Transfer credits policies and requirements

Upon recommendation of the department and with the approval of the dean, work taken for graduate credit at other institutions may be transferred in partial fulfillment of degree requirements.

1. Candidates for the M.A., M.S., LL.M., or M.A.T. degree may offer up to 8 hours of graduate credit from other institutions.
2. Candidates for the Ph.D. degree may offer up to 30 hours of graduate credit from other institutions. Transfer of credit is not an automatic occurrence. Students must obtain the written consent of both their departmental advisor and the dean before credit earned at other institutions will be added to their records.

University requirements for transfer credit eligibility include the following:

1. It is a graduate-level course.
2. You received a B or better in the course.
3. The course is no more than 7 years prior to the passing of the prelims for Ph.D. students and no more than 5 years prior to the awarding of the degree for the M.S. students.
4. Courses taken while an undergraduate and counted toward the requirements of a baccalaureate degree may not also be counted toward a graduate degree. Courses counted toward the requirements for one advanced degree may not be counted toward requirements for another degree at the same level. In other words, courses taken for an M.S. cannot count towards another M.S., but can count towards a Ph.D.

Additional department requirements include a short, typed description of the course, from the university’s course catalogue or the course syllabus, along with a URL to the original course description, so that faculty may accurately assess whether the content of the course is appropriate for credit transfer.

Transfer credits procedure

1. Download and fill out the transfer credits form with your course descriptions and provide it to your advisory committee (where transfer credits are sought for courses at multiple institutions, fill out a separate form for each institution).
2. Receive signatures for approved courses from your committee chair and at least one other committee member.
3. Send the form and a copy of your final transcript (only if the IU Biology graduate advising office does not already have a copy of your final transcript) to Myers Hall 150 or biogrdav@iu.edu.

Transfer credits form