.4 GPA, can he transfer credits or would he have to start over somewhere else?
It depends on the department. Usually, it’s not really a “transfer” in the traditional sense of the word, but the new department may give him credit for some of his classes taken. Usually there are limits on the number of credits (generally, not much more than a semester’s worth), and often it’s based on evaluating whether the courses at the previous institution are equivalent to the courses at the present institution. Sometimes, the classes many be accepted but that doesn’t reduce the time to degree by any great amount of time.
If he’s interested in moving on to another program, he should contact the departments of those programs and inquire about the process and whether or not they will take his credits.
Unless he has a change of major/focus, I can’t see where it’d make sense as a transfer would likely extend the time towards graduation. A MA is what, a two-year program, and he’s completed one year already?
Thanks for replies! Yes, he’s done two semesters of coursework. it doesn’t really make sense to change but he is feeling like he will have a masters degree without having really gotten any out of it. His academic advisor is about to retire and doesn’t really care about the students anymore so never gives feedback or direction. Now it’s time to do a thesis project and he can’t get any reaction to his proposal. I think he’s just demoralized, It’s a state school and the program was really good in the past, but now not so much. He’s in an earth science program.