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You're accepted! Now what happens to your CC credits?

When you get accepted into your new university/college, you will need to consider transferring credits from your old school to your new school. When you get into your new school, you do not want to re-take classes you already took at your community college so transferring credits means you want your new school to say that you already have taken these classes. If the classes count, if the classes "transfer", then they count towards your Bachelor's degree - so you have less classes to take and you are farther along towards getting your Bachelor's Degree! In the section below is an outline of some of the steps you may have to take?remember, that these are general steps and there may be specific guidelines at your particular college/university. * credits = how many credit hours are assigned to a class that you took.

Note: You can transfer credits but grades are not transferred. The calculation of your GPA will "start over" at your new school; only the credits taken at your new school will be used to determine your GPA for your Bachelor's degree.

Why is it good to transfer credits?

• You will not have to re-take a class you already had.
• If you have taken an introduction course already, then you can move on to taking the next level course in this series.
• You will have more credits towards getting your Bachelor's degree.・
• If you transfer credits, then you will need less credits so you will be in school less time so it will cost you less money.

Why you may not want to work to transfer some credits

• If a class is an elective (not a required course), then you may not worry about getting all of your electives to count because most colleges/universities only require X amount of electives to get your degree. If you already have fulfilled this X amount or there are other electives that you want to take at your new school, then there is no reason to get all of your electives transferred.
• If you get an Introduction course to transfer, this means that you can take the next level in the series. But, if you don't remember that class a lot then you will not be prepared for the next class. For example, let's say, your Introduction to French class (French 101) transferred, but you took that French class two years ago and you do not remember it well. Then when you get to French 201, you may have a hard time doing well in the class. Basically, sometimes, it is worth repeating a course.
• If you got below a "C" on the class. Most universities/colleges will not transfer a class if you got below a "C."
• If you think the class is in your major. Most universities/colleges want you to take the classes for your major at their school.
• See how many credits your new college/university will transfer total. Most colleges/universities have a gap on how many credits you are allowed to transfer. If you have already reached this limit, then there is no point on trying to get more classes to transfer.

The Transferring Credit Process

Step One

After you decide to go to your new college/university, most schools will automatically evaluate the classes you took at your community college.

Make sure your new college/university has on file all Official transcripts from any other schools you previously enrolled in. Your new school will then send you a form showing what classes they decided to transfer and how they will count.

This form will look something like this:


How to read this form:
At the top is the college/university that you are now attending. The form is from Office of Admissions because that is the department that will first review your classes from your community college.Next is your name, the degree that you are working toward (generally a BA or a BS), and then the name or names of the community college(s) that you attended.Next, it will list how many credits the school, University of X, has decided they will give you credit for. In this case, University of X is transferring 11 credits.

Next, it will list how these classes are transferring. "External Transfer Record" refers to what your classes were called in your community college. "Internal Equivalency" details how the classes will count at University of X."Subject" is the topic area of the class in your community college. In this instance, Trigonometry is in the Math Subject. At universities and colleges they call a "subject", a "department", or Dept for short. The "Nbr" is the number that the school assigns to the class?a class always has a "name" like Trigonometry and a "number" that corresponds to that class. Next are the "units" or "credits." This is how many points the class the is worth. Generally, a 120 credits are required to get a Bachelor's degree.In this instance, the math classes "transferred" or counted the same in the University of X as they did in the community college. But the art class that was ceramics (pottery/class class) did not count the same in the University of X as they did in the community college. The class counted for four credits (4) at The Community College and only three credits (3) at the University of X. This is not uncommon. Classes can count for less at a university or they might not count at all.

What if you are unhappy with how many classes the University of X decides to transfer?

Step Two

Often times, a university will not transfer all of your classes, they will count the classes as less credits than your community college, or they might count the classes as a different department (they will count it not as Science or English but they will count it as an elective).If you are unhappy with your initial review of credits by the Office of Admissions, then you need to try to get more credits transferred by yourself.First, make sure you have all your transcripts from your community college(s). If you do not have your transcript (the record of your classes and credits that you took), then call your community college and ask how to request an "unofficial" record of your transcript. Most often, community colleges have a form that you must fill out and sign and then fax or send to their Transcript Office.

Here is an example:

Step Three

After you have your transcripts from your community college, you want to decide which classes are worth trying to get transferred. You can make this decision by looking at the syllabus for each class that you took and comparing it with the syllabus with the nearest sounding class at the new university. For example, let's say that University of X did not transfer English Literature II.So, you get the syllabus for English Literature II (if you do not have it then email your professor for that class and ask if s/he can email it to you. Professors usually keep a copy of all of their syllabi).Next, you look through the courses offered at the University of X in their English department. You read through their course descriptions and syllabus and you compare it to your course description and syllabus from the class you took at your community college. Most often, your course and course offered at the university/college will not have the same name, so you need to look for classes that have similar course descriptions and then compare your syllabus to that class' syllabus.

Look for:

• Do they have the same textbooks?
• Do they have the same required reading?
• Do the requirements look the same?
• Do they both require a 10-15 page paper and attendance?
• If the course description, required readings, and requirements are similar then you move on to the next step. If they do not, then you probably should not try to get the course transferred. Universities usually are not willing to give credit for classes taken at other schools so if the class is not similar then you probably do not have a chance of getting the class to transfer.

Step Four

Most colleges/universities do not have an explicit guideline for what to do next after your initial credit review. They don't have guidelines because they do not want to transfer a lot of credits, because for them that means less tuition/money from you as a student. So, if you have decided the classes are similar then you have to do some work on your part to get these classes to count. You need your unofficial transcript from all your previous schools, your transfer credit evaluation form from your new university/college, and you need your syllabus and information from the community college class and the syllabus and information from the University of X class for all the classes that you think should be transferred. Go to your admission's office or you may have to go to the Dean's office for your department or school. If you do not know where the right place to go is in your university/college, then call your Dean or admission's office and ask who you have to meet with to discuss the evaluation of your transfer credits. Set-up a meeting with the right person in your university/college to discuss getting more credits transferred. Make a case for why your class should transfer. Show them how similar the classes are and show them the grade you got in the class. If your grade is a B or higher then you have a good chance of getting the class to transfer. At this point, the person you are speaking with will decide whether to give you credit or not. Sometimes they can make the decision themselves to give you credit, sometimes they have to consult with other people, and sometimes they will tell you that you have to get the Professor's approval who currently teaches the course.

Step Five

If you have to get the Professor's approval. Email the professor, very professionally, and ask him/her to meet with you about credit for a class.

For an example see below:

Go to the meeting with the professor prepared. Bring your syllabus from your community college class and the syllabus for the Professor's class. Show how and where the classes are similar. Be prepared to talk about what you learned in your community college class. Be professional, polite, and courteous. Depending on the professor and how similar the class is, s/he may or may not approve the class. If the Professor approves of the community college class, then you probably need the Professor to email someone in the admissions office and/or the Professor has to sign a form (this form should have been given to you at the previous meeting with the admissions department or dean).

Step Six

If the Professor does not approve of the community college class, then thank the Professor (you may end up having this Professor for a class later so do not be rude). At this point, you probably do not have other options for getting the class transferred.

Sorry, you just have to take the class again or another class in this department. In the end, make sure all the credits transferred that should have. Request an unofficial transcript from your new university. This transcript should list all the classes that transferred and any classes that you now have taken at this new university. The classes that transferred will probably be under a different heading, entitled, "Transfer Course Credits."