Transferring general ed credits

<p>Which music conservatories/schools allow students to take general ed credits elsewhere--say , at their local community college over summer--and transfer them for credit? My daughter wants to study two instruments in college. It would make it far easier to gradaute in 4 years if she could take the non-music courses over the summer.</p>

<p>Which schools don't allow students to do this?</p>

<p>She plans on getting a performance major or double performance major.</p>

<p>I know that school websites must have this information--but I'm asking because I'm looking for programs that I'm not already aware of.</p>

<p>Most of the music ed schools that we looked at encouraged the kids to take gen eds over the summer or as ap credits or university in high school credits. At Crane School of Music (SUNY Potsdam), they strongly encourage the students to take gen eds over the summer, online etc. During our travels last year, Hartt (University of Hartford), SUNY Fredonia and Ithaca all said they would recognize gen eds taken elsewhere. Hartt did say that there were certain core classes that did have to be taken at the University. Son is planning on taking 2 or 3 gen eds over the summer since he is double majoring.</p>

<p>Hi Woodwinds, sorry I can’t help with specific schools, but I just looked into this and here are some issues which came up to be aware of:

  1. Public universities may be more likely to ok this than privates.
  2. If they allow it, generally there will be a limit as to how many units they will accept as transfer credit
  3. Not all general ed units will be transferrable. I would suggest checking into each individual course before your D signs up. Also the credits may not transfer cleanly especially if one school is on the quarter system and the other is on the semester system.
  4. Make sure whatever general ed units she takes can serve as a prerequisite to higher level courses at the home institution.
  5. In our area (California), the community colleges are severely impacted and a visiting student will have last priority for registration. The “clean transfer” classes (eg Psych 1) will be first to fill up.
  6. Summer school is a lot of work. She may want to save some summers for music festivals or working.
    If I think of anything else I’ll let you know.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses. it is true about commuity colleges filling up quickly in summers. One of my daughters who attended USC (non-music) couldn’t take credits at the community college over the summers most of the time for that reason.</p>

<p>USC did allow students to transfer up to 28 credits (7 courses) from elsewhere.</p>

<p>I teach at a community college and, yes, our courses fill rapidly. After we register our regular students, open registration happens online and within days, most classes are full of students from the four year schools. I would suggest completing the application to the community college or state U now so that there are no snags on registration day.</p>

<p>Most colleges require permission before you sign up for a course to ensure credit. My son’s school calls the permission a transient form. He had to acquire the syllabi for the courses and have them approved by his school before signing up.</p>

<p>A couple of other issues: some liberal arts schools will not accept online courses or community college math and science courses (S’s school does this). Other schools often will not allow community college courses to transfer in after the student has accumulated 60 credits.</p>

<p>I would check with your child’s school on their policy.</p>

<p>My state has a list of classes that are required by state law to transfer between any and all state supported college. If it’s on that list, and the student is attending state supported colleges (including every community/tech college in the state) he/she don’t have to worry about it.</p>

<p>NY community and 4 year SUNY colleges have the same agreement as imagep’s state. They have to accept 100 and 200 level courses taken at each others schools. The legislature did this to improve graduation rates. Also, many of the schools have guaranteed enrollment for core gen eds for summer classes. One of the few times I’m happy to be a NY state resident!
Plus at SUNY Potsdam, the transfer coordintor will look at the courses you are planning to take elsewhere and will let you know if they fit into
your particular gen ed requirement.</p>

<p>Your D will have to set up her schedule with either her adviser, the Dean of Students or the Registrar ( it depends upon the school and also upon the student’s year there), so you can’t set up anything on your own without clearing it with the conservatory first anyway. In fact, it is always to a student’s advantage to have someone at the school overseeing their course selection and requirements so that they don’t get to senior year and find that there is a specific class needed for graduation (or which has been added into the curriculum) and it’s not offered that particular year.
Double majors are considered a special case and they get extra advising time so that their unique needs can be met. That also insures that their financial arrangements are covered, which is of particular concern to students who need 4 1/2 or 5 years.
Also, AP classes and classes taken in HS for which college credit was awarded can usually be used to fulfill gen-ed requirements. Of course, that depends upon the mark received for the exam ( a 4 or 5 is usually fine, some schools take a 3 for some courses). Watch out for that pesky freshman writing course- sometimes you can exempt from it with AP Language and Comp, but Lang and Literature will NOT work!</p>