Transfer Manual: Applications & Attributes of Transfer Credit

There is no limit to the total amount of credit a student can transfer to USF. There are restrictions on how that credit applies toward USF graduation requirements.

Credit may be awarded in transfer to fulfill major requirements, Core Curriculum requirements, or as elective credit.

Major Requirements:

Courses are transferable to meet the University's major requirements as approved by the Dean of the College within which the major exists. The Deans collaborate with the Office of Admission to set the general terms of transferability depending upon the comparability of the curricula.

CPS students usually complete all courses in their major at USF although they may substitute up to 6-units of transfer credit for major course work with the approval of the appropriate faculty program director.

Core Curriculum Requirements:

The University of San Francisco's Core Curriculum is created by the Faculty and Deans of the University with final Approval by the Academic Vice President. Please see the Core Curriculum section of this manual for more specific information.

Elective Credit:

Credit which is not needed to fulfill major or Core Curriculum requirements will transfer as elective credit.

Level of Credit

Credit is only transferred for work that has been designated as baccalaureate level degree applicable.

All Applicants:

Credit is transferred as either lower division or upper division as designated by the institution where the credit was earned.

A maximum of 70 lower division units from two-year schools (and "two-year source" nontraditional sources) will be applied toward the USF Bachelors Degree. (The one exception is Associate Degree Nurses transferring into the USF bachelors of Science in Nursing program who can apply up to 80 lower division units from two year schools to a USF degree).

There is no limit to the amount of upper division credit that can be applied to a USF undergraduate degree. Nor is there a limit on the amount of lower division credit earned from CLEP and AP exams, IB results, and four-year institutions.

College of Professional Studies (CPS) Applicants:

Credit is also transferred and coded as two-year source or four-year source.

Two-year schools and military/police basic training are two-year sources. For CPS students a maximum of 70 two-year source units will be applied toward the Bachelors degree.

Four-year schools, military education and occupations, corporate/workplace training, CLEP, AP, and IB exams are four-year sources. There is no limit on the amount of four-year source transfer credit, which can be applied toward a degree.

Value of Credit

Credit is transferred as semester units. A quarter unit is equal to .67 of a semester unit. Five quarter units equate to 3.35 semester units; 4 to 2.68; 3 to 2.01; 1 to .67

When transferring a Core Curriculum course for example, a 4-quarter unit course will fulfill a 3-semester unit requirement even though the course transfers as 2.68 units. The student receives 2.68 units toward the128 needed for the degree but the Core Curriculum requirement is met. The same goes for the Core Curriculum requirement. The section will be met completely, but the student will still need to reach the 44-unit Core Curriculum minimum.

Transferring Credit into a 4-unit Model

Credit for Core Curriculum courses transferred from another institution will be reviewed on a course-by-course basis. If a course is 3-semester-units or 4-quarter-units the student will be short 1 unit. (THE CONTENT FOR A SPECIFIC AREA WILL BE MET, BUT THE TOAL NUMBER OF CORE CURRICULUM UNITS MAY FALL SHORT.) The student will need to make up additional units in the Core Curriculum; up to the total number required (once it is set). How the units are made up can be done in one of two ways.

First, a student may have additional transfer credit that falls into a Core category. This credit can be counted toward the total Core unit requirement. Thus, the student will have met both the content and unit Core requirement. We will allow these extra units to fall into any of the Core content areas, once the minimum course requirement per area has been met.

Ex. If a student has taken History 17A (3-units) and History 17B (3-units) from San Francisco City College, then four of those six units will fulfill the history requirement, and two of those units will fall into the Core Elective category. The two Core Elective units could be used two complete the 44-unit Core requirement in any area.

Second, if the student does not have additional transfer credit that can be applied towards the Core unit requirement, then the student will need to take additional Core Curriculum courses at USF. In this case, as long as the student has met all the content area requirements in the Core Curriculum, the student can take any approved (by advisor) Core course to meet the total unit requirement, as long as it is not a duplication of content or courses for which the student has already received credit.

Ex. If a student has no more transfer credit, and has only taken 40-Core Curriculum-units, but satisfied all of the Core areas (determined by advisor), then that student can take, an approved (by advisor) 4-unit USF Core course. Those 4-units will count toward the total number of Core Curriculum units. In this instance the student would then have 44-units, and would have satisfied the USF Core Curriculum requirements.

For lower division major courses, credit for meeting the content requirement will again be granted on a course-by-course basis. If the course is 3-semester-units or 4-quarter-units, and the student will be 1 unit short - he / she would need to make up "x" number of units towards the 128-units to graduate. These units would typically be made up by taking additional elective courses in his / her major.

Because we transfer in a relatively small number of upper division major courses, the current policy of granting elective credit for them at the time of admission and then referring the student to the department at the time of enrollment to determine if they meet any specific major course requirement will continue

USF Residency Requirement

All undergraduate Arts, Science, Business and Nursing degrees require 45 semester units of work at USF, the last 30 of which must be at USF and 15 units must be in the major. College of Professional Studies (CPS) undergraduate degrees require 30 units at USF with 15 in the major. A total of 128 semester units are required for an undergraduate degree.

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