In order to be admitted to most major programs, schools require a specific grade point average (GPA) on all transferable courses. Transferable courses are those courses taken at a previous school that the receiving institution deems acceptable. Transfer of courses is one of the pitfalls of transfer to another school. College B may not accept all of the credits passed at College A. Why? Quite simply, courses taken at a remedial level will not transfer to many institutions. This disparity is particularly relevant when moving from a junior or community college to a senior college. The two-year schools often offer courses designed to augment a student's background in certain subjects. Most prominent among these are English courses, which prepare the student for college writing but are not English Composition I. Similarly, students lacking sufficient mathematical foundations might take elementary or intermediate algebra, but these are considered remedial because college algebra is the first such course offered for degree credit at the vast majority of universities.

Credits from technical or vocational courses, particularly those completed in a two-year college as part of a terminal technical program, will not transfer. Finally, courses passed with a grade of D frequently are nontransferable. Check with the school to which you plan to transfer to learn what the policy is for transferring outside courses.

Calculating Credits
Credit hours reflect a time element and a class-hour ratio. A three semester-hour credit course is one that meets three times a week for the entire semester (generally 14-16 weeks). It is also called a three-hour course because the number of literal contact lecture hours throughout the semester should follow this ratio: 15 class or contact hours of lecture equal one semester hour. A three semester-hour lecture course will have at a minimum 45 contact or class hours (the terms are often used interchangeably) throughout the semester. A full load is considered 15 semester hours, and two such full semester loads (in an academic year of fall and spring) yield 30 hours for that academic year. Four academic years of 30 hours each year result in 120 hours for the four-year period—typically the minimum amount for a bachelor's degree at a school employing a semester calendar.

Use of Transfer Credits
Once you arrive on the campus of your new school, work with the admissions office and the academic advising office of your major. The advising office applies the credits from the initial evaluation to your proposed degree plan. You may need to go back and forth between offices to refine the evaluation the admissions office did with the degree credit requirements of the advising office. To facilitate refinement of the initial evaluation for advising office use, bring a course syllabus or outline that clearly describes the courses you took at your previous school.

The transfer process centers on two key aspects: the transfer credit practices of the receiving institution (what the school will and will not accept from prior institutions) and the residence requirement of all U.S. institutions (which stipulates how many of the credits toward the degree must be completed at that institution). Often, the admissions office has no limit on the amount of credit accepted in transfer. It is the advising office, working with the dean's office of the college of your major, that makes the final determination of how many credits may be applied toward the degree plan. Preparing for the transition by understanding your institution's transfer credit policies expedites the overall process and aids in ensuring a hassle-free transition.