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Undergraduate Academic Advising Advising
  1. Undergraduate Academic Advising
  2. Students
  3. Courses and Enrollment
  4. Transfer Credit

Using Transfer Courses for Your Degree

Registrar's Guidance

Review the Office of the Registar's guidance about transfer courses first.

How-to-transfer details

Test-Based Credit

AP scores and IB scores of sufficient level should appear on your Academic History. Many (but not all) exams award credit for specific UC San Diego courses.

If you believe the credit should appear as specific classes as shown on the AP or IB chart, contact the home department via the Virtual Advising Center. For example, contact the Math department if your Calculus AP credit looks odd, or contact the Physics department if your Physics IB score is not giving you the correct course credit.

Transfer Courses

Some transfer courses already have decisions about whether they are equivalent to existing courses at UC San Diego. Some do not.

Known Equivalency

If you took a course at a California Community College, use assist.orgto review transfer articulation agreements for how the course will transfer to UC San Diego.

Once your transfer coursework is posted to your Academic History, if you have questions about how the credit is posted, contact the department advisor via the Virtual Advising Center.

Some departments share information about course equivalencies beyond the California Community Colleges, so you can see how common classes from some UC campuses, out of state institutions, and other four-year universities may transfer.

Examples:

Unknown (You need to submit a petition!)

If the course has not been approximated to a UC San Diego course and if you need the course to be equivalent to a specific UC San Diego course to meet a specific degree requirement, you need to submit a petition to the department for their faculty to evaluate. (If you just need the course for general elective credit toward your degree, you do not need to submit a petition.)

Follow the steps below to petition for course equivalency:

  1. Make sure you have already sent an official final transcript from the institution to UC San Diego Admissions.
  2. Some departments may ask you to wait to submit the petition until the course is officially appearing on your Academic History.
    1. Get the syllabus for the course. You may also need supporting course materials such as exams, class notes, papers, etc.
    2. Submit a separate petition for each course if you are petitioning more than one class. Unless otherwise required by a department, you should use the Undergraduate Student Petition form (PDF).
  3. Submit the completed petition and supporting documentation to the home department. You can find this information on their websites. Examples:
    1. Biology process
    2. Chemistry process
    3. Computer Science and Engineering process
    4. Economics process
    5. Mathematics process
    6. Physics process
  4. Check your UC San Diego email account for confirmation or notification you have received a VAC message once the decision has been made. This review could take several weeks based on department volume and faculty reviewers.