University course transfer procedures are described in the Undergraduate Bulletin and vary depending on whether you are a new transfer or freshman student at BU and are seeking credit for courses taken before you enrolled at BU, or are a current BU student seeking credit for a summer course taken elsewhere during your BU studies. See the CAS Advising Center for forms and procedures.
Please make sure to carefully read our departmental policies on course transfers!
If you are a CAS student who wants an outside course counted toward divisional studies or the CS major, you will need to submit a Transfer Course Equivalency Form available in the CS department main office at CDS (665 Commonwealth Ave, 6th Floor) or at the CAS Advising (100 Bay State Rd, Rm 401). If you are a non-CAS student, similar forms are available through your school or college.
The form must be accompanied by documentation of the course contents. Often courses at other institutions, even if they have similar titles and course descriptions to BU CS courses, cover considerably less material. Therefore, a title and a course description are not sufficient documentation. You will need to:
- Evaluate whether the course you are planning to take is similar to a BU CS course by looking at our course descriptions and homepages. Be sure to look at weekly lists of lectures and topics covered and compare them to the topics covered in the course you are seeking to transfer to BU. Do not submit a petition until you have done such an evaluation yourself.
- Provide a weekly lecture schedule, a list of textbook chapters covered, or sample homework assignments to demonstrate what the outside course covers. This information can be in electronic format, sent by email to Dora Erdos, Director of Undergraduate Studies, at edori@bu.edu at the same time as the paper form is submitted. If you submit this information on paper, be sure to include your email address so you can be contacted in case any further information is needed.
Whenever possible, seek approval before you do any work or pay for the course.
If you have considerable prior CS coursework and are interested in majoring in Computer Science, contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies for proper placement into BU CS courses.