Eligibility & Transfer Credit Guidelines
Who is eligible to transfer?
If you have completed between one and two years of transferable academic course work at another college or university, you may be eligible to apply as a transfer student. Penn has a two-year academic enrollment requirement—meaning that at least one-half of the total number of courses you take should be completed here to earn a degree, regardless of the number of credits you have completed at another university or college.
The Wharton School and School of Engineering and Applied Science only admit students with one year of credit to enter as second-year students. The College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Nursing accept both second-year and third-year transfer students with up to two years of credit. All students who are admitted to Penn—both first-year and transfer students— start their enrollment in the Fall, as we do not allow students to enroll mid-year.
- If you decide to leave college at the end of your first term, you may apply to the first-year class entering in the subsequent September.
- If you are in a dual-enrollment program taking courses in college while still enrolled in high school OR if you are completing your senior year concurrently with your first year of college, you should apply as a first-year student.
Learn more about First-Year Applicants
- If you have already earned a bachelor’s degree, you are not eligible to transfer to an undergraduate school at Penn, but we encourage you to explore the exciting opportunities available at the graduate level.
Learn more about Graduate and Professional Programs
How Does Penn Evaluate Transfer Credit?
After you matriculate to Penn, the official approval of transfer credit is granted by the department from which you are seeking credit. For example, if you are seeking transfer credit for a course in Biology, Penn’s Biology Department would review the course details along with your transcript and ultimately decide if your credit is approved. This process will repeat for each course that you seek transfer credit for. Generally, transfer credit is awarded for academically based courses taken at a regionally accredited institution, passed with a C or better, and similar in content and credit hours to the courses on Penn’s campus. At Penn, credit is awarded in course units and the normal course load results in eight to nine course units each year. Courses taken for fewer than 40 contact hours each term won’t transfer but, when appropriate, will be combined with other courses to give credit.
If you want to determine whether your courses will transfer before you apply, we encourage you to review course descriptions for your prospective department’s website and in the Course Register to see if classes you have already taken have equivalent courses available at Penn.
Credits transferred from other institutions will become a part of your official record, but grades will not be placed on the transcript nor used in determining your cumulative grade point average.
At least one full year of transferable academic course work (8 courses) should be completed by the spring term prior to your enrollment. Summer coursework taken immediately before you enroll will not typically count toward the 8 transferable courses.
When will I find out how many of my credits transferred to Penn?
The Admissions Office examines your transcripts and sends an evaluation of your transferable credit within approximately three weeks after you receive an offer of admission. If you are accepted, you will receive a preliminary evaluation that predicts which of your courses will transfer, however this evaluation is not a guarantee.
We are not able to pre-evaluate transfer credit prior to notifying you of your admissions decision, as transfer credit is officially awarded after matriculation.