Glossary of Transfer Terms

Credit awarded based on College Board Advanced Placement (AP) exams. WSU awards credit for scores of 3 or higher. See a list of AP exam credits awarded by WSU.

• Associate of Science – Transfer Degree [AS-T]
• Associate in Applied Science – Transfer Degree [AAS-T]
• Associate in Arts [AA]
• Associate in Science [AS]
• Associate in Business [ABUS]
• Associate in arts – elementary education [AAEE]
• Associate in art – fine arts [AAF]

Credit awarded based on Cambridge International Exams. WSU awards credit for qualifying scores only. See the Cambridge table for exams accepted, scores needed, and credit awarded.

Credit awarded based on College Level Examination Program (CLEP) exams. WSU awards credit for qualifying scores only. See the CLEP table for exams accepted, scores needed, and credit awarded.

If a transfer course is not listed in the Transfer Credit Equivalency Database and it may be equivalent to a department requirement/course, the course may be reviewed for departmental credit at student request.

An associate degree that incorporates general education requirements similar to WSU. For having earned this type of associate degree, a student will have fulfilled WSU’s lower-division University Common Requirements (UCORE) and will generally be given junior standing.

Up to 15 quarter (10 semester) credits of coursework at the 100 level or above, which are otherwise non-transferable vocational/technical courses, may transfer as part of a DTA Associate degree meeting the ICRC guidelines. These credits are labeled as “gray area” and entered as GRAY 999 into the database with a grade of P.

Courses that do not have a direct equivalency may transfer to WSU for elective credit. Courses which receive elective credit are shown on the Transfer Credit Equivalency Database as Elective 1xx, Elective 3xx, MATH1xx, and ENGL3xx, etc. The appropriate departments and colleges determine the use of elective credit toward degree requirements.

Credit awarded based on International Baccalaureate (IB) exams. WSU awards credit for each IB higher-level pass with a grade of 4 or better. See a list of IB exam credits awarded by WSU.

Credit received by taking a course with a laboratory component. If a WSU course has a lab component, the transfer course must also contain a lab component in order to be considered a direct equivalency.

Major Related Programs (MRP) outline the appropriate major related courses within a transferrable degree for students to be well prepared to enter their desired major upon transfer.

Non-transferable credits (marked as NON_T in the Transfer Course Search Tool) are credits that will not transfer to WSU. These credits may include but are not limited to:

• Courses taken at colleges or universities that are not regionally accredited
• Non-credit courses and workshops
• Remedial or college preparatory courses
• Sectarian religious studies
• Vocational-technical courses.

Reverse transfer allows students to physically transfer from a two-year to a four-year institution before completing an associate degree; students may then earn credits at the four-year institution which may be transferred back to the two-year institution for completion of an associate’s degree.

College credit earned while still in high school. Although these students will have transfer credits, they are not considered transfer students.

Some courses taken at a transfer institution may not transfer to WSU as a direct equivalency unless a full series of courses is taken at the transfer institution. This is common for science and math courses. It is highly recommended transfer students complete the full series of courses at a single transfer institution.

• “One to one rules” are simple equivalencies which identify that one course is equivalent to the WSU course and the transfer GPA reflects each course individually. Please note: One course cannot have two equivalencies in MyWSU.
• “Many to one rules” are used to combine two or more transfer courses as equivalent to one WSU course. In these cases the transfer grade for the WSU internal equivalent will reflect the grade the student earned in the second course.
• “Many to many rules” are considered complex equivalencies and are used to define that two or more transfer courses are equivalent to two or more WSU courses. This means that we must specify fixed units for each internal equivalent, and that the transfer grade is identified by an incoming course. For example, if there are three incoming courses that equate to two WSU courses, the transfer grade for the WSU internal equivalent will reflect the grade the student earned in the second and third quarter of the three quarter series. If the lab and lecture components are identified as separate course numbers, the transfer grade(s) used will be based on the lecture portion(s) of the course(s), not the lab component.

WSU is on a semester system and divides the academic year into two terms, fall and spring, plus a summer session. Quarter credit hours can be converted to semester credit hours by multiplying quarter credit hours by 0.67. Using this equation, 5 quarter credits would convert to 3.35 semester credits.

The Transfer Credit Equivalency Database provides information to assist students in planning for transfer of courses to WSU. Transfer courses are displayed when a direct equivalency at WSU exists, if a course is similar to a WSU University Common Requirement (UCORE), if the course is a department or general elective, or if the courses are non-transferable.

Listed below are common codes found in the Transfer Credit Equivalency Database and how to interpret them.

UCORE in the Transfer Credit Equivalency Database:

• Inquiry in the Creative and Professional Arts [ARTS]
• Quantitative Reasoning [QUAN]
• Written Communication [WRTG]
• Communication [COMM]
• Diversity [DIVR]
• Inquiry into the Humanities [HUM]
• Inquiry into the Social Sciences [SSCI]
• Inquiry into the Natural Sciences – Physical Sciences [PSCI]
• Inquiry into the Natural Sciences – Biological Sciences [BSCI]
• Inquiry into the Natural Sciences – General Sciences [SCI]

Transfer course codes:

• SUBJECT ### – This code may appear as SUBJECT ###, 1##, 2##, etc. These courses are taken at the transfer institution. Courses with this code may be non-transferable, or they may transfer as an elective of the equal course level. (Example: JAPN 1## taken at the transfer institution may transfer to WSU as JAPANESE 1XX.)
• SUBJECT& – Courses with this designation are considered Common Course Numbers (CCN). They indicate that the content of these courses are similar throughout the Washington community college system.

WSU course codes:

• SUBJECT 1XX, 2XX, etc. – This code will appear when courses taken at the transfer institution transfer to WSU but do not have a direct equivalency to a WSU course. Example HIST 100 at the transfer institution may transfer to WSU as HISTORY 1XX. These courses may still satisfy UCORE requirements.
• ELECTIVE 1XX, 2XX, etc. – This code appears for courses that do not have a direct equivalency but transfer to WSU for elective credit. The appropriate departments and colleges determine the use of elective credit toward degree requirements.
• UCORE 1XX, 2XX, etc. – This code appears for some courses taken at the transfer institution that can be used towards fulfilling UCORE but do not have a direct equivalency to a WSU course.
• NON_T. – Non-transferable credits are credits that will not transfer to WSU. These credits may include but are not limited to:
  • Courses taken at colleges or universities that are not regionally accredited
  • Non-credit courses and workshops
  • Remedial or college preparatory courses
  • Sectarian religious studies
  • Vocational-technical courses.

The Transfer Credit Report is used to display the evaluation of your transfer credit to WSU. It is displayed at the time of an admissions decision for prospective students, and it is updated soon after any new transfer credit is received by the Office of Admissions for prospective and current students.

Listed below are common codes found in Transfer Credit Reports and how to interpret them.

• TA, TB, TB+, TC, etc.- The “T” indicates a transferred course followed by the letter grade accepted by WSU.
• TP – The “T” indicates a transferred course followed by the letter “P” indicating a passing grade.

Transfer GPA is the transfer student’s GPA as accepted and calculated by WSU. The transfer GPA is calculated using grades received in transferable college-level courses from all sources. The transfer GPA is not averaged into the WSU GPA.

Any student who has attended college after the summer following high school graduation.