Transfer College Credit Limits

Students decide to change colleges for many reasons. Sometimes the school they are at doesn’t have the major they want or doesn’t provide the best opportunities for their chosen career. Maybe they always planned to transfer, a second shot at atop choice university. Or maybe the atmosphere of the school just isn’t what they hoped, and they would be more comfortable elsewhere. 

These students then make plans to transfer, but here they can run into a problem. As we discussed before, universities often have limits on the minimum number of credits students can have before they transfer; else they apply as a freshman. On top of this, universities often have maximum numbers of credits you can have and still transfer. In this article, we’re going to examine this narrow band of transfer eligibility, explain why it exists, and tell you what the limits are at various top universities. Let’s get started!

Why Universities Have Credit Limits for Transfer Students

Colleges put limits on the lower and upper limit of how many credits you can have before you transfer. On the lower end, this can be as low as a few courses, or as high as a full year of undergrad. In each case, the goal is to say that you can’t transfer until you’ve had actual experience as a college student. 

The transfer admissions process examines students in a different light than they examine high school students, and they want to make sure you’ve had the kinds of experience they’re going to be looking for. If you’ve only taken a class or two, then you probably don’t have this kind of experience. Note also that college courses taken during high school, such as dual enrollment classes offered in partnership with community colleges, usually do not count towards transfer credits. 

On the flip side, colleges also don’t want students who are too close to graduation to transfer in. This is because most colleges have specific ideas about what their students should learn, and how they should function as a class. Showing up just a year before graduation, and then saying you are a graduate of a school, feels disingenuous to them. 

In addition, many colleges still require transfer students complete all of their core course requirements. What these consist of can differ greatly by college, but generally need at least two years to be completed when paired with major requirements. This means that most universities won’t let you enter as a transfer student past junior year; that is, applying to transfer as a sophomore, and then beginning in your junior year. Some are even more restrictive than this.

This is most common at highly ranked colleges, since these schools tend to have more of a focus on core coursework, and a stronger idea of what they want graduates to know and be able to do. These schools also want to ensure that all students graduate in four years, in large part due to how this impacts college rankings, and so don’t want to admit transfer students who will not be able to do so. 

Transfer Credit Limits at Top Colleges

Here is a chart of top colleges, and the transfer credit limits at each, along with any additional notes about their transfer process.

We want to note a few things about this table, most importantly that how each college calculates credit hours is their own. There are generally similarities, but schools on semester vs. quarter systems especially do things differently. In general, a credit in a quarter class is worth two-thirds of a credit in a semester course, but this depends on who is doing the calculating. 

Next, while not all schools have limits on when you can transfer, most do have strict requirements on how many semesters and credits you need to earn at their school in order to graduate. For that reason, we advise transferring no later than the end of your sophomore year (to start at a new school in your junior year), to ensure that you are able to graduate within four years. 

Finally, the requirements to get transfer credits awarded, and what counts, vary greatly between schools. Some universities will allow you to count AP and IB credits as a transfer student, others will not. Most schools will not count courses from technical or vocational schools, nor will they count physical education courses at a university. All courses must come from an accredited school, and you must have passed all of them. Courses taken pass/fail are also usually not accepted. 

How to Make Sure Your Credits Transfer

When you apply as a transfer student, universities generally do not check your courses and award transfer credits until you are accepted. This is because transfer acceptance rates tend to be low, and determining transfer credits is an exhaustive process; therefore they don’t want to do all of that work until they know it is necessary. 

The reason this is so difficult is because every university is completely in charge of their own curriculum, and trying to determine course equivalencies between them can be difficult. Some are easier than others; for example a class on the Victorian era in England may be easily transferable as a credit in history, but it is harder to transfer credit from an engineering course to a college which lacks an engineering program. 

Getting credit requires sending your full transcripts from every college you attend, and in many cases a syllabus or course description of every class you took. These are then evaluated by departmental officials at the college you are transferring to, who determine what credits should be awarded for them. Each college has their own requirements for what you need to send; we recommend reading these carefully, as they are of paramount importance to receiving the credit you deserve for the courses you took. 

Some colleges will allow transfer credits to stand in for some core coursework while others will not. Many colleges will allow transfer credits to stand for major prerequisite courses, but will require you to take major-required courses through their department. For example, you could use calculus you took at your first college as a prereq for engineering, but you would still need to take the required engineering courses at your new school. 

Transferring Credits From Community Colleges

Many community colleges have explicit equivalency agreements with some universities, where courses from the community college count as equivalents of specific courses at the university. This is part of a broader partnership structure many universities form with community colleges. 

This is not universal, and not every community college will have these agreements with every school. Instead, universities either partner with local community colleges, or public schools partner with public community colleges to promote students from them to transfer. 

The UC schools, for instance, offer the Transfer Admissions Planner, which serves as a resource for students at California community colleges who want to transfer to UC schools, especially through a guaranteed program. The University of Virginia has their own guaranteed transfer admission policy for students at community colleges in Virginia. Each school handles this differently, and each has their own approach. Not all will have these programs, but many have special pathways for community college students.

If you are at a community college, you should speak to a counselor about potential transfer pathways available for you. Many four year universities welcome transfer applicants from community colleges, and in some cases won’t care at all about your high school grades or test scores. 

Final Thoughts

There are many reasons to transfer colleges, but if you think doing so is the right choice for you, you should start the process early. Each school has their own limits on when students can transfer, but in general, students who begin early have an advantage in the process, as the amount of planning which goes into a successful transfer application is just as much, if not more so, than is required to apply to a college in the first place.

We hope that this article has given you insight into the limits of the transfer process, and how transferring credit between schools works. If you are looking for help evaluating your options for transferring, or in managing the transfer process, we’re well equipped to help. Schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can help you get into a college that’s the right fit for your goals. We have a long experience managing every aspect of the admissions process, and are always happy to hear from you.