Does having too many credits hurt chance of transfer acceptance?

<p>My DD is a freshman at a state university. As a freshman she went in with 27 college credits (AP and earned) and will have 63 total credits at the end of her first year. </p>

<p>Her university has a problem with too many students in certain majors (including hers) resulting in extreme difficulty getting the necessary courses. </p>

<p>She has decided to study overseas through this university which will result in her being able to actually get some of the courses she needs.</p>

<p>However, she just informed me that after her year overseas, she would like to transfer to a different university. </p>

<p>Question- will having too many college credits (probably at least 90) make any university or college not take her application seriously?</p>

<p>I’ve been more or less prevented from finishing a degree or even being allowed to take college classes in any capacity for the last DECADE because of policies like this, so it can happen.</p>

<p>In my case, I ended up having a good GPA and took all the required courses for transfer for a specific major. However, being from a small-town community college and starting a semester late, I ended up having all sorts of extra semesters and extra hours because of the way classes were available at my Comm. College.</p>

<p>In the end, it didn’t matter. I’ve been told for the last decade that I have too many semesters/credits from Community College and can’t get into a program in order to finish a degree. Fun stories, though…</p>

<p>-Was accepted into a program back in 2007 for about 24 hours, until they realized I’d spent too much time at a community college and they informed me that acceptance had been a ‘mistake’ due to their not recognizing that.</p>

<p>-Was accepted and enrolled in a program 10 years ago. Spent about a month in it before a dean told me the same thing and gave me the three options I had with the school: Drop out, flunk out, or use up the 3 semesters I had left and just not graduate. (Edited version)</p>

<p>Nothing was an issue with GPA, the amount of hours I still needed to finish, funds or the like; it all came down to the amount of time/credits I had before enrollment. In short, I’m effectively barred from finishing school around here.</p>

<p>Wow that is a crazy story. How long did you stay at the CC and how many credits did you have?</p>

<p>At the time of transfer, I spent 7 Spring/Fall semesters (+ 2 Summer semesters) all full-time. Keep in mind that not all classes transferred and some did transfer but not as actual 1:1 articulated coursework. However, at time of transfer, I had 89 credits that were accepted, plus about 20 more in courses that either didn’t transfer or didn’t count. I think my GPA was somewhere in the 3.7/4.0 range or so: My CC coursework at that time was almost all As with the exception of one C and 2 Bs, I think.</p>

<p>However, in all honesty, I had all my transfer requirements met by the end of 5 semesters except for 3 classes. However, the problem was that 2 of these classes were part of a four-semester foreign lang. sequence that needed to be completed before transfer that I ended up starting a year late because of course conflicts at my small CC. So, the need to finish that sequence required an extra 2 semesters of full-time enrollment that I filled up with some computer classes and the like to help me be better with programming.</p>

<p>When I tried to explain the reason I had so many semesters/credits to the dean during the meeting 10 years ago, his response was literally: “That’s your problem and your CC’s problem, not ours.”</p>

<p>Since then I’ve been told that if I take any classes at any community college, no matter what my grade or what the class is, I will never be allowed to finish a four-year degree, period.</p>

<p>what university?
did you ask about repeating the core courses you took at cc?</p>

<p>i actually have something different to say… i came into a state university with enough credits to be a junior, and now i’m a 2nd year but credits-wise a senior. i am transferring to cornell, and i will be considered a junior when i transfer. sometimes, i think it helps to have more credits under your belt…</p>

<p>i agree with dirty</p>

<p>the more credit you have, the more chance that those credits transfer over and the more chance for them to evaluate your profile</p>

<p>a 4.0 with 20 credits is less than a 3.8 with 40</p>

<p>I don’t see a reason why credits should play an issue unless the GPA is in question</p>

<p>I also agree with dirty.chicago. Almost everyone loses credits in the transfer process, so having more for them to choose from helps you increase your odds of going in at junior standing.</p>

<p>And I honestly have no clue what Stopgap is talking about – virtually every college will just pick which 64 credits they want and then put you in at junior standing, not flat-out deny you because you dared to do extra work. I am thinking Stopgap simply got some awful advice.</p>

<p>The one situation I can think of in which having too many credits can hurt you is with financial aid. Most students are capped at the number of semesters for which they can receive aid, so if you’ve already maxed that out, some colleges won’t take you because they simply don’t want to foot your bill for you. (Reed College has a policy like that.) So maybe that’s what happened?</p>

<p>Finally, Ms.t8ks, most AP credits don’t get transferred, so it may not even be the problem she’s imagining it to be. I know that every college to which I applied would not give transfer credit for AP/IB or CLEP, so your daughter might find herself in the same situation.</p>

<p>Stopgap, what you were told is not correct. If you can put together enough classes to complete a major, you can finish a degree with two years of coursework in residence at any number of colleges. Some colleges won’t accept transfers with a lot of credits, but many, many colleges will.</p>

<p>well i hope dirty.chicago (congrats on Cornell!) and MidwestMom are right, because I, like the OP’s DD, will have over 90 hours of coursework (no AP/CLEP) and applied as a sophomore transfer.</p>

<p>From my research into this matter due to being at a CC myself and having enough credits to be a junior, 4 year schools you might transfer to don’t like to see that you’ve started to take what they consider to be the junior/senior level courses in their program.</p>

<p>Like for example you transfer to a state 4 year from your CC and start into the major courses but after 1 semester realize you hate the school and don’t like the program there. You try to transfer to a different 4 year but they see you’ve already started to take the major courses and deny your admission for that reason.</p>

<p>This might not be the reason in your case and I don’t believe that is the policy at every 4 year institution but I know it is at some of them. Anyone is welcome to correct me on this…</p>

<p>[Course</a> Load & Credit/No Credit Course Guidelines Students College of Liberal Arts & Sciences University of Illinois](<a href=“http://www.las.illinois.edu/students/courses/loadcredit/]Course”>Course load, credit/no credit, and 10-semester limit | College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Illinois)</p>

<p>Bottom of page: Ten Semester Limit. (“all post-secondary institutions attended” includes community colleges.)</p>

<p>This is where EVERY discussion hits a dead end for the last decade.</p>

<p>Does it matter I’d still have to complete the exact same on-campus coursework after transfer as any other transfer student? No. All that matters is that I have too many credits or semesters. I don’t agree with it, but yet, it’s their stance.</p>

<p>(edit: YES, there is the petitioning for extension, but they all say that it is so rare as to be impossible to obtain. From experience, I’ve found that to be true.)</p>

<p>That University of Illinois ten semester rule is not kind. I wonder what their goal is. </p>

<p>A lot of colleges will accept students with bachelor’s degrees for a second bachelor’s degree; they don’t care how many credits you have or how many semesters you went to school.</p>

<p>Two universities that will accept up to 90 semester hours of transfer credit are Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa (<a href=“http://www.ashford.edu%5B/url%5D”>www.ashford.edu</a>), and the University of Maryland University College ([UMUC](<a href=“http://www.umuc.edu%5DUMUC%5B/url%5D”>http://www.umuc.edu)</a>). Both of these institutions have extensive distance programs, and cater to an older crowd. Both are fully accredited.</p>

<p>I say, stop trying to finish up at U of Illinois. A place like that is not where you want to be.</p>

<p>And, thanks for the head’s up about this policy at U of Illinois. The rest of us can steer clear of it too!</p>