A student entering Northland College, after having attended a postsecondary institution for any length of time, must provide Northland College with official transcripts for all prior, postsecondary coursework. Transcripts must be sent directly from the postsecondary institution of origin. Failure to provide official transcripts from all institutions attended will result in an administrative hold being placed on a student’s ability to register for courses at Northland.
The Registrar’s Office will prepare a course-by-course evaluation of the submitted transcripts to determine credit transfer. Only college-level courses from institutions accredited by a regional accrediting agency at the time the course work was completed will be evaluated.
Courses completed at a postsecondary institution outside of the United States must be evaluated by an international evaluation agency. The cost of this evaluation must be paid by the student, and payment must be made in advance of the evaluation. The student has the option of having an official international course-by-course evaluation done prior to submitting the transcript to Northland, as long as the evaluating agency is acceptable to the Northland Registrar’s Office. Contact the Registrar’s Office for information on approved evaluating agencies.
All courses are evaluated for credit transfer on a course-by-course basis, and a grade of C- or better must have been earned in a course for it to be accepted for transfer credit. Courses that are technical in nature are generally not accepted for transfer. Courses that are considered developmental, remedial, or do not count towards graduation at the institution where they were taken are generally not accepted. Internships taken at other colleges may transfer in as elective credit within a department but do not transfer in as internship credit at Northland.
Completed courses that do not have an exact equivalent at Northland may be transferred in as general elective credits or may not be accepted. Some credits more than ten years old may require approval from the appropriate Department Chair.
A maximum of 65 credits will be accepted from all junior or two-year colleges or any combination of junior or two-year colleges. There is no limit on the number of credits that will be accepted from an accredited four-year college or university; however, to earn a Northland College degree, a minimum of 30 credits must be earned at Northland College, including at least 20 credits in a student’s major field of study and six credits in a student’s minor field of study.
Courses that were repeated are counted only once. (If a student is awarded transfer credit for a course and then repeats the course at Northland, the transferred credits will be removed from the student’s record.)
In addition to a course-by-course evaluation, previously completed courses will be evaluated for possible equivalency within our Connections curriculum. These equivalencies will be listed on the transfer evaluation.
Students who have received an Associate of Arts or Sciences degree from an institution that required at least 32 general education credits and who completed their general education courses with grades of C- or better will have fulfilled a large portion of the required Connections curricula upon entry to Northland. However, transfer students who have not yet earned a bachelor’s degree may be required to complete some portion of the Connections curricula. The experiential course requirement is also required of all transfer students, but it is possible that this requirement will be fulfilled by prior college coursework. Students who enter Northland after earning a bachelor’s degree from another regionally accredited institution will have all requirements of the Connections curricula waived as well as co-curricular wellness requirements.
Transfer students planning to pursue teacher licensure will be required to meet certain state-mandated general education course requirements before they are eligible for student teaching. A personal interview with the Director of Teacher Education is strongly recommended for all transfer students planning to pursue teacher licensure.
Transfer students with military training may receive college credit for this training as well as credit for studies completed at service schools, international institutions, and the United States Armed Forces Institute. For more information, contact the Registrar’s Office.
Test-Out Options
Students may accelerate the earning of college credit through test-out programs. These programs offer the option of earning college credit in areas where the student demonstrates a sufficient degree of knowledge and understanding.
The test-out programs approved by Northland College are the following:
- Advanced Placement (AP) examination taken at the high school level (minimum score of 3 required to receive credit);
- International Baccalaureate (IB) program;
- College Level Examination Program (CLEP), available through the University of Wisconsin-Superior or designated testing centers throughout the United States (minimum score of 50 required to receive credit).
To earn credits for AP, IB, or CLEP examinations, an official score report must be sent directly to Northland College from the appropriate agency.
A maximum of 30 credits from the test-out option may be applied toward a Northland College degree, and credits are not awarded for passing competency exams provided by other colleges.
For more information on test-out programs, contact the Registrar’s Office. |
