Transfer of Credits Policy

In keeping with the mission of William Carey University that encourages individual students to develop his or her highest potential in scholarship, leadership, and service, William Carey University's policies for evaluating, awarding, and accepting credit for transfer, experiential learning, advanced placement, and professional certificates are defined and published annually for students' reference.  These policies are consistent with the university's mission as a private, Baptist-supported institution accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.  It is the goal of William Carey University to ensure that coursework and learning outcomes are at the collegiate level and comparable to the institution's own degree programs.

Academic records from each college/university attended must be provided at the time of admission. 

A maximum of 60-64 academic credit semester hours earned in a community/junior college may be applied toward a degree at William Carey University.  Once students have enrolled at William Carey University, they may not transfer a course from any other senior or community/junior college except by special permission of the vice-president of academic affairs. William Carey University will accept transfer credit only from regionally accredited institutions or from a recognized accrediting agency.

Students enrolled at William Carey University who wish to earn credits at another college must request permission in advance to the vice-president of academic affairs through their dean/advisor.  The student must be in good standing at William Carey before approval is granted to take a course elsewhere during any term.

William Carey University has an articulation agreement with Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.  Graduates from MGCCC interested in pursuing a bachelor's degree at William Carey should contact the admissions office at the Tradition campus for more information.

Transcripts from institutions of higher learning in countries other than the United States must be evaluated by approved transcript evaluation services before being transmitted to William Carey University. The four approved services are: World Education Services (WES) http://www.wes.org; SpanTran (The Evaluation Company) Click here to access SpanTran; GCE (Global Credential Evaluators) https://www.gceus.com/; and ECE (Educational Credential Evaluators) https://www.ece.org/. William Carey University must receive an official transcript that has been evaluated by one of the four services before the admission file can be processed.

William Carey University awards college credit to students through CLEP examinations and Advanced Placement Testing.  Requirements are listed below:

Credit obtained by any combination of CLEP, Advanced Placement examinations, and International Baccalaureate (IB) higher level course scores may not exceed thirty hours.  Credit by CLEP may not be earned for a subject in which more advanced credit has been earned.  Credit by CLEP may not be earned for a course if the prerequisite courses have not been taken.  Decisions regarding IB credit are made on a case-by-case basis for each applicant by the appropriate academic department.  A minimum score of 5 is required for consideration.

CLEP EXAMINATIONS

Humanities, college mathematics, natural science, social science, and history examinations are elective credit only.  Students may, prior to or during their first term of enrollment (for part-time or summer students prior to having completed 15 hours), obtain degree credit for satisfactory performance (minimum score----scaled score of 500) on one or more of the exams named above, provided the student has not been enrolled in a comparable course for more than 30 calendar days.  Six semester hours of credit may be obtained for each of the four examinations areas:  humanities, mathematics, natural sciences, and social sciences/history.

CLEP SUBJECT EXAMINATIONS.

William Carey University grants credit for CLEP Subject Examinations in place of enrollment in equivalent courses which are applicable to the degree program in which the student is enrolled.  The acceptable scaled score for each subject examination is determined by the appropriate academic department but must be a minimum of 50.  Students may take subject examinations at any time during their college career, provided they have not been enrolled in the equivalent course for more than 30 calendar days.  Credit may not be received for both the subject examination and its equivalent, either in another examination or in a course taken for credit.

CLEP Courses

Credit may be granted by examination on the College Board Advanced Placement Testing Program.  No credit will be awarded for scores less than 3, and some academic departments may require a higher score than 3.

Advance Placement Courses

Correspondence credit will not be accepted in the department of the student's major unless it is in addition to the minimum credit required for the major.  All correspondence credit must be approved by the chairman of the major department and the vice -president of academic affairs and must carry a grade of at least C.  Transcripts for correspondence credits to be used to meet graduation requirements must be received by the registrar at least two weeks prior to the date of graduation.  Correspondence credit is limited to six semester hours for a degree.

Courses evaluated by William Carey University transfer credit procedures from regionally-accredited institutions will carry the grade earned at the institution if the grading system is comparable to that of William Carey University.

Vocational and technical courses cannot be used toward a degree except in certain cases where technical courses may be used toward a Bachelor of General Studies degree.  Developmental/remedial courses may be considered for general elective courses.  (2011-2012 Undergraduate Catalog; p. 69)
No experiential credit is given at William Carey University.

Credit is given from foreign universities when students have their work translated by one of the following agencies:

Students are responsible for sending the syllabi to these agencies and having the results forwarded to WCU. Courses must be equivalent to courses at WCU to transfer.

A student may request a review or appeal (in writing) of specific courses not initially accepted for transfer equivalency.  Upon receipt of this request, the Registrar's Office may ask the student for course descriptions/syllabi/qualifications of the faculty, etc., of the courses in appeal.  This information is sent to deans/faculty for review and determination of the validity of the courses as equivalents to William Carey University courses. 

The Registrar's Office is responsible for the security, maintenance, and integrity of academic student records.  The Registrar's Office accepts the responsibility for ensuring that data contained within the academic transcript adheres to academic policies adopted by William Carey University. 

Upon official acceptance and receipt of official transcripts from all other institutions attended prior to attending William Carey, an official transcript evaluation will be done for the student in the Registrar's Office. Students will be notified via their student email when the evaluation is complete. Each course will be evaluated as to its equivalency to courses at William Carey University. Only applicable courses earned from applicable institutions will be posted to the student record resulting in an overall GPA for the student. The resulting transcript becomes a part of the student's permanent record, the student database, and will be entered into WCU's document tracking system as a part of the student's file.

All courses will be marked with an equivalency. Those courses determined to be equivalent to WCU (William Carey University) courses will be marked with the equivalent WCU course numbers. Courses will be marked as an elective if WCU does not have a direct equivalent course. The WCU transcript-bearing transfer courses will be available to view or print from the Indigo student portal, under the My Transcript tab.

The office of the Registrar is here to make the transfer to WCU as smooth as possible. Our transfer evaluation team is responsible for processing all transfer credits, including AP, CLEP, dual enrollment, and military credit. We provide a Transfer Equivalency Tool to assist you with determining which courses will transfer to Carey. Plans of study or degree guides can be found in the Undergraduate Catalog. These two tools provide a starting point for our prospective students. The equivalency tool maintains tables of transfer courses that have been previously evaluated. These tables are not an exhaustive list of all transferable courses as new courses and equivalents are added daily. While the degree guide allows students to determine how many transfer courses will apply to their desired degree.

The student has the right to appeal (in writing with the catalog course description from term/year taken and course syllabus from term/year taken) the transfer of any course equivalency. The student may then be asked to provide further information that will be sent to the various department chairpersons/deans for further review.

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