FAQs

Official college transcripts must be sent directly from your previous institution; students, parents, or high schools cannot submit them on your behalf. Paper transcripts are official only if received in a sealed envelope from the issuing institution—any opened envelope voids official status.

Electronic transcripts are accepted if transmitted directly by authorized third‑party services (for example, Parchment or the National Student Clearinghouse). Electronic files uploaded or emailed by students will not be accepted as official.

For incoming students, electronic transcripts can be submitted to Boston University schforms@bu.edu
Mailed to: Boston University Admissions, 881 Commonwealth Avenue 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02215

For current Boston University Students, electronic transcripts can be submitted to Boston University CEtscrpt@bu.edu.

Mailed to: Credit Evaluation Department, 881 Commonwealth Avenue 2nd Floor, Boston, MA 02215

Newly admitted students can view their evaluation via the MyBU Applicant Portal. Once you pay your deposit, updates will appear in your MyBU Student Portal.

If you are having trouble viewing your evaluation, contact your academic advisor for assistance.

• An official college transcript
• Complete syllabi for each course taken
• A signed Dual Enrollment Form submitted to credeval@bu.edu directly by your high school.

  PLEASE NOTE: If the college courses counted towards your high school degree, they cannot count for college credit at Boston University

Unfortunately, we cannot evaluate or guarantee transfer credit before you are admitted. Transfer credit evaluations are completed only after a student has been offered admission.

Generally, BU awards credit for liberal arts courses completed with a grade of C or better at regionally accredited institutions. Program-specific courses may be evaluated at the discretion of the evaluating department faculty.

You are encouraged to utilize Transferology for information on what courses from varying institutions have already been approved or not by BU.

Boston University only considers credit from regionally accredited colleges/universities. Please reference Transferology to see how courses taken at other colleges or universities may transfer to Boston University.

The Credit Evaluation Department does not determine your class standing. After you are admitted, your class year will be determined by the BU school or college in which you enroll.

Credit is considered for those courses in which a grade of C or better was earned.

Please submit an official transcript with your spring grades to Boston University Admissions as soon as it is available. We cannot add courses you took after your admission decision to your record until we receive that official transcript. An official transcript must be sent directly from your previous institution to be accepted.

Your submission of syllabi will not affect your admission decision or your current grade point average (GPA). If you enroll at BU, you will begin with a new undergraduate GPA.

External credit includes transfer credit (domestic & international), AP credit, IB credit and A-level credit.

• First-year undergraduate students entering BU’s full time on-campus schools/college can apply a maximum of 60 external credits.
• Undergraduates transferring into one of BU’s full-time undergraduate on-campus schools/colleges can apply a maximum of 68 external credits.

Students can check their Degree Progress Report to see what requirements have been satisfied via external credit. Additionally, we encourage students to speak with their academic advisor. If you would like to meet with an advisor, please visit https://www.bu.edu/advising/ for more information.

Our office is not equipped to provide support on Degree Progress Reports. If your DPR has not been updated 24 hours after your evaluation was updated, please contact your academic advisor.
Why are my courses coming approved for less than 4 credit hours?
Per Boston University policy, transfer courses are accepted on a 1:1 basis in semester hours. Courses completed on quarter or other academic calendars will be converted to equivalent semester-hour values.

Are there any restrictions on courses that Boston University accepts in transfer?
Boston University grants transfer credit broadly, but some types of work are not eligible. Transfer credit is not awarded for internships, research, military or life experience. In general, one‑credit courses are also not accepted for transfer. Pass/Fail courses are not transferable unless students did not have an option to take courses for a grade.

For newly admitted students, your transfer evaluation is available on the MyBU Applicant Portal. If you have paid your deposit, the evaluation will be posted to your MyBU Student Portal.

Please allow 3–4 weeks after your admission notification for work on your credit evaluation to begin and show progress.

If you recently submitted documents and your evaluation has not yet been updated, please do not resubmit them—your materials are being processed.

Courses ending in “TR” are elective credits that do not satisfy any specific requirement. To learn more about how this credit can be applied to your plan of study, we would recommend connecting with your school/college of enrollment. If you would like to meet with an advisor, please visit https://www.bu.edu/advising/ for more information.

If you recently submitted syllabi and your evaluation has not yet been updated, your materials are still being processed. The credit evaluation team is working through a high volume of incoming transfer evaluations, which can cause delays. Please allow 3–4 weeks for syllabi to be reviewed and sent out for evaluation. If possible, submit syllabi during the application process to help expedite review.

Do not resubmit syllabi multiple times; duplicate submissions slow processing for everyone.

Students interested in studying abroad need to work with the Study Abroad office prior to enrolling. No more than two international summer courses intended to cover a full semester’s work in a single six-week summer term will be considered for transfer credit. No more than one course intended to cover a full semester’s work in a single four-week summer term will be considered for transfer credit. Normally, courses shorter than four weeks are not eligible for transfer credit.

International credit, such as IB scores or A-level, is processed by International Advising. Please contact their office at intadvis@bu.edu for more information.

Students are encouraged to send their AP scores before the first day of the term. AP scores should be sent directly through CollegeBoard using Boston University’s code, 3087. If your AP scores are not appearing under the Academics tab of your MyBU Student Portal after 3-4 weeks of submitting your scores, please contact the Credit Evaluation team at credeval@bu.edu.

Yes, if you would like to have a course re-evaluated, you can do so via the Transfer Credit Appeal Form. For each course you wish to appeal, you must fill out the first section of the fillable PDF Transfer Credit Appeal form. The form and corresponding course syllabus must both be submitted to the appropriate department in order for the appeal to be considered. You may also append any additional documents you think will help the department reevaluate your course.

Appeals WITHOUT signatures in the second section of the form should NOT be submitted to the registrar.

Contact information for CAS departments can be found here. For non-CAS courses, you may find the school/colleges website here.

EXAMPLE: If you are appealing a biology course, the form and syllabus must be submitted to the CAS Biology department.

After submitting the materials to each department, the approver is responsible for retrieving the forms after it is signed and returning the forms to the Office of the University Registrar for the equivalency to be updated on your file. The approver may email the completed form to credeval@bu.edu.

Syllabi are the packets professors typically hand out during the first week of the course. They are different from course descriptions as well as transcripts. They include an overall description of the course, course objectives/goals, assignments, lab components, grade breakdown and a daily or weekly schedule of material covered in the course.

Please click the link to read more about a complete syllabus.

We cannot provide an exact timeline for when transfer courses will be posted to your record. However, if you are concerned about registration, we recommend you speak with an academic advisor. An academic advisor will help you select courses for future terms, even with a pending credit evaluation.
If you would like to meet with an advisor, please visit https://www.bu.edu/advising/ for more information.

A complete syllabus is required for all courses not currently approved in Transferology. Without a complete syllabus, our evaluators cannot determine an appropriate course equivalency. If you are having difficulty obtaining syllabi, we encourage students to first reach out to either their professors or department heads for copies of syllabi. If professors or department heads cannot be reached, you may gather a current copy of the course syllabus from a professor who is currently teaching the course; however, the course title and course code must match what is on your transcript.

Internships, research, and life experience are not considered for transfer credit.

If you have courses that have not been reviewed 1 year after your matriculation at Boston University, you may still receive credit for these courses by submitting an Outstanding Transfer Credit Review.

For each outstanding evaluation you wish to have evaluated, you must fill out the first section of the fillable PDF Outstanding Transfer Credit Review form (attached to email). The form and corresponding course syllabus must both be submitted to the appropriate department for the evaluation request to be considered. On the Outstanding Transfer Credit Review form, you can specify that the coursework has not been previously evaluated due to missing syllabi/materials. You may also append any additional documents you think will help the department reevaluate your course.

Forms WITHOUT signatures in the second section of the form should NOT be submitted to the registrar.

Contact information for CAS departments can be found here. For non-CAS courses, you may find the school/colleges website here.

EXAMPLE: If you are requesting review of a biology course, the form and syllabus must be submitted to the CAS Biology department.

After submitting the materials to each department, the academic department that reviewed the course is responsible for submitting it to the Office of the University Registrar for processing. The Outstanding Transfer Credit Form may be submitted via email to credeval@bu.edu.

Units received five or more years before a student’s matriculation will not be accepted without additional review of current applicability. Please contact your academic advisor to have these units reviewed.

If you would like to meet with an advisor, please visit https://www.bu.edu/advising/ for more information.

Courses are evaluated based on the content covered in the syllabus and online courses are eligible for transfer credit. However, some departments do not consider online courses for transfer credit.

No, transfer courses cannot be used to satisfy HUB requirements. However, AP credit can be used to satisfy HUB requirements.

Internships, research, and life experience are not considered for transfer credit.

Team members of the Credit Evaluation team will occasionally send out “Additional Materials” requests when a department evaluator requests additional information to complete the evaluation. These requests are often a result of the original syllabus lacking the necessary information to award an equivalency. Please click the link to read more about a complete syllabus.

If you are having difficulty obtaining syllabi, we encourage students to first reach out to either their professors or department heads for copies of syllabi. If professors or department heads cannot be reached, you may gather a current copy of the course syllabus from a professor who is currently teaching the course; however, the course title and course code must match what is on your transcript.