According to the United States Census Bureau, over 40 million Americans have earned some college credits, but never finished a degree. And that number has continued to rise steadily in recent years. If you’re one of then and you want to get your degree finished, being smart about how to transfer college credits can help you save a whole lot of time and money. A good place to start is by finding out about online schools who will accept your credits for previous schoolwork. More and more schools now offer accelerated programs and friendly credit transfer policies to help students – many of them adults with jobs and families – to complete the journey to graduation.
Click To List Of Colleges And Universities Specializing in Online Degrees
How Exactly Do You Transfer Colleges?
If you’ve spent anywhere from a single semester to three full years in school and you now want to go back to college to complete a degree, it’s important to get the greatest number of transfer credits possible. Failing to do so could mean that you’ll have to needlessly re-take courses – an complete waste of time and money – and an incredibly boring exercise. But the process of transferring credits isn’t standardized. Every college has its own particular rules about credit acceptance. To transfer to college successfully, become an educated consumer. Here are several articles on how to make sure the school you are entering gives you the most credits possible for the courses you took in the past.
Online Schools That Have Friendly Transfer Policies
Online Colleges and Universities That Accept Lots of Credit Transfers
Online schools are particularly friendly to adults going back to college, and many of them will try to make it as easy as possible for you to transfer in the maximum possible number of credits from your previous school. We spent time researching which online schools accept the most credits. Get an overview of what we found.
Transfers Don’t Necessarily Cause Credit Loss
Will Transferring Colleges Make Me Lose My Old Course Credits?
Students who are starting over tend to fear they won’t be able to use their old course credits toward a new degree program at a new school. But they’re often able to use more credits than they expect. Find out if your transfer credits will change your GPA.
Completion Degree Programs
Transfer Into A Completion Degree Program
Completion degree programs are specially designed to help you finish a degree in less time. You. Using every credit you’ve earned can really pay off by helping you save both time and money.
How “Articulation Agreements” Can Help You Get a Degree Finished Faster
Many four-year colleges have deals set up with two year schools that allow students to transfer from one to the other with virtually 100% transfer guaranteed for previously completed credits. These “articulation agreements” used to be only between four year schools and community colleges, but they have expanded today to all sorts of schools. If you want to finish your bachelor’s degree at a particular school, find out if that institution has an articulation agreement with your previous school. If not, you may get far fewer credits transferred toward your new degree than you could with an articulation agreement in place.
Don’t Make These Mistakes When Transferring Schools
Pitfalls to Avoid When Trying to Transfer Credits From One School to Another
There are many opportunities to save by transferring credits into a completion degree program. But there are also limitations. Among the things you need to know: the number of credit hours accepted for a class you once took can vary from school to school:
- Old classes must relate to a class in your major in order to transfer
- Poor grades in your old school can hurt your ability to transfer credits
- Some campus schools don’t like to accept credits from online schools
Should Adult Students Transfer Credits Or Just Start Over?
Frankly, it’s a pain pain to have to go through all the work of finding out which old credits will transfer, getting your transcripts and closing out the transfer approvals with your new school. But it’s worth it. Using your old credits can save you a huge amount of time and study effort in finishing your degree.
Accreditation Issues That Can Affect Your Ability to Transfer Credits
A big obstacle can present itself if you try to transfer credits from a school with weak or non-existent accreditation into a higher-level college with good accreditation. Find out about the pitfalls to watch out for.
Transferring From A Community College
Can You Transfer Community College Credits to an Out-of-State University?
Traditionally, most schools only accepted transfer credits from student who went to a community college, only if the community college was in the same state. But that’s changing, and it’s partly because the reputation of community colleges has grown considerably in recent years.
Exactly Which Courses Can You Transfer for Credit?
This can be a tricky issue. At many colleges, the rules on transfer are different for core, elective and general courses in each major. Here’s what you’ll want to know as you begin the process of requesting credit transfer.
Do College Credits Ever Expire?
You may be very surprised to find how many credits you earned in school long ago may be transferred into a new degree program, even if they seem to be outside the major you’re going to study in. On the other hand, some types of credits, particularly in technical subject areas, do expire after a number of years.
Are you a nurse? Here’s info about how to transfer your credits from a master’s nursing program in one school into a new nursing program.