Transferring Credits

How do I transfer my credits?

How you transfer in credits earned elsewhere depends on when and where you earned them, and on whether or not you are currently enrolled at BU. It’s also useful to know that BU uses the term “units,” instead of “credits,” to track how you are making progress toward your degree. So, on your BU records, you’ll eventually see “credits” converted to “units.”

If you applied to BU as a transfer and have not yet started taking courses at BU

The Credit Evaluation Department in the Office of the University Registrar (OUR) provides information and instructions for transfer applicants.

Pay close attention to the details about submitting your syllabi from courses at other institutions.

  • If you have questions about courses you took at an institution within the United States, email credeval@bu.edu or call 617-353-2319 for more information.
  • If you took courses at an institution outside the United States, those credits are processed by International Admissions. You can email intadmis@bu.edu or call 617-353-4492 for more information.

Visit the Credit Evaluation Department website for more details about the stages of transfer evaluation.

If you have already begun taking courses at BU

If you are currently enrolled at BU and would like to take a course at another institution in the U.S. in the future (for example, over the summer), follow the guidance for current undergraduates provided by the Credit Evaluation Department.

If you earned credits at another institution before you enrolled at BU, and you did not yet transfer those credits to BU, you should go to your school’s advising office or student services office for directions on how to proceed.

If you are currently enrolled at BU and would like to take a non-BU course abroad in the future, you must get pre-approval from the BU Study Abroad Program Manager for External Programs. You can email nonbusa@bu.edu or call 617-353-9888 for more information. You must consult with the Program Manager prior to applying for an international study program in order to determine if the credits from the program will transfer to BU.

Appeal process

Under certain circumstances, it is possible to appeal a denial of transfer credit. Talk with your academic advisor about whether an appeal makes sense for you.

BU’s policies on external credit can be found in the Bulletin.

Grades

In order to transfer credits to BU, you must have earned a C or higher in the course. However, grades earned at other institutions do not appear on your transcript and are not factored into your BU GPA.

Course equivalency database

BU has partnered with Transferology, a database that lets students know whether BU has granted credit to a particular course from a particular institution in the past.

While Transferology does not provide a guarantee that a course will transfer in your particular case, it is a good guide that can be helpful in planning. If a course does not appear on the site, it does not necessarily mean that you can not receive credit for that course—the course just may not have been reviewed in the recent past.

Credits and credit conversion

The Credit Evaluation Department outlines the limitations related to credits and credit conversion.

When you transfer in semester credits from another institution, you will receive the same number of units you earned at the other institution, even if the equivalent course at BU carries a different number of units. For instance, if you took a 3-credit semester-long course at another institution, you would transfer in 3 units, even if the equivalent course at BU carries 4 units.

Credits from institutions on a system other than the semester system are converted to semester credits.