Understanding Your Transfer Credit Evaluation Results

Through the Transfer Credit Evaluation (TCE) process, we strive to provide students with the maximum amount of transfer credit possible to make their path toward degree completion as direct as possible.  We have found many of the questions students have about their TCE results can be answered by providing some additional detail regarding our standard policies.  Below is an explanation of some of our TCE policies for reference in understanding official TCE results.
 

Acceptable Minimum Grading Standards

Generally, undergraduate college-level courses completed at ACE recognized accredited institutions will transfer, provided they were successfully completed with a final course grade of "C" or better and they are similar in content and scope to work offered at American Military University/American Public University.

A grade of "B" or better is required for a graduate-level course completed at an ACE recognized, accredited institution to be accepted for transfer.  In addition, the course must have been completed within the last 10 calendar years.  Graduate-level courses completed more than 10 years prior to the start date of a student's current APUS program cannot be considered for transfer toward any APUS graduate degree program.

Technical, vocational, and continuing education unit (CEU) courses do not transfer to any APUS program, regardless of the grade earned.
 

Transfer Credits from a Quarter Hour School System

In order to transfer credit to an APUS degree program from an institution that operates on a quarter hour system, the credit hours must be converted to semester hour units on a course-by-course basis.  (1 semester hour of credit is equivalent to 1.5 quarter hours of credit.)  The following formula is used to convert quarter hour credits to semester hour credits:

# of Quarter Hours earned / 1.5 = # of Semester Hours  

In cases where the conversion results in a decimal, credit is rounded down to the nearest whole number.  See chart below:

Quarter Hours

 

Semester Hours

1

=

0

2

=

1

3

=

2

4

=

2

5

=

3

 
General Education Course Requirements

Each college determines how courses will be applied to meet general education and program requirements. A course deemed to fulfill a general education area at one institution may not be acceptable toward APUS general education requirements.

Additionally, some APUS degree programs contain core and/or major courses that have prerequisite requirements.  These prerequisites can often be used to fulfill general education requirements as well.  In these situations, a student's transfer course must be equivalent to the prerequisite requirement in order to receive credit in the corresponding general education area.  If the transfer course is not equivalent, it is applied to the elective area and the required APUS prerequisite course is applied to the student's general education area upon successful completion.

Finally, for a transfer course to be awarded toward the APUS general education science requirements, it must have a laboratory component.  Science courses without a verified lab component will be applied to the elective area when applicable.
 

Coursework Completed Has Not Been Evaluated by the American Council on Education (ACE) or Included on the APUS Approved Certificate Listings

For additional information on ACE recommendations and how they effect your credit evaluation please visit our ACE page.

For a complete listing of certificates of completion APUS will review for possible transfer credit, please visit our undergraduate certificate and graduate certificate pages.
 

Additional Information Required for Credit to Be Awarded

A TCE can only be completed when the document(s) being reviewed are official and complete.  If the information provided on the sending institution’s transcript and/or catalog is not sufficient enough for a credit award determination to be made, the credit is not applied until the necessary information can be obtained.   While the APUS credit evaluation team makes every attempt to obtain this needed information, sometimes it must be obtained directly by the student.  Students who believe they should have received transfer credit for a specific course in their official TCE results but did not may contact creditaward@apus.edu to see if additional documents are needed to support the TCE.
 

Removal of Previously Awarded Transfer Credit

APUS reserves the right to remove transfer credit from a student's record at any time as necessary.  These are the most common scenarios in which transfer credit may need to be removed:

  • If a student has registered for or completed a resident (APUS) course that is not part of their specific degree program requirements but is acceptable as elective credit, the elective area of their degree program has already been fulfilled, and transfer credit was previously awarded toward the elective area.
     
  • If a student has registered for or completed a resident (APUS) course that is duplicative of a course already awarded as transfer credit.  Duplicate credit cannot be awarded under any circumstance toward any APUS degree program and could delay graduation for a student if identified.
     
  • If a student has not completed the prerequisite for a course required in their degree program, the prerequisite course is acceptable as general education/elective credit, the corresponding general education area and elective area of their degree program have both already been fulfilled, and transfer credit was previously awarded toward either the corresponding general education area or the elective area.
     
  • If a transfer course is identified during the quality assurance or degree audit processes that does not meet the policy or practice of APUS and was erroneously awarded, it must be removed.  In the event this was to occur, the student would be contacted by the university.
     

We hope this information has assisted you in answering your transfer credit award questions.  If after reviewing this information you still have questions about your specific evaluation results, please send an e-mail to creditaward@apus.edu detailing the following information so we can better serve you:
 

  1. Title of the course(s) in question.
  2. Institution where the course(s) was taken
  3. Additional details you feel are necessary to consider when researching your file.

Due to the volume of requests received by the Transfer Credit Department, only communications listing the above information will be further researched and responded to.