Office of the Registrar

Transfer Credit

If you are a transfer student with undergraduate transfer coursework from one or more colleges, the transcripts you provide from previously attended colleges will be processed by the Office of the Registrar.  The processing begins after you have been admitted to Purdue University. See Submitting Official Transcripts

Transfer Credit Course Equivalency Guide — allows you to look up courses one by one to determine how they might transfer to Purdue. You should use this tool along with the plan of study for your desired major to assess how previous college credit may apply to your desired major. Courses taken at the Purdue regional campus ARE Purdue credit; this tool cannot be used for this purpose.

General Guidelines for Evaluation

  • Purdue only recognizes credit from regionally-accredited institutions. Courses from non-regionally-accredited institutions do not appear in the report.
  • Courses older than 10 years are not recognized per university policy; however, your major department may permit their use. These courses do not appear in your report.
  • Only college-level courses for which you receive a C− or higher will be considered for transfer. When the transcript key indicates a P or S grade represents C- or higher, credit will transfer. All other courses without a letter grade will not.
  • Purdue does not recognize developmental or remedial courses and do not appear in your report.
  • Credit transferred from quarter-based institutions is multiplied by a 0.75 factor.
  • Scores from standardized exams (AP, CLEP, IB, etc.) may be used for course credit and must be submitted from the testing agency. More detailed information is available on the Admissions website.
  • Credit earned for placement exams from other institutions does not transfer.
  • Credit is granted only once for duplicated non-repeatable courses.

Evaluation Process

  • Transcripts are reviewed by the Credit Evaluation department in the Office of the Registrar.
  • Certain courses may need to be reviewed by a specific academic department. This will increase the time of evaluation.
  • You are required to submit a final transcript if you were admitted before completion of a semester. Your evaluation will be updated upon the receipt of the official transcript.
  • Purdue will provide a Transfer Credit Report to Transfer Applicants when they are admitted. It will be published as a Decision in the Application Portal. You can use this information before you accept your offer of admission.
  • New Beginner and Current Students will have credit added to their record and is viewable by selecting “Transcript” on the Academic tab of your myPurdue account. Transfer credit appears near the top of this unofficial transcript.  
  • While the courses have transferred, they may not be used in your particular degree plan. After you have accepted your offer, use myPurduePlan found in myPurdue to see how your transferred courses are being used. Please discuss this with your academic advisor.
  • If you believe there is an error in this report, please contact transfercredit@purdue.edu

Special Credit for Military Service - Military veterans or active duty personnel with six months to one year of military service will receive four hours of undistributed credit. Those with at least one year will receive eight hours of undistributed credit. You must provide your DD-214 (or an LES, if still active duty) to earn credit.

Interpreting Your Transfer Credit

  • Your report shows an initial listing of your transfer courses and how they will be used at Purdue.
  • If the course you submitted was for more credit hours than the Purdue course, you receive additional undistributed credit. The use of this credit is at the discretion of your major department.
  • Courses coming in as undistributed will have an X in the second position in the number. The chart below interprets these course numbers.

In general, the first number is a level indicator. Purdue is using 1 (first-year course) in these examples.

1XTFR Transfer Credit -- This course could not be reviewed because it is not taught on the Purdue campus. Purdue is recognizing it as college level course work from a regionally-accredited institution. It may be used at the discretion of your major department through your academic advisor.
1XTRA Extra Credit -- You provided a course which has more credit than Purdue's version. You received equivalent credit equal to ours and additional credit(s) (XTRA) to show you earned more hours in your transfer course. It may be used at the discretion of your major department through your academic advisor.
1XXXX Undistributed Credit -- This course has been reviewed and is not found to be equivalent to Purdue's course. Course is not equivalent to anything the Purdue department offers or it does not have similar enough content.  It may be used at the discretion of your major department through your academic advisor.

The following courses are also undistributed, but they have been reviewed by the University Core Curriculum Committee to meet a foundational outcome in Purdue's university core. For Indiana residents, these courses also meet outcomes in the State Transfer General Education Core (STEGEC) among the state institutions.

1XBSS Human Cultures: Behavioral & Social Sciences
1XHUM Human Cultures: Humanities
1XMQR Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning
1XSCI Science
1XSTS Science, Technology, and Society
1XUIL Information Literacy
1XUOC Oral Communication
1XUWC Written Communication

The following meet two foundational outcomes:

1XBHS Behavioral & Social Sciences and Humanities
1XBIL Behavioral & Social Sciences and Information Literacy
1XBST Behavioral & Social Sciences and Science, Technology, and Society
1XHST Humanities and Science, Technology, and Society
1XHUW Humanities and Written Communication
1XIST Information Literacy and Science, Technology, and Society
1XILW   Information Literacy and Written Communication
1XSST SCI and STS

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