When I was a high school counselor, the eternal question,
“Will this class transfer?” was very common.
It is an important question in these days of dual enrollment as high
school students take college credit courses in high school and have it transfer
to another college they intend to enroll.
This is even more important if the course to transfer would satisfy an
academic program requirement or a program prerequisite.
What does it mean to transfer a class from one college
to another? It means that College A has
a class that can transfer to College B which will essentially be the same
content. For example if College A has a
course entitled “Psychology 101”, this course will probably transfer to College
B which has a course “Introduction to Psychology”. The two courses would need to be essentially
the same content. If College A has a
course entitled “American Economic History” but College B does not have a
course related to that topic, the College A course would probably not transfer
to College B. For College B to accept a
course as credit, the transferring course needs to largely represent content to
a course that College B already has.
Other components to be considered in course
transfer are what is the number of credits for the transferring course? A three credit course at College A may not
transfer as a three college course to College B if the College B target course
is four credits. Also, some colleges may
require that the student’s grade in the transferring course must be a C or
higher or whatever the grade standard is.
A college like Notre Dame may not accept an English composition course
for transferring in. Notre Dame may
require that all writing credits be taught on the Notre Dame campus. Some colleges may limit the number of credits
that they allow to be transferred in.
Another consideration is whether the institution the credit is being
transferred from is an accredited institution.
One unreasonable expectation that high school
students and parents have of their high school counselor is that the school
counselor will know with 100% certainty that a course will or will not transfer. Why is this unreasonable? The high school counselor is not the registrar
of the college. The college registrar is
a college official who makes the decisions on whether a course will transfer
and be accepted as credit. There is no
way a high school counselor can know off the top of their head with 100%
certainty that a course will transfer.
Nor is it fair for a student or parent to expect them to know that. A high school counselor will probably have a
good idea, but they are not the college registrar and can’t give a ruling with
100% certainty.
The surest way to answer the transfer question is
for the student to call or email the potential receiving college registrar’s
office and ask. The receiving college
may need the originating institution name and address, a course number,
possibly a course syllabus, and course description, and the number of college
credits the class is worth.
Another good resource is the Transfer in Iowa
website, but that is a topic for another blog in the future.
Steve - ICAN Council Bluffs Center
