Transfer Credit

Undergraduate

Transferring Credit Before Matriculation to WPI

After a student has been accepted and final transcripts received, the Office of Admissions coordinates the formal evaluation of credit accepted towards a WPI degree.  Please note that the review process for first year student credit evaluation requests will begin after the May 1st enrollment deadline.  The review process for accepted transfer students begins typically in mid-April.  Students must follow the instructions on the Undergraduate Transfer Credit Review Request Form (PDF) to begin the course evaluation process.  Courses must be taken at a regionally accredited post-secondary institution.  More specifically, courses must be completed on a college campus taught by college instructors.  Early college, early entrance programs, or coursework provided in partnership with a college or university but offered at the high school and taught by high school teachers are not eligible for credit at WPI (with the exception of Project Lead the Way (www.wpi.edu/+pltw).  These high school to college partnership programs include Running Start, ECE, EEP, SUPA, SUNY UHS, and others.  Additional courses that are not transferable include pre-calculus, non-calculus based physics, computer courses in BASIC.  Online coursework is also typically not eligible.  Also, non-credit CEU courses, adult enrichment or refresher course, and CLEP examinations are not recognized for transfer credit.  Additional information on credit eligibility can be found on the Admissions website.

Transferring Credit After Matriculation to WPI

If you are currently a WPI student who wishes to take courses at a regionally accredited post-secondary institution, you must obtain a WPI Transfer Credit Authorization Form from the Registrar's Office. This form and the course description must be taken to the WPI department head and academic advisor for approval before the course is taken. On the form, the department head specifies a minimum grade for transfer. This minimum grade depends on the institution at which the course is taken and how critical the course is to the department. Courses that have not been pre-approved may not receive transfer credit. The completed form must be filed in the Registrar's Office before taking the course. After successful completion of the course, an official transcript should be sent to WPI. Students can check the web for posting of credit. Please note vocational, correspondence, pre-college or review courses are not transferable. Also, noncredit CEU courses, adult enrichment or refresher courses, and CLEP examinations are not recognized for transfer credit.

Transferring Consortium Courses 

Courses taken through the consortium do not need to be transferred into WPI. Courses will automatically be part of the WPI transcript. However, if you are taking the course through the consortium to fulfill a WPI distribution requirement, you should check with the Registrar's Office to see if the course has been pre-approved to satisfy the requirement. If not, you will need approval from the relevant department head before taking the course. To apply for approval of a consortium course to satisfy a specific WPI distribution requirement, a student must obtain a WPI Transfer Credit Authorization form from the Registrar's Office. This form and the course description must be taken to the WPI department head for approval before the course is taken. The WPI department head decides whether the proposed course meets the department distribution requirement. If it does, the department head specifies on the form a minimum grade for satisfying the distribution requirement. This minimum grade depends on the institution at which the course is taken and how critical the course is to the department. Courses that have not been pre-approved may receive WPI elective credit. The complete form must be filed in the Registrar's Office before taking the course.

Graduate

Transfers and Waivers

A student may petition to use graduate courses completed at other accredited, degree-granting institutions to satisfy WPI graduate degree requirements. A maximum of one-third of the credit requirements for a graduate degree may be satisfied by courses taken elsewhere and not used to satisfy degree requirements at other institutions. Students should submit their Transfer Credit Authorization Form to their academic department or program; once they are approved they are filed with the Registrar.

To ensure that work completed at other institutions constitutes current practice in the field, a WPI program may set an expiration date on transfer credit. After this date, the course may not be counted towards a WPI degree.

Transferred courses are recorded on the student’s WPI transcript with the grade CR and are not included in the calculation of grade point averages. Grades earned in Biomedical Consortium courses, however, are recorded on the transcript as if they were taken at WPI itself.

A student who withdraws from a graduate program and is later readmitted may apply courses and other credits completed before the withdrawal toward the degree. The admitting program will determine at the time of readmission which courses taken by the student may be applied toward the degree and the latest date those courses may be applied. There is no limit, other than that imposed by the program, on the number of credits a readmitted student may use from prior admissions to the same degree program.

With the appropriate background, a student may ask permission to waive a required course and substitute a specified, more advanced course in the same discipline. Requests are subject to approval by the student’s program and must be filed with the Registrar within one year of the date of matriculation in the program. A program may waive (with specified substitutions) up to three required courses for a single student.

Acceptability of Credit Applicable to an Advanced Degree

Graduate level credit, obtained from courses, thesis and project work, may include:

• Coursework included in the approved Plan of Study.

• Coursework completed at the graduate level and successfully transferred to WPI from other accredited, degree granting institutions (see Transfers and Waivers).

• Graduate coursework completed at the undergraduate level at WPI and not applied toward another degree.

A maximum of one-third of the credit requirements from one graduate degree, either completed or in progress, at WPI may be used in partial fulfillment of the requirements for another graduate degree at WPI.

No credit may be triple counted for any degree at any level of study