Transfer Credit Policies

Undergraduates who want to take courses at another college or university and apply those courses toward their Stanford degree should follow the Stanford University transfer credit policies which state that work completed at another institution can be considered for credit if all of the following conditions are met:

• it is completed at an accredited institution
• it is substantially similar to Stanford courses
• it is completed with a grade of C- or better
• it does not duplicate, overlap, or regress previous work
• the university or college offering the courses allows these courses to be used for credit towards its own undergraduate degree
• cannot count towards secondary school diploma and/or graduation requirements.
• no more than 45 (90 for transfer students) quarter units of credit for work done elsewhere may be counted toward a bachelor's degree at Stanford

Ways Transfer Credit Policies

Effective Autumn 2015, pre-approval is required for requests to fulfill a Ways of Thinking, Ways of Doing (Ways) requirement in transfer, and must be submitted by the quarterly deadline (see below). The pre-approval deadline is the eighth week of the term prior to the planned term in transfer. Courses that have not been pre-approved prior to enrollment at the non-Stanford institution will not fulfill the Ways requirement.

Ways transfer requests must be submitted by the following pre-approval quarter* term deadlines to be considered for review of fulfilling the Ways requirement:

• Autumn 2015: August 1, 2015
• Winter 2016: November 13, 2015
• Spring 2016: February 26, 2016
• Summer 2016: May 20, 2016
• Autumn 2016: May 20, 2016

*These deadlines are for students planning to take a Ways course in transfer at a non-Stanford institution on the quarter system.

Ways transfer requests must be submitted by the following pre-approval semester* term deadlines to be considered for review of fulfilling the Ways requirement:

• Fall semester 2015: August 1, 2015
• Spring semester 2016: November 13, 2015
• Summer semester 2016: May 20, 2016
• Fall semester 2016: May 20, 2016

*These deadlines are for students planning to take a Ways course in transfer at a non-Stanford institution on the semester system.

In addition, the following standards apply to all students:

• Students may submit a maximum of five courses from non-Stanford institutions for Ways transfer credit review per quarter.
• A student may complete a maximum of five Ways courses in transfer during the student's undergraduate career.
• Once Ways transfer credit is posted to the student's record, it may not be changed.
• Effective Spring 2015, transfer courses taken prior to matriculation are not eligible for Ways credit. 

Visit the Transfer Credit Procedures page for more information on Ways transfer requests.

A full statement of transfer credit policies is available in the Stanford Bulletin.