Graduate schools that accept the most transfer credits

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by sanantone, Mar 3, 2022.

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  1. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    With the free graduate certificate from Thunderbird, six LawShelf courses being evaluated by NCCRS at the graduate level (only $35 per course), and two of Coopersmith's courses being evaluated by NCCRS at the graduate level, I started looking for schools that accept the most transfer credits at the graduate level. I was already aware of Excelsior and Liberty. If you know of any schools that accept 15 semester hours/22.5 quarter hours or more, feel free to list them. The school doesn't have to accept NCCRS or ACE credits.

    Liberty - 50%
    Excelsior - 15 credits
    Walden - 50%
    Purdue Global - 50%
    Franklin - 24 credits for doctoral programs (they'll accept excess master's and doctoral-level)
    University of the People - 50%
    University of South Florida - 49% (varies by program)
    Harrison Middleton - 18 credits
    Erikson Institute - 50% (must have letter of support from previous program)
    Abraham Lincoln University - 50% for master's
    Fuller Seminary - up to 2/3 (no more than 50% of transfer credits can come from a previous degree)
    Dallas Baptist University - 4 of their online programs accept up to 50%
    Concordia St. Paul - 50%
    Rockbridge Seminary - 50%

    I have more, but I'll have to get to it tomorrow or this weekend.
     
  2. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Fort Hays State University is known to allow up to 50% transfer on some of their Master's degrees. However, it's not something I've ever found in writing in any of their catalogs or webpages. This is something multiple former students have reported on this and other forums over the years.

    FHSU has a Global Management concentration for their MLS, but I can't tell how well any of ASU's courses fit into Fort Hays' requirements.
     
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  3. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Oh, the list is so much bigger than that.

    Cutting and pasting some lines of text hardly begins to explain complex concepts, and this is one of those. As the Maniac implies, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to indicate that credit transfer practices are significantly different than credit transfer policies.

    In my MBA program, the transfer credit limit by policy was 25%. I transferred in more than 50%. (And that was back in the early '80s.) How? I negotiated it.
     
  4. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Maniac never confirmed that this wasn't their policy; he couldn't find their policy. Admittedly, it is hard to find, but my googling skills are pretty advanced.

    Times have changed over these many years. I was born in the 80s, and I'm closer to 40 than 30; I've also applied to schools in this decade. In this online environment, things are less personal, which is why the pound the pavement advice also became outdated over 15 years ago, but parents still had their Millennial kids out there looking like fools. Many schools have rigid policies and not every school offers a free transfer evaluation prior to application. Instead of wasting time and blowing money shooting in the dark, it's more efficient to look at schools' official policies. With thousands of schools offering online programs, there are many more options than there were in the 80s!

    Fort Hays State University will accept up to 50% of the program in transfer because that is their written policy. Negotiation is unnecessary, and Google is a great, convenient friend.


    Transfer of Credit

    Graduate degree candidates must earn a minimum of 50% resident credit hours at FHSU. However, individual departments may require more hours than the minimum to be earned at FHSU, thus reducing the number of hours that may be transferred. The graduate student must contact the department of the program about departmental requirements relating to transfer credit. Candidates may request that graduate credit earned at a regionally accredited institution with an acceptable letter grade be accepted for degree requirements subject to the departmental limits on transfer credit and approval by the Graduate Dean.

    https://www.fhsu.edu/academic/gradschl/current-students/gs-university-catalog-3.26.19.pdf
     
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  5. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    There's nothing complex about transfer credit limits. They are what they are. What's complex is figuring out whether your credits will fit into the degree program, and you're far more likely to end up transferring fewer credits than you thought you would. That's when the REAL negotiation comes in. That's when I had to pick up the phone to call the registrar, send emails to department chairs, get catalogs with course descriptions, and hunt down syllabi.
     
  6. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    No, it isn't. It's more efficient to target the school or schools one is interested in and having a discussion about one's particular situation. That's the whole point.
     
  7. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Well, there ya go!

    Your googling skills MUST be elite. Or mine must be terrible. Or both! Even knowing that that document exists now, I wasn't able to retrace your steps and find it on my own.
     
    Rachel83az likes this.
  8. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    At the risk of repeating sanantone's rather complete answer...

    Times have changed. And while a good many schools may have flexibility that isn't outlined in their catalogue, very often department chairs cannot just override institutional transfer requirements. It is out of their hands now. If the registrar says 12 credits max then it's 12 credits max. The department may still be able to wiggle around some parts of that with independent study, allowing you to take a course that you might not otherwise take or something. But you're not bringing in more than 12 credits.

    As noted, online learning has scaled these programs to heights never before seen. Departments that might get 5 grad students a year are now juggling 10-20 times that thanks to online offerings, new programs etc. Coupled with more than a few scandals around faculty running rogue and universities don't want Dr. Jones bending over backwards to accommodate Grad Student Jerry. They want uniform policies applying to everyone. These are probably not insignificant contributors to schools like Union moving away from "design your own program" to "pick one of our programs and we'll cut you some slack on how you apply it to your interest."

    Also APUS accepts a max of 15 credits for Masters programs.
     
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  9. Vicki

    Vicki Well-Known Member

    This seems like it has gone off the rails a bit…..
     
  10. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I think it's a periodic requirement - somewhere in the TOS. ...
     
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  11. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I agree. In my case (the only one actually citing personal experience?), I had to go far higher than the department. I had to appeal to the campus chancellor, who made the call in my favor.

    Two points.

    First, I don't know of any other learner-centered programs like Union...ever. The closest would be Fielding, or the current iteration of Union. In any course or degree program, three things must be determined:
    • What is to be learned
    • How it is to be learned
    • How that learning is to be measured
    In traditional programs, the school determines all three of these. Union, however, had the learner propose all three of these (in a learning contract), reviewed and approved by the university. At Fielding (then), the the second and third were determined in the learning agreement, while the first (learning content) was determined by the school. (I say "then" because I don't know if it is still Fielding's practice, so I don't want to speak for them.) Union seems to have moved to this model as well. But....

    My second point is that's not the reason Union moved away from their "design your own program" model. They were forced to move away from it by the Ohio Board of Regents in the early 2000's. The reasons are very public and well-documented, but there is serious disagreement over them by those involved, with some agreeing with the OBR that Union was ineffective in supervising studies in so many disciplines--indeed, it was and is an interdisciplinary school. Others, and I'm in this camp, didn't really understand what they were looking at and exaggerated the (very real) concerns way out of proportion because, frankly, the OBR is dominated by The Ohio State University, and OSU did not want Union in existence at all. So, it was much deeper--and much more political--than possible unequal treatment of individual students. (If I got that argument right?)
     
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  12. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

  13. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

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  14. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

  15. JBjunior

    JBjunior Active Member

    Agreed. I was looking at a doctorate program at a popular Texas school and was getting inadequate answers from the “sales” staff. I emailed directly to the program director who forwarded my email back to the “sales” staff and I immediately took them off my list. Beyond the failure to discuss my credit transfer/program option(s) question, focusing more on the sale than the student didn’t leave me thinking it would be much different once enrolled.
     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2022
  16. Futuredegree

    Futuredegree Well-Known Member

    As stated by Jonathan Whateley the best value I have seen so far is Jacksonville State University as they can accept 18 out of the 30 credits required for the degree. If you have credits laying around or want to create another degree this is the way to go. They also consider micro-credentials and certificates towards credit. Tuition appears to be cheap at $400 a credit online. So give or take $1600-1700 for a master's degree!? that's cheap assuming you get the 18 credits accepted as transfer.
     
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  17. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Wait a minute! Math alert! Those 18 credits get accepted into a specific 30-credit program. That leaves you 12 to complete - at $400 per. (It's $400 a credit, not $400 a course.) 12 credits cost $4,800. How do you get $1600-1700? *

    * You don't.
     
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  18. Futuredegree

    Futuredegree Well-Known Member

    oh gosh, I just noticed that haha math alert! good catch I assumed it was per class forgot the credits are 3 each so my math was off
     
  19. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

  20. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

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