Transfer Credits for Online Degrees: How the Rules Work

Transfer credit is often the single biggest factor in how long an online degree takes and what it costs. It is also where marketing language and actual policy drift furthest apart. "Transfer up to 90 credits" describes a ceiling, not what you will receive. This guide explains the separate rules that decide how much of your past work counts, with examples from the official pages we track.

Four different ways prior work can count

Schools treat these as separate categories, often with separate limits:

• Transfer credit for college courses you completed at another accredited institution.
• Academic residency credit, meaning the minimum number of credits you must earn at the

degree-granting university. This limits transfer from the other side.

• Credit for prior learning (CPL) for learning outside a college classroom, such as military

training, professional licenses, certifications or a reviewed portfolio.

• Credit by examination, such as CLEP or a university's own departmental exams.

A program page may advertise one of these and stay silent on the others, so ask about all four.

Undergraduate transfer: caps and residency rules

Bachelor's programs commonly allow a large share of a 120-credit degree to come from elsewhere:

• Arkansas State University says you can apply up to 90 transfer credit hours toward its online

BSBA.

• Colorado State University Global states "Transfer up to 90 credits, including military service and

career experience" for its bachelor's programs.

• The University of Illinois Springfield's Liberal Studies BA allows up to 72 hours of lower-division

credit and up to 30 hours of upper-division credit, but caps all transfer credit combined at 90 hours (program page).

Residency rules then define what must be done at the new school, and many specify which credits:

• Oregon State University requires at least 45 of the last 75 credits in its online psychology and

computer science degrees to be completed at Oregon State, online or on campus.

• UF Online's business administration degree states that all upper-division business coursework must

be taken at UF.

How the credits are applied matters as much as how many are accepted. Old Dominion University notes that a qualifying associate degree may satisfy its lower-level general education requirements, while Texas Tech says transfer credits for its online psychology BA are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Credits that arrive only as general electives may not shorten your path if your remaining requirements are major courses. Our guide to degree completion programs covers programs that require prior credits to enter.

Graduate transfer is much narrower

At the master's and doctoral level, transfer is usually measured in a handful of courses:

• Auburn's online MBA allows up to six credit hours (two classes), applied toward elective credit.
• The University of Maryland Global Campus lists "Transfer up to 12 credits" on its 30-credit MBA.
• The University of North Dakota caps MBA transfer at one-fourth of the required hours, usually 9

semester credits.

• The University of Michigan-Dearborn's engineering management master's accepts up to six graduate

credit hours, with a grade of B or better, from another accredited institution.

• UMGC's Doctor of Management in Community College Policy and Administration states "No transfer

credits accepted."

Some doctoral programs credit a prior master's as a block. Texas Tech's PhD in Higher Education accepts 30 credits as a "block transfer" (not course-for-course) from an accredited master's program.

Social work is a special case. Penn State World Campus says applicants with a minimum 3.25 GPA from a CSWE-accredited undergraduate program are eligible for advanced standing in its online MSW. The same program states that it does not grant course credit, transfer credit or exemptions for prior life, volunteer or employment experience. Compare master's programs for each school's stated limits.

Credit for prior learning: portfolios, licenses and training

In these examples, CPL is capped well below transfer credit, and some programs describe a portfolio or approval step:

• Boise State's online BBA in Management says up to six credits may be awarded through its prior

learning option.

• Texas Tech says students in its online psychology BA may be eligible to earn up to 9 credits for

professional and life experiences.

• The University of Nevada, Reno's RN to BSN includes a guided portfolio process through which

eligible students earn 30 upper-division credits for prior professional experience.

• Western Kentucky University's RN to BSN awards up to six hours of credit for a single specialty or

national certification, for approved students.

Military and workplace training often reaches colleges through the American Council on Education (ACE), which evaluates military and workforce training and publishes credit recommendations, including the ACE Military Guide for courses and occupations across all branches. An ACE recommendation is not credit by itself; the receiving school decides. The University of Alaska Fairbanks, for example, says students may transfer up to six graduate-level courses from approved ACE credit programs into its security and disaster management master's.

Credit by examination: CLEP and departmental exams

The College Board says more than 2,900 colleges and universities in the U.S. grant credit for CLEP exams, but that each institution has its own policy describing exactly what credit it grants. Its guidance makes three points worth following:

• Confirm that your college grants credit for the specific exam and check the score and credit hours

it awards.

• Confirm that the exam fulfills a requirement in your degree, not just general elective credit.
• Check restrictions. The College Board notes that some colleges will not grant CLEP credit if you

already attempted a college-level course closely aligned with the exam.

It also advises checking the institution's own website, since the policy posted with the College Board may not be current. Universities may offer their own exams too: Ball State lists CLEP and Ball State departmental exams for its online Bachelor of General Studies, and the University of Memphis says credit by examination can be earned for three RN-BSN courses.

What to ask before you enroll

• Will you give me an unofficial transcript evaluation before I apply or pay a deposit?
• What is the maximum transfer credit, and what is the academic residency requirement?
• Will my credits count toward specific requirements or only as electives?
• Do you accept credits from my previous institutions? The University of Cincinnati's RN to BSN, for

example, refers to coursework from regionally accredited institutions; see our guide to checking accreditation.

• Are there grade minimums (such as B or better) or other conditions?
• What CPL options exist, how much do they cost, and what is the cap?
• Which exams (CLEP or departmental) do you accept, at what scores, for which courses?

Once you know how many credits you actually have left, you can estimate cost accurately with our guide to understanding tuition per credit, and line up programs side by side on the compare page.