<p>I had a great question from a high schooler in a PM today. Are academic credits earned at a fully-accredited 4-year university generally accepted at other schools? I'm sure the world is full of weird exceptions and schools who are just too cool to accept other schools' credits, but generally, overall, was I right in saying that, "if it's accredited, the credits will transfer."</p>
<p>I think transfer credits at most US universities are subject to a review and approval process by a department, committee, chairperson, etc. I don't know of any school that guarantees acceptance of transfer credits. You should refer to the student handbook of the particular school.</p>
<p>It depends on the school. I think it is also different if you transfer to a different college vs. taking college classes at HS. (My daughter took 2 classes at "top ten" university during HS, and her "top LAC" refused to grant credit for them, even though they give credit for APs - go figure...)</p>
<p>A lot of times transfer credits may not count for the major (they count as "electives"), and that could be a problem if graduating on time is essential.</p>
<p>Policies really differ: we had experience with another top LAC that has exactly the reverse policy of the one that nngmm mentioned; it doesn't give credit toward graduation for APs (but does use them to place students out of some courses), but generally awards academic credit for college courses with few questions asked.</p>
<p>My dd's 12 credits from flagship state U were not allowed at the highest level LACs where she was accepted. However, the selective but not top tier LACs did accept them.</p>
<p>When my son inquired in person at the administrative offices of his university, he was told it mattered which university and which courses. His post-Calc BC math courses and his foreign language courses from flagship public did transfer to top-20--but non-Ivy--private university. Also, it probably made a difference that he is in the engineering school, with a more liberal policy on this matter than the arts and sciences division at his university, and that he would have to prove that the courses were adequate by taking further courses in the field. In other words, if the math or language courses were not up to snuff, he would pay the price in the subsequent classes, so they were willing to let him take the chance.</p>
<p>So, there are many qualifiers to the "Yes, they transferred" answer.</p>
<p>There may also be problems in determining equivalency when going from a school on the quarter system to one on semesters, and vice versa.</p>
<p>Many schools only accept a limited number of courses for credit transfer.</p>
<p>The general rule is that some credits will be lost when transferring from one college to another. The exception is in some states, the public colleges must accept all academic credits from public community colleges. The loophole is that these credits may not all count toward a particular student's degree requirements.</p>
<p>We just went through this. S is transferring after one semester. When school #2 was evaluating the courses he was currently taking, they told us they could only accept 6 of his 12 credits. In order for them to accept the two courses they were rejecting, he would have had to complete next semester's seqential course at college #1 and then it would count as completing the 1 semester course at college #2. So that showed us that the academics were not equal and that he needed to be in a more challenging environment. This is from a small private to a medium sized private.</p>
<p>S took 3 math courses at UCB while a high school senior. His small tech school did not allow credit for any of the classes. His school required he take placement exams in order to skip any of their core requirements.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to transfer from an LAC to two other highly ranked LACs after her freshman year and was accepted by both. LAC #1 told her when she was accepted that all of her credits from her first school would transfer. LAC #2 told her that if she matriculated there, they would then figure out which of her credits would transfer. She is now attending LAC #1.</p>
<p>at my kid's school, NO college credits will be accepted prior to matriculation to that college. For example, taking Calc at a local college while in HS won't provide any trasnfer credit, but the college does provide a placement exam during orientation; if the student 'passes' the calc test, s/he can earn credit.</p>
<p>Some have a rule that if a college course appears on your HS transcript, it will not transfer.</p>
<p>Some have a rule that the college course needed to be taught on a college campus with a majority of college age students in the class.</p>
<p>This is so variable. The more elite the college, the stricter they are about transferring credit.</p>
<p>More of the same here. Transferring credits in D's major was the most problematic. APs all transferred in, but invariably as non-core courses. (Example: AP Calc transferred as Advanced Mathematical Principles, or something like that. "Sorry, you need to take Calculus here.") D was able to place out of some courses using knowledge gained in AP classes.</p>
<p>The Bottom Line is that you won't know until you make the attempt. Asking questions beforehand can't hurt, but the responses aren't guarantees, unfortunately. Good luck with this.</p>
<p>Moderate amount of experience with this here. Here is the general approach I am familiar with (all wrt courses taken while matriculated at a 2- or 4-year college; NOT college-level courses taken for dual credit or as a hs student).</p>
<p>Generally, once accepted, the receiving college will take the student's transcript (often asking for the course catalog descriptions for each class taken) and "articulate" it. This means that someone(s) in the Registrar's office or department/school will look at each course to find a closely matching course within the new school. Credit will then be granted for the matching course. </p>
<p>Typically, classes taken Pass/No Pass will not receive credit or will receive credit if the student can obtain documentation in writing that the letter grade would have been at least a "C." (this happened to my son and he got the documentation). </p>
<p>Sometimes they will give credit toward total # of credits required for the degree, but as others have mentioned, might not allow use in fulfilling specific requirements. EG, DS got credit for a 2-credit Music Performance class taken at his first school, but could not use it to fulfill part of the humanities gen ed requirement.</p>
<p>My experience is that they will give AP credit according to their own rules, not the rules in effect at the prior school. EG, some schools give credit for a "3" on the AP test, some require a "4", etc.</p>
<p>I have seen some schools seek this information and give the accepted student a reading on what will transfer at the time of sending the admission decision. Most don't do this until after you respond that you will be coming.</p>
<p>There can be quirky things. New school did NOT give DS credit for a 1-credit Engineering overview course at the old school. Yet they waived his taking the 3 or 4-credit overview course at their school.</p>
<p>I believe that most schools would answer questions from an individual student who was concerned about this in deciding whether to apply. I doubt they would go through the whole articulation process, though.</p>
<p>If the courses do transfer that does not mean they do you any good- a college may grant you credit, but may choose not to apply them to breadth or major requirements.</p>
<p>My D is doing a study abroad through her university program- everywhere you read it guarantees all the units will transfer and the grades are a part of your GPA. HOWEVER, she found out that her major will only allow two courses to count and one generally takes whatever class they want and brings back the syllabus for review and determination as to whether it will count for a graduation requirement.</p>
<p>My D worked very hard to find 4 classes that would count, but had she not checked it out months ahead, she could have assumed the assurance that classes would count mean they count for requirements. She did not need to take a semester to get "extra units" her university actually has a limit of total units allowed, so it could have delayed graduation and hindered her standing.</p>
<p>Be careful of the precise semantics used :eek:</p>
<p>One of my Ds is doing Cc then moving on to an LAC, the registrar's office has reviewed all her courses before she signs up, to ensure each one will cover a breadth requirement. So, a smaller private school would likely be willing to look over your transcript and schedule now.</p>
<p>My experience echos jmmom. My son took community college classes under a dual enrollment (it always cracks me up when the kids post it is duel enrollment...were the enrollments fighting each other?)<br>
Anyway, I digress....the private college he attended post high school articulated the courses and asked for course descriptions, etc.<br>
The community college had them as four credits each, the college brought them in as three each. In our experience they did take care of some pesky freshmen class requirements.<br>
So....as is usual on CC..your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>One of the other posts jogged my memory. Add to my earlier post this qualification: his private university would NOT have granted him any credit if the college courses had also appeared on his high school transcript. Son never had them added to his hs transcript because he already had enough courses by the end of his junior year to meet graduation requirements.</p>