
Credits Earned Elsewhere
Transfer Students
Credits earned from an institutionally accredited school may be approved as credits toward a degree at Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ. Regardless of the basis of credit, a minimum of 25 percent of semester hours applied toward a bachelor’s degree must be earned through regular enrollment in Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ junior or senior level courses, including a minimum of 12 hours in junior or senior courses in the major.
Applicants who attempt coursework elsewhere are required to notify Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµof the work as part of the application process, and students submitting an application as degree-seeking students are required to submit official transcripts from all institutions attended. Grades made in courses earned elsewhere are used as part of the admission process but are not used in computing the GPA at Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ (they remain part of a student’s higher education GPA). In addition, credits accepted at Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµfrom other sources are added to earned hours and will affect a student’s overall academic standing. Students may not use transfer courses to repeat Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµcourses for grade replacement.
If you believe a course has transferred in error, you are welcome to submit a form. Note that a course in all caps on your student record indicates that the course has not yet been evaluated for credit. Please do not submit an appeal until after your course has gone through an initial evaluation.


Transfer Credit FAQs
Check out our look-up tools! They are updated every night. The links for the lookup tools are located at the top of this page. Click on Look-Up Tool to see individual institutions by state. Click on NC Community College Equivalencies to look up courses in any of the North Carolina Community Colleges. If the course you are looking for does not appear, that means no one has transferred it in yet. Contact the registrar's office with any questions about courses that have not yet been evaluated. This also applies to institutions that do not appear in the look-up list. Please note that only college-level curriculum coursework taken from a school with institutional accreditation from a nationally recognized agency (like SACSCOC)will transfer. Credit for courses taken at unaccredited institutions (those that do not hold appropriate institutional accreditation is generally not accepted.
Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµawards credit based on examination results from tests like the ones listed below. Click on the links to see how each exam transfers.
- Advanced Placement (AP)
- Cambridge International AS & A Level Exams
- CLEP Subject Exams
- DSST Exams
- International Baccalaureate (IB)
Applicants should request official examination scores to be sent to the Office of Admission when you apply or as soon as your scores become available. Sending your transcripts and scores on time helps with credit review, advising, and registration.
Students may also earn credit by taking an exam for certain Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµWorld Languages courses, if the department offers this option. You must have approval before taking the exam and submit the completed permission form afterwards. Grades from these exams do not affect your GPA. All credit by examination attempts must be completed prior to the semester of graduation. For more information, contact the World Languages Department at 828.227.7241.
You must have a grade of at least C-, or equivalent, in order for a course to be considered for transfer. Except for consortium agreements, no transfer courses with a grade of D or lower will be counted toward grdauation or major requirements. Transfer work is only used to meet requirements, therefore your GPA will not be affected by your transfer courses.
Once admitted and all your official transcripts have been received we will begin to evaluate your transfer credit. We aim to have all credit articulated within 15 business days from admittance and receipt of all official transcripts. If you have 4 or more transcripts or an international transcript this process may take up to 30 business days.
We send emails to new incoming students every 3 weeks, alerting you to any changes with your transfer credit. You can check your myÄ¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµportal by searching Credits Earned Elsewhere in the top search bar.
Log in to your myÄ¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµaccount and search Degree Evaluation in the top search bar or go to degreeworks.wcu.edu.
For more information about your degree evaluation, please contact the Advising Center or go to advising.wcu.edu.
|
|
If your transfer course appears in all capitals, no one has transferred that course in before, and an equivalency has not yet been determined. It will take us a little longer to review your courses and determine equivalencies, and we prioritize the records of students who have been admitted and have submitted all their official transcripts.
If your transfer course is blank or says 'No Equivalency' instead of a Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµcourse, this means the course has been evaluated and determined that it will not transfer for credit. Developmental and remedial courses do not transfer for credit.
Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµdoes not generally transfer courses that are more technical in nature unless we offer programs in those areas. You should be able to see whether a course will transfer by going to our look-up tools at the top of this page.
Courses that require the development of a skill (like learning an instrument or a particular style of dance) may not automatically transfer in as a specific Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµcourse. You will need to speak to the department and likely audition or provide a portfolio before being given specific credit for a performance-based course.
Students who transfer in with an AA, AS, or AE from a North Carolina Community College, a bachelor’s degree from a UNC System School, or a master’s degree from a U.S. institutionally accredited school will receive a waiver of their Liberal Studies (general education) requirements.
Waivers are not guaranteed for any other degrees earned and are evaluated on a case-by-case basis; this includes all AAS degrees. Please allow at least a week from the time your transfer work appears in your myÄ¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµaccount for your waiver to be applied. Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµcannot apply the waiver unless the Registrar's Office has an official transcript that shows a degree has been awarded/conferred. If you think you should have a Liberal Studies waiver and do not, please reach out to the registrar's office at registrar@wcu.edu.
Students who transfer in at least 15.1 credit hours (not 15.0 or less) will not have to take a First Year Seminar at WCU.
Yes, you can! If you believe a course should have transferred in, or should have transferred in as a specific or alternative Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµcourse, please fill in the .
We do not articulate any coursework from high school transcripts. We will need official transcripts from the community college through which the Early College or Dual Enrollment coursework was taken, or the official AP or CLEP transcript from College Board.
Students who take college classes while in high school (such as Early College or dual enrollment) are treated as first-year applicants, no matter how many college credits they earn. After graduating from high school, if a student takes any college classes at another school, other than a summer term right after graduation, they will be considered a transfer student. The number of credits earned does not change whether a student is classified as first-year or transfer.
Please make sure to submit all college transcripts and test scores as soon as possible. This helps us review your credits and support you with advising and registration.
To receive credit for military service, a veteran must have at least 12 months of continuous active duty and provide the registrar with an official copy of their DD214 form. After the DD214 is received, the student will be awarded seven elective credit hours and will have the C4 Wellness Liberal Studies requirement waived. Military courses from official Joint Services Transcripts will be reviewed on a course-by-course basis using guidelines from the American Council on Education (ACE). The UNC System also provides a that shows how military credits transfer to each UNC System school.
These credits do not replace other degree requirements. Questions about military credit should be directed to the Office of Military Student Services at 828.227.2135.
Transcripts from international colleges and universities must be evaluated by an approved agency. You can find a list of approved agencies on the (NACES) website. Course descriptions may be required for specific course credit evaluation.
If you attended a college or university that is now closed, accreditation guidelines require that transcripts and other records be kept at another institution. This will vary by state, but it may help to contact your state’s Department of Education or the local school district. Your closed institution may even still have a website with information on how to obtain your records. If your institution was in North Carolina, you can contact the State Archives office at archives@ncdcr.gov.
Graduate-level courses cannot be used for undergraduate credit.
Transfer credit rules for graduate programs vary by program. The number of credits you can transfer depends on the total number of hours required for your program.
- For programs with 30-39 hours, up to 6 credits may be accepted
- For programs with 40-49 hours, up to 9 credits may be accepted
- For programs with 50 or more hours, up to 12 credits may be accepted
Transfer credit is evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the Graduate School. You can contact the Graduate School at 828.227.7398 or gradadmissions@wcu.edu.
You can find out more about NCCC pathways by accessing the Transfer Guides.
North Carolina's Reverse Transfer Program is a state initiative in which students are rewarded for credit they have already earned or will earn at a four year university. The program is designed to help students combine credits earned at Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµwith credit already earned at the community college to meet the requirements for an associate's degree at their community college. Please see the official website for eligibility and additional resources. More information can be found on the North Carolina Community Colleges' website.
Students will need to request to have their Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµtranscript sent to their community college in order to be awarded the degree. Students may have already completed a degree, and this initiative ensures that they will receive the degree they have earned. This could contribute to earning potential or be added to a resume to help apply for a job. Students can also have their community college transcript sent back to Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµin order to qualify for a Liberal Studies waiver (for Associate in Arts, Associate in Science, or Associate in Engineering degrees).
The University of North Carolina Common Numbering System (UNC CNS) improves the transfer of courses between the . If your Common Numbering System (CNS) course isn’t transferring the way you expect, initiate the .
Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµhas many resources available to you as a transfer student.
- Admission Information for Transfer Students
- Advising Center
- Brinson Honors College
- Counseling & Psychological Services
- Distance Learning
- Financial Aid
- Mentoring & Persistence to Success (MAPS) for first generation and independent students
- Military Student Services
Our transfer students (who make up over 50% of our student population—and growing!) often experience a slight dip in GPA during their first semester. Transitions are challenging, even for the most resilient people. It is a big change in culture to go from one campus to another, and it takes most people a while to adjust. So give yourself some time and space—and grace! Make use of the resources available to you (see above), and don’t be afraid to ask for help. After that first semester, our transfer students bring their GPAs back up, and have higher GPAs, on average, than students who have only attended WCU. We are glad you’re here, and we are here to support you!
In order to take courses elsewhere and transfer them back smoothly to WCU, be sure to complete a Transient Permission form. You will need the department head's approval to verify that the course will transfer in as the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµcourse you are requesting, as well as your primary advisor's approval to confirm that the transferring course will fulfill a requirement on your degree evaluation. This will guarantee that your credit will transfer the way you expect, regardless of changes in equivalencies or articulation agreements.
