How does NAU accept
Undergraduate and
Graduate Transfer Credits
(units)?
Transfer evaluators in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions review your transcript to determine your total number of transfer units and how those units will count toward satisfying NAU’s liberal studies requirements. Once your transcript has been evaluated by NAU Undergraduate Admissions an advisor from the academic area of your major will evaluate your transfer work to determine which, if any, transfer courses may count toward your degree requirements and may fulfill NAU’s diversity requirements.
Northern Arizona University only accepts transfer credits, not grade point averages.
NAU accepts credit from regionally accredited four-year and two-year institutions on a credit for credit basis for courses with grades of P (credit awarded), C, 2.0 or better. Petitions for acceptance of credit from institutions with other types of accreditations are to be sent to the Associate Provost for Academic Administration.
Transferring from a Four-Year Institution
We accept an unlimited number of credits from a regionally accredited four-year institution for courses with grades of P (credit awarded), C, 2.0 or better. In order to receive a degree from NAU, students must also complete 30 units at NAU which includes18 units of upper division coursework, and have at least 30 units of upper division coursework from all four-year institutions attended.
Transferring from a Two-Year Institution
NAU will accept a maximum of 64 units from a regionally accredited two-year institution towards your NAU degree for courses with grades of P (credit awarded), C, 2.0 or better. All classes that are approved for transfer will be accepted and reviewed for pre-requisite and/or major requirement satisfaction. Transfer courses from a two-year college maybe accepted as equivalent courses but only at the lower-division credit level.
You are required to complete at NAU the junior-level writing requirement and capstone course/experience that are part of the major requirements for your degree
If you have been admitted to a graduate program at NAU and have earned resident graduate credit at another institution, you can petition the Graduate College to apply such credit toward your graduate degree.
Transferring credits to a graduate degree program is not done routinely. Before you enroll in one or more courses at another institution with plans to transfer the credits to an academic plan at NAU, you must obtain your advisor’s approval.
To be considered for transfer credit, your courses must:
- have been earned at a regionally accredited institution have been earned with a grade of A or B (We will accept a pass grade if the course is graded only on a pass-fail basis.)
- have been earned within the six-year period required for completing your degree at NAU (master’s degree only)
- be applicable to a graduate degree at the institution where the credit was earned meet the Arizona Board of Regents’ requirement for credit: A minimum of 45 hours of work is required for each unit of credit. (Note: An hour of work is equivalent to 50 minutes of class time, often called a “contact hour,” or 60 minutes of independent study work. We require at least 45 contact hours for each 3-credit course, and we assume at least 90 hours of student homework for that course.) Ordinarily, a course must cover a one-week period for every unit of credit given.
- the number of units you transfer from other institutions cannot exceed twenty-five percent of the total minimum units of credit required for your master’s degree or graduate certificate. A student in the M.Ed. in Secondary Education plan may transfer 12 units in the content area.
Master’s students must complete the Petition for Transfer Credit form. For doctoral students, the transfer credit should be noted on the plan of study. The Graduate College will finalize the transfer credit at the time of admission to candidacy.
