Transfer Credits for Matriculating Transfer Students

Only students admitted by Dartmouth Admissions Office to Dartmouth College as transfer students qualify for the special regulations that follow. Transfer students may not transfer further credits after matriculation. This prohibition includes exchange terms and other transfer work.

Students who have spent one or more years at another institution before matriculation at Dartmouth are subject to various special academic regulations. The eighth of these relates to the transfer of credit: ‘Course equivalencies are determined by the Registrar or their designate. In the event of a question regarding the equivalency or appropriateness of a course, the department or program involved will be consulted. Courses applied for major credit must be approved by the major department or program.’

The basic principle guiding this regulation is that credit for matriculating transfer students is granted based on the same criteria that it is based for students who matriculate as first year students. Pre-matriculation credits on entrance (such as Advanced Placement) given by the original institution are evaluated according to Dartmouth standards. There are exceptions to this general principle, for example departments or programs which restrict transfer credit (for instance, only to majors) or which place certain courses out of bounds for transfer credit (for instance, elementary language courses) may approve such credits for matriculating transfer students, assuming the courses qualify otherwise. Also, matriculating transfer students may transfer credit from Community Colleges if the department or program approves the credit.

Transfer students are notified upon admission that they must submit syllabi for all work requested for transfer credit, official transcripts, SAT, ACT, AP, and other scores unless they are available from the Admissions Office. These transfer credits are evaluated by the same criteria and procedures used for currently enrolled students going away on transfer terms. This includes methods of conversion of quarter or semester hour courses into the Dartmouth course credit system, determination of distributive credit, language requirement completion, etc. Only courses and/or credits that were not used to satisfy any high school graduation requirements are eligible for transfer. Once a student has filed a major or minor, any courses in the major or minor field that have already been granted degree credit are reviewed for approval for major or minor credit by the appropriate academic department or program.  It should be noted, however, that no more than half of all courses required for the minor or major, including prerequisites, may be satisfied by transfer.

All transfer credits will be evaluated, and credit placed on the student’s record before the end of the first term of enrollment, provided that the transfer documentation is received prior to the start of the term.