Transferring Course Credit

Permission for transfer credit from other baccalaureate degree-granting colleges and universities may be recommended on a course-by-course basis, depending on similarity to Psychology courses offered at Tulane. The Transfer Credit form from your Dean's office must be completed and submitted to the Departmental Curriculum Committee along with a photocopy of the official course description and course syllabus from the other college or university. The maximum number of transfer credits that may count toward the Psychology Major or Minor is 50% of the required credits (i.e., 15 credits toward the major and 8 credits toward the minor).

The department does not grant transfer credit for courses taken at junior or community colleges. Similarity of a course description at such a school to a Tulane University departmental course offering is not, by itself, a sufficient reason for varying from this policy.

Students wishing to count an Advanced Placement (AP) course in Introductory Psychology must have earned at least a 4 on the AP Exam.

In some cases where transfer credit is not recommended, there may be special circumstances which would justify reconsideration upon petition to the Departmental Curriculum Committee. Contact Steve Cruz (scruz@tulane.edu) regarding such a petition.

Detailed Instruction on Petitioning for Transfer Credit

The form from your Dean's office instructs you to:

1. Verify with your associate dean that the university or college from which you wish to transfer a course is one that is approved for transfer credit.
2. Obtain approval prior to enrolling in the course. You can apply retroactively (i.e., after taking the course or while you are taking it), but there is no guarentee that approval will be granted.
3. Instruct the university or college from which you wish to transfer a course to send an official transcript to our registrar.

The transfer credit form from your Dean's office also advises you that:

1. Credit is not awarded for grades lower than C, and typically not for S/U or P/F courses.
2. Credits are converted to Tulane's system (e.g., a 4 credit quarter-long course is 2.67 credits at Tulane; a 3 credit semester-long course is 3 credits at Tulane).
3. At least 50% of a students credits for the college (i.e., at least 60 of the 120 credits) and at least 50% of the credits applied to the major (i.e., 15 of 30) or minor (8 of 15) must be completed at Tulane.

What you need to do:

Students should complete the form from their Dean's office, including all contact information, requested course equivalent, and number of credits. Students also should submit:

1. A course syllabus, which should include topics covered, listing of text and readings assigned, and information on how the student will be evaluated (e.g., tests, written work, etc). These are essential to the departmental decision.
2. Catalog description of the course.
3. Any other information that allows the department to evaluate the course, such as detail on field experiences, tutorials, demonstrations.

Students then should submit the materials to our main office, 2007 Percival Stern Hall. The department curriculum committee, chaired by Dr. Christenson, will examine materials and render a decision. The office staff will contact you when a decision has been made, and indicate that you may pick up your form.