The first step in transferring college credits from one institution to another is to make sure that the second institution offers the same or very similar courses as the first. The next step is to apply for admission to the second institution as a transfer student. Typically, the applicant must arrange for his transcript to be sent to the second institution so that the admissions office can see what courses he took and how well he did in them. In general, to receive transfer credit, a student must have received a “C” or better in a course.
Most colleges accept a certain number of transfer students each year and have transfer credit procedures in place. These procedures are usually listed on the college’s website under a section for prospective students, which is usually divided into freshmen and transfer categories. The college will usually explain the deadline for applying and requesting a transcript, as well as where to send it.
Once the applicant has this information, he or she should contact the college where he or she previously attended and arrange for a transcript to be sent. Colleges rarely accept hand-delivered or faxed transcripts and instead require an official transcript sent directly from the applicant’s college. The student can usually find out how to have a transcript sent to another institution by going to the first college’s website and looking under “transcripts.” A college may charge a small fee for this service, or it may provide the first few transcripts for free.
If a student’s prospective college has a selectivity level similar to the one he attended, he has the best chance of transferring college credits. A highly selective college may be hesitant to grant transfer credits for courses taken at a less selective college, believing that the courses will not be of equal quality. Courses taken at community colleges are increasingly being exempted from this rule. Because many community college graduates go on to transfer to a four-year college or university, official or unofficial agreements are frequently made between community colleges and state colleges to allow the state college to transfer college credits for courses in which the student received a satisfactory grade, usually a “C” or higher. Students will frequently discover that colleges or universities in other countries are willing to transfer college credits if the courses taken are similar.