USF accepts transfer credit earned for courses taken outside a college setting based on the recommendations in the ACE publications The National Guide to Educational Credit for Training Programs and Guide to the Evaluation of Educational Experiences in the Armed Services.
The credit must have been ACE approved at the time it was earned.
ACE units are considered elective units and generally do not meet major, minor, or Core requirements. In some cases an ACE recommended course can meet a Core requirement at the discretion of the University Evaluator (i.e. Dale Carnegie's Oral Communication for the Public Speaking requirement).
Baccalaureate/associate degree level courses as recommended by ACE are transferable. No credit is granted for vocational/technical or graduate course work.
Where an option in division level is given in awarding credit, the higher level of undergraduate credit will be granted (e.g. upper division credit will be granted if the option is lower division/upper division or baccalaureate/graduate). For CPS students all ACE accredited course work is coded as a four-year source.
If the credit recommendation states that credit may be granted on the "basis of institutional evaluation," USF grants no credit as it does not perform such evaluations for transfer credit.
For the specific types of acceptable documentation for an evaluation of ACE accredited course work, please refer to military and corporate education sections of the transfer manual.
Starting in the year 1999 USF also accepts credit earned for courses taken outside a college setting based on the recommendations of the National Program on Noncollegiate Sponsored Instruction (National PONSI) as stated in the book College Credit Recommendations. The format of the book is similar to the format used in the ACE guides. Transfer credit is granted pursuant to the guidelines for accepting ACE recommendations and as outlined elsewhere in this USF transfer manual.
