Transfer Credits

How Transfer Credits Count for Your LSA Degree

When you transfer to LSA the following general rules apply to your transfer credit:

Up to 60 credits may be transferred from other colleges and universities to count toward the 120 credits required for an LSA degree. Students who, prior to enrolling in U-M, complete an associate’s degree that requires 62 credits may transfer 62 credits.
If you have taken courses at an institution based on a different unit of credit (e.g., quarter credits or international credits), the credits will be converted to U-M semester credits. For specifics on credit conversion, go to LSA Academics and Requirements.
Grades do not transfer except for courses transferred from UM-Flint and UM-Dearborn.
Credits taken as a dual-enrolled student or as part of an Early/Middle College Program while in high school are subject to additional restrictions if completed prior to January 1, 2022. Courses completed after January 1, 2022 will be evaluated the same as any course. For specifics on these credits go to LSA Academics and Requirements.
The applicability of transfer credit to specific LSA degree requirements is determined by college and department policies.

For LSA General Degree Requirements

First-Year Writing Requirement: The Sweetland Center for Writing maintains lists of approved and not-approved transfer courses. A course that has been approved to fulfill the FYWR will be listed as ENGLISH 125 on the Transfer Credit Equivalency search. If the course you completed is not listed on either the approved or not-approved list, you may complete an online Petition for Transfer Course Credit. Please submit any questions about transfer credit for First-Year Writing Requirements to sweetlandinfo@umich.edu.

Upper-Level Writing Requirement: Transfer credit cannot be used to satisfy this requirement.

Race & Ethnicity: Transfer credit cannot be used to satisfy this requirement except by successfully petitioning the LSA Academic Standards Board after the completion of the course.

Quantitative Reasoning: Courses transferred from another college or university, even those transferred as “equivalent credit” of LSA courses that meet the QR requirement (e.g., MATH 115), do not automatically count for QR credit except in the following circumstances:

Transferred courses (minimum three credits) of PHYSICS 125, 126, 140, 240, or any STATISTICS courses (except business statistics) receive QR/1 credit.
If a student transfers in all of the prerequisites for a math or computer science major, they will fulfill Qunatitative Reasoning.
For other quantitative coursework, students may petition the Academic Standards Board to be allowed to satisfy the QR requirement with a class transferred from another institution.

Language Requirement: May be met through a placement exam and/or coursework transferred in. Refer to the Transfer Credit Equivalency site to check how your language courses transfer. If you have not completed a course that transfers as equivalent to the U-M forth term course you will need to take a placement exam. Once you enroll in LSA, however, you may not take and transfer in language courses from another school unless the appropriate LSA language department has given you its approval.

Distribution Requirement: Courses that transfer as equivalent credit to existing LSA courses will typically count toward the Distribution Requirement, just as the U-M version would. Courses that transfer as departmental credit into certain departments will automatically be counted toward specific distribution areas. Other courses that transfer as departmental credit require evaluation by an LSA advisor. For details on how departmental courses can count for distribution, see Transfer Information and Residency Policy. Interdepartmental credit will count for the corresponding distribution area. You will begin this approval process when you meet with your advisor during orientation.

Transfers from Michigan Community Colleges: As part of the Michigan Transfer Agreement, many courses from Michigan community colleges have been pre-approved for transfer and distribution credit. Check out the Transfer Guides for more information.

For Elective Credit: All courses that transfer can count for elective credit toward the 120 credits you need to complete your degree. Some courses might transfer in as non-LSA department credit, making them non-LSA credit. You may use 20 non-LSA credits toward the 120 total credits required for your degree.

Transfer Credit Equivalencies Guide to Check How Your Credits Will Transfer

Using the Transfer Credit Equivalencies Guide to Check How Your Credits Will Transfer
You can check to see if a course has already been approved to transfer by consulting the Transfer Credit Equivalencies Guide. (International credit Guide) Watch this video for a step-by-step on how to use the Transfer Credit Equivalency guide. Courses that have been evaluated will be listed one of four ways:

Equivalent Credit: A transferable class determined to be directly equivalent to an LSA class will be listed with that department and course number (e.g., PSYCH 111), indicating that it will appear on your transcript as that specific LSA course.
Departmental Credit: A transferable class determined to fit the LSA curriculum but that does not directly match a specific LSA class will be listed with the appropriate department with the designation “DEPT”; also known as “Departmental Credit,” this indicates that the course will appear on your transcript under the appropriate department but without a specific equivalent course number (e.g., PSYCH 101X).
Interdepartmental Credit: A transferable class that covers a range of topics and disciplines that do not match any one U-M department might transfer as “Interdepartmental Credit” (e.g., INTERSS 101X).
Not Transferable: Any course that has been evaluated and determined to be unacceptable for transfer will be listed with “NOT TRANSFERABLE” in the comments section.If the course is not listed on the Transfer Credit Equivalencies Guide, that means no student has ever applied to have it transferred. These courses will be evaluated upon your acceptance to LSA.

Update: LSA Transfer Credit Policy for Online Coursework
Beginning with courses taken at other institutions from January 1, 2020, all courses previously evaluated and currently approved for transfer credit in the Transfer Credit Equivalency (TCE) will continue to be accepted even if the course was delivered online.

All never evaluated courses will continue to be reviewed and approved by the appropriate department to ensure it includes key curricular content that is comparable (including the review of syllabi and exams), but no course will be summarily deemed as not transferable solely because of the delivery method (i.e. online).

Transfer Guides

Transfer Guides for Michigan Community Colleges

These detailed guides will help you plan your course work to make sure that you are taking classes that will transfer and count for LSA degree requirements. There is a general degree requirement guide for each Michigan community college and guides for some majors.

Michigan Community College Transfer Guides

Transfer Guides for Students at other Colleges and Universities

Although we do not have specific transfer guides for colleges and universities outside of the Michigan community colleges, these general transfer guides will help you understand how your credits will count for LSA degree requirements so that you can plan your course work. The guides cover both general degree requirements and information for some majors.

Transfer Guides for 4 year and Out of State Colleges and Universities

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