Dual-Credits and Transfer Admissions. A Pretty Peculiar Predicament. Help, please?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hey Everyone.</p>

<p>So, I have a pretty interesting situation that I hope some of you experienced in transferring between schools can shed some light on.</p>

<p>Basically, I'm graduating high school this year and am on track to enter a private liberal arts college in the Fall of 2010. I understand the generally accepted rule around here is to not attend a school with the intent to transfer, however I am doing exactly that. The school is offering me a great financial aid package, it's a pretty decent school, but I would definitely like to go someplace better. I will be in the Honor's Program at the LAC that I am attending.</p>

<p>Anyway, I am on track to complete about 40 dual-credit hours by the end of this Spring 2010 semester, I took about 20 in the Fall and 20 in this current Spring semester at a well-known community college. I'm maintaining a 4.0 GPA, and each of the courses are general requirement courses, not remedial courses. Meaning, I have taken the majority of the courses which are considered 'core'.</p>

<p>However, I realized that if I want to transfer to any of my choice colleges (UT Austin, UPenn, UVa, AU, GWU, Georgetown, NYU, Vanderbilt, Vassar, Notre Dame, Fordham, and some more), I will have to take four semesters of a foreign language.</p>

<p>I plan on taking two semesters of the foreign language this summer, and then the other two semesters in the Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 semesters. After taking a few other courses that I need, including Speech, Calculus, and others, I will apply for transfer for the Fall 2011 semester to each of the schools I have listed above.</p>

<p>Does this sound like a good idea? Or, should I apply for a Spring 2010 transfer?</p>

<p>Also, because I am in the Honor's program, I will have to take courses that are equivalent to some of the core classes, such as American Literature and Art. However, rather than taking American Literature or Art, I would be taking an Honor's seminar that would count for the same course at the University. How do transfer admission boards feel about this?</p>

<p>Also, I understand that some schools do not accept dual-credit courses. I don't really mind if they don't transfer over, but how will these be looked at as far as transfer admissions go?</p>

<p>Honestly, I'm not exactly sure if my plan is all that great at the moment, and some guidance would definitely be appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance,
Godric Gryffindor</p>

2

<p>Ahh, I just calculated my Fall and Spring courseload, and it looks like I’ll finish my Spring 2011 semester with a total of about 80 credits. Is this… bad? This is mainly because I wanted to do 18 hours per semester so that I can be competitive, but anyone have any thoughts about this?</p>

<p>I can bring that down to 15 hours per semester, but it would still be around 80 hours that I would apply with for transfer.</p>

<p>:-.</p>

3

<p>Hi Godric, :slight_smile: </p>

<p>So if I’m reading your posts correctly, your questions are “Should I apply as a Fall or Spring Transfer?”, “How does the honors seminar look”, “How do dual-credit courses look?”, and “Should I do 18 hours per semester?”. Is that right?</p>

<p>(Assuming my reading comprehension skills were unaffected by lack of sleep) your first and last questions can really only be answered by you. From the information you gave us, you can make it for Fall 2011. I don’t see the issue for applying for Fall unless you want to stretch out your time. As for having 80 credits, some schools will have a limit for credits you can have to transfer. Number of credits is rather trivial in respect to GPA, essays, recommendation letters, and the other components of the application. Unless you don’t exceed the number of maximum credits for your schools, you’ll be absolutely fine. </p>

<p>Universities look upon Honors courses well. I’m not sure how your honors program works, but in my college, all of the Honors classes are understood to be seminar-style equivilants of the normal lecture classes. If I take English 1A Honors, it counts for my English transfer requirement. As long as they are recognized to be the same class by your school, you’re good. In fact, schools like it that you’re challenging yourself. </p>

<p>As for dual-credits,they do show again that you challenge yourself academically. As a fellow dual college student, I’ve only received positive remarks about my college work. Don’t worry about it! It can never be looked upon negatively that you started college work ahead of time. </p>

<p>From what it sounds, you’re in pretty good shape for wherever you want to go. I have about as many credits as you but I stretched it out over 2 years. I couldn’t imagine maintaining my 4.0 taking ~20 credits a semester! As long as you keep up what you’re doing (except for the worrying part - relax :D), you will be perfectly fine.</p>

4

<p>@lenoradusk</p>

<p>Thanks for the reply. Yes, the break down of the questions seem to be right. :P.</p>

<p>I see, but if the Honors seminar courses have different course titles, how would the transfer admissions boards know that the class I am taking is equivalent to American Literature or an Arts credit?</p>

<p>And, several of the schools that I have listed have various different policies regarding how they accept dual-credits and for courses done during the summer after high school graduation.</p>

<p>For example, Georgetown will only accept four dual-credit courses, while Boston College says they will not accept any courses during the summer after high school graduation. NYU says they will accept dual-credit, but will not do so if the courses are also on my high school transcript, which they are.</p>

<p>Moreover, the average max credit limit for each of the schools is about 60 credits. I don’t mind retaking courses, but will having so many credits and possibly 40 or so credits that are completley non-transferrable hurt me as far as transfer admissions go?</p>

<p>Thanks again for the help.</p>

5

<p>Hm, it gets trickier if the courses have different names. However, I believe all colleges should have a person or a group of individuals who look at the course and decide whether it is similar to the course in question. If the transfer admissions board needs to know whether you have completed that requirement, I believe (and this is an assumption) that they would have that course checked. You may be able to make a note of this somewhere in your essays or you can email/call your universities to see if they will recognize it as being equal.</p>

<p>As for credits, it depends on whether the schools says “max credit” means they will not transfer any credits over their limit or they will not accept any students with credits over the limit. It could not possibly hurt you in any way if you have a smorgasbord of credits unless you are deinied outright. Your universities may not transfer your dual-credit courses, but they will still see them on your transcript as you have to send all of them. If you don’t mind retaking classes, this shouldn’t be a problem. They just won’t transfer. </p>

<p>I hope this answers all of your questions properly. :)</p>

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<p>@lenoradusk</p>

<p>Awesome, thanks for the information. I checked a few websites and it seems that they only specify that the max is sixty, not that all students more than sixty credits will be automatically denied. If someone who has applied to a school with mor ethan sixty transferrable credits can post here, that would be great.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

7

<p>You’re very welcome, Godric.</p>

<p>If you just want an example of someone who has transferred with more than 60 credits, you’ll find a lot in the UC transfer board. This is only the example that I know of, but the UCs say that California CC students can have as many credits as they want, but only X amount can transfer.</p>

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<p>@lenoradusk</p>

<p>I know you touched on this question in the previous posts, but I just wanted to clarify this because I asked a few people today —</p>

<p>“If half the credits that a transfer student is applying with are guaranteed to NOT transfer, does this hurt the student’s chances?”</p>

<p>And then,</p>

<p>“Is a student considered to have met the general recommended transfer requirements if half of his credits are guaranteed to NOT transfer?”</p>

<p>If anyone could answer this question, that would be great.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

9

<p>I don’t completely understand your question but I have a couple of comments that might help… I can only speak to one school, so maybe that’s why your questions don’t really make sense to me.</p>

<p>1) Many schools, including Vassar on your list, won’t accept any credits that show up on your high school transcript. They think it’s double dipping. I don’t see how them not accepting these credits can hurt your chances - they just view them as part of your academic record, but won’t be put towards your college academic record/class placement. What it will effect is what class you end up in/how many years of college they expect you to complete.</p>

<p>2) Vassar would not require 2 years of foreign language. They only require 1 year of a new language, or 1 semester of a continuing language. There also is no core curriculum, so worrying about specific transfer credits meeting core requirements is moot for at least one school.</p>

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<p>@VasssarGrad</p>

<p>Thanks for the reply.</p>

<p>I will be applying for transfer for the Fall of 2011, and half of my 80 or so credits will be non-transferable as they do not meet certain transfer credit guidelines, one of which you stated in your reply to question one.</p>

<p>1.) This is understandable, and I know that this is the policy for a few other schools on the list.</p>

<p>2.) That’s awesome, but then I just realize that I wasn’t expecting to be admitted to Vassar anyway. :P.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

11

<p>“If half the credits that a transfer student is applying with are guaranteed to NOT transfer, does this hurt the student’s chances?”</p>

<p>It’s generally expected that not all of the student’s credits will transfer with them. I recall seeing on some university websites that they actually only expect half to go through. I’m going to reverse what I said before: as long as you have above the minimum required transferrable units, you will be fine. </p>

<p>I’m not completely sure about your second question, but it sounds like you’re asking a general question for specific schools. It may be best if you give your potential universities a ring and tell them how many credits you will obtain and ask if that meets their requirement.</p>

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<p>You can always appeal to get credit for classes not accept during admissions. I got 12 hours that were rejected to be accepted when i showed the school sylibi,and work done in that class that matched a class at my current school.</p>