Transferring from one ABET cert school to another

My son is transferring from UNC Charlotte to Lamar University in Texas. Shouldn’t the engineering courses he took at UNCC be accepted by LU? Being that both schools are ABET certified, the assumption is that there is a standard across universities that is accepted as the requirements for graduation. LU is going to have the Registrar’s office research it, but I’m in panic mode to think he may lose an entire year because of this transfer.

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ABET accreditation does not necessarily mean that courses are identical across schools, so it is possible that courses covered at the old school may not fully cover the material in courses at the new school. Also, there may be things required at the new school that were not required (or even offered) at the old school.

If Lamar does not have an articulation listing for courses from UNCC, then the courses may have to be evaluated individually by Lamar.

It looks like Lamar uses Transferology to list transfer credit articulation: Will My Credits Transfer? . However, it looks like Lamar mostly has listings from Texas community colleges: Partnering Institutions .

In another part of the transfer credit web pages, it does have a listing for UNCC, but it looks like only a few courses have been evaluated: Transfer Equivalency Guide – of the listed courses, only ENGL 1101, LBST 1101, PSYC 1101, and SOCY 1101 from UNCC are likely to have been taken by a UNCC engineering major (for general education requirements or electives).

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Absolutely not. Check with the transfer school.

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I would expect he will need to send his transcript to Lamar and it will be evaluated to determine which courses will be accepted for credit at that college. If Lamar has a transfer advisor your son may want to contact that person.

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Typically once a student has been offered admission the college will review their transcript and tell them what credits will be accepted toward the major and/or the degree. He probably won’t lose the whole year- but if possible he should postpone withdrawing from UNC-C and committing to Lamar until after his transcript has been reviewed & and he knows how many / which credits will transfer.

ABET only certifies the program (what topics are covered, and at what depth), not the overall degree. Each university sets its own requirements for graduation, both for gen eds and for the major. A college can require coursework beyond the ABET requirements, as well as whatever gen eds they want to set.

Good luck

Good you are researching. I do know it can be tricky if programs vary a lot (sometimes due to semester vs trimester).