Transfer Credit
Undergraduate Transfer Credit
Stanford may award credit for coursework completed at U.S. and international colleges or universities. Once approved, your transfer credits can count towards your overall university graduation requirements, major/minor requirements and other degree requirements. Grades are not factored into the Stanford GPA, or posted on the transcript, for transfer coursework.
The conditions are very specific, so it is important that you are aware of all these requirements:
- You must have completed the coursework at a regionally accredited institution in the U.S. or at an officially recognized international institution.
- The coursework must be college-level and count towards a college-level degree. Courses counted towards your high school graduation requirements do not qualify. Life and work experience are not accepted for transfer credit.
- The coursework must have substantial content overlap with Stanford coursework. A maximum of 20 quarter units may represent courses that do not parallel specific undergraduate courses at Stanford.
- You must have received a “C-” or better grade. “Pass” grades are only accepted when that grade is equivalent to a letter grade of “C-” or better as confirmed by the transcript key, the institution website, or a letter from a school official. Your final grades for external coursework are not posted to your transcript and do not count towards your Stanford GPA.
- Your approved transfer credit is a maximum of 45 quarter units (or 90 units for transfer students), including advanced placement (AP) test credit.
For full information regarding transfer credit policies, please see the Student Policies: Transfer Work.
Each type of transfer credit request is processed differently. Please review the information below to determine the steps needed for each request:
Submitting your Official Transcript
To consider and post transfer credits to your student record, the Registrar’s Office requires the official transcript from your external institution with all transfer credit requests. You should submit all official transcripts no later than the grading deadline of the quarter you're conferring your undergraduate degree or you may jeopardize your ability to graduate on time.
You can submit official transcripts using either of these methods:
- E-transcripts — send to transfer-credit-transcripts@stanford.edu
- Sealed paper transcripts — deliver via mail to the Student Services Center at 459 Lagunita Dr, Suite 4 Tresidder Memorial Union, 2nd Floor Stanford, CA 94305.
Stanford only accepts official transcripts via direct submission from the external institution; no transcripts received directly from a student are accepted.
Timeline
The Registrar’s Office evaluates external credit for students who have accepted an offer of admission and are fully matriculated at Stanford. Transfer credit requests for prospective students are not reviewed. Frosh admits should be advised that their transfer credit evaluation requests will not be reviewed until after the preliminary study list deadline of their first quarter. No pre-approval requests will be accepted prior to that date. The Registrar’s Office recommends that you do not submit transfer credit requests prior to the Autumn quarter of your sophomore year.
You should submit any requests for general transfer credit no later than the Final Study List deadline of the quarter you’re conferring your undergraduate degree. If you are applying for a Last Units Out of Residence status, please refer to the Special Registration Statuses page for more information.
Official transcripts for general transfer credit should be submitted no later than the grading deadline of the quarter you're conferring your undergraduate degree to ensure you will have the record on your transcript before you confer.
Transfer Credit Database
You can use this course equivalency database as a guide to review externally completed undergraduate coursework to determine transferability to Stanford University. The courses that appear in this database are approved by the Stanford University Registrar for general transfer credit toward an undergraduate degree. However, you should still submit an official transfer credit evaluation request form to request an official review/approval. Note that you are not guaranteed undergraduate transfer credit simply because a course appears in this database. Furthermore, you should consult with your individual departments and programs regarding transfer credit policies/procedures, as there may be additional restrictions regarding transfer credit.