<p>No. PhD programs do not transfer credits, for most part.</p>
<p>Err, I’ve seen plenty who say, “If you enter the Ph.D program with a relevant MA, you can apply up to xx credits to coursework requirements.”</p>
<p>I’ve seen plenty of programs which transfer credit from a terminal masters to a phd. </p>
<p>I am not sure about the university or his letters of recommendation, but there are Masters programs which it will not be able to see whether it was done online or not… Not sure about in history though… But plenty reputable schools have online masters in engineering, computer science, etc. Are these not reputable as well, if you got an online CS degree from University of Florida for example?</p>