Planning for Orientation and Your First Term
Transfer Credit
(Transfer Credit Equivalencies)
Transferring courses taken at another College or University: The maximum number of credits that can be transferred into LS&A is 60 semester credit hours (62 if you come with an associates degree from a community college that requires 62). If you have more than 60 credits from other schools, the courses may all transfer but the credit hour total on your LS&A transcript will appear as 60+.
Transfer credit is defined as out-of residence. LS&A students are required to complete 60 credits in residence, at least 30 of which must be among the final 60. You should carefully read the section Residence Policy in Chapter IV of the LS&A Bulletin.
Transfer credit criteria: The criterion for establishing which courses are transferable is that the course content is basically parallel to a UM class and is completed with a "C" or better. Your past school's transcript is evaluated by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and is reflected on the Academic Report. Credit earned at other institutions is posted without honor points (i.e., without grades) and will not affect your UM Grade Point Average (GPA). (The only exceptions are UM–Flint and UM–Dearborn; in these two cases, credit is transferred together with honor points and credit is granted for courses passed with a D- or better. Credit from UM–Flint and UM–Dearborn is defined as out-of-residence.)
Translating your Academic Report: You will receive in the mail a transfer credit evaluation from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
Whenever possible, credit is assigned using a University of Michigan–Ann Arbor course number. When the transferred course cannot be matched with an existing UM–Ann Arbor course, it is assigned a three-digit departmental or interdepartmental number. In this case, the first digit will indicate level; the middle digit will be an "X" indicating that departmental credit has been granted; and the third digit indicates the number of courses taken at the same level from a given department. For example, an Academic Report for Winter 1997 could show:
Psychology 112 3 cr.
English 2X1 3 cr.
English 2X2 4 cr.
Biology 1X1 4 cr.
This means that the student will have been given credit for an introductory Psychology course similar to one described in the LS&A Course Guide, two second-year English courses and one first-year Biology course. 3X1 or 4X1 would indicate upper-level credit.
If you have questions about your Academic Report, ask your academic advisor. If the question or discrepancy cannot be easily resolved, show relevant transcripts and/or course materials to the Admissions Office and ask for reevaluation. Credit is usually evaluated on the basis of catalogue descriptions which may not correspond with actual course content. As a last resort, contact the Academic Standards Board (1255 Angell Hall) and explain the problem.
Applying Transfer Credits to College Requirements
During Orientation your Academic Advisor will review your transfer credits with you and indicate how these credits can be used to meet College requirements. At that time the Advisor will complete a Transfer Students Check List, giving one copy to you and placing the carbon in your student file for future reference. Below are some issues that you should note with regard to applying transfer credit.
English Composition: Every student entering LS&A must fulfill the College's writing requirement which consists of an introductory composition component and a Junior/Senior writing course. Transfer students may find that the introductory composition portion of the requirement is satisfied with composition taken at a previous institution; not all transfer composition credit is accepted for this requirement so the student and the advisor must check the status of the transfer credit on the SWC website (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/ecb/requirements/transfcourses.html). We do not consider Advanced Placement (AP) credit nor creative writing or journalism courses as equivalent to our Introductory Composition Requirement. If your course has not yet been evaluated, please provide the Sweetland Writing Center with a course descriptions (from the school catalog) and the syllabus. Submit it to the Sweetland Writing Center, Transfer Courses, 1139 Angell Hall, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003.
If the transfer credit is not accepted for this requirement, then the student must take one of the LS&A composition classes.
The writing requirement has a second part which can be completed only after a student has completed Introductory Composition. This requirement can be met only by taking a course which is on the approved list for the term in which the student fulfills the requirement. When registering for the course, the student must "modify" it for "ECB". Most students look for a course in their concentration to satisfy this requirement.
Language: Students entering with fourth-term language credit from their previous schools have met the language requirement. They do not have to take a language placement exam unless they plan to take advanced-level work in that language. All students with less than the fourth term of a language must take a placement exam if they intend to continue in the same language. Frequently, the placement exam will recommend a placement that repeats or is lower than the transfer course. If this happens, you should have a careful discussion with your advisor about the appropriate level to elect. Repeating a course or starting at a level lower than that transferred will forfeit the transfer credit. On the other hand, electing a course above your predicted performance level can be risky. Note: If you decide to forfeit fourth-term (232) transfer credit for the election of a lower level course, you also forfeit satisfaction of the language requirement by transfer credit.
Race & Ethnicity and Quantitative Reasoning: Transfer credit is never automatically applied to these requirements but is often appropriate. If you think you have met either of these requirements with transfer courses, ask your advisor how to apply for a waiver.
Mathematics and Science courses: The sequence of topics taught in mathematics and science courses varies between colleges, making it difficult to find the appropriate course in mid-sequence. The Biology department, for instance, tends to give departmental rather than specific credit for introductory courses. Students planning to take advanced-level Biology courses would then need to speak with a Biology advisor to determine if the transfer courses had prepared them sufficiently for the next level. Similar situations occur in other areas, especially Chemistry and Mathematics. Your advisor can help you track down this information.