Transfer Credit Review

There is no maximum transfer credit policy at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Transfer students must meet the senior residency requirements at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Transfer credits will be applied to their undergraduate degree as credits are transferable and applicable to degree requirements. Transfer students must meet all major, general education, and other institutional degree requirements per academic college.

Scope of Policy 

It is the policy of UM-Dearborn that normally any transfer courses accepted for credit must have been taken at a regionally accredited institution in the United States. Transfer courses may also be earned and accepted from institutions outside the United States if the institution is a recognized part of the system of higher education of another country and offers programs of study equivalent to degree programs at UM-Dearborn. Any accepted transfer course must have a final grade posted of a C or better, however, all transferable courses will be utilized in the calculation of the admission GPA, regardless of grade. 

All transfer courses seeking credit at UM-Dearborn must initially be reviewed and approved by the appropriate discipline faculty or delegate. In order to be accepted for credit, transfer courses must have substantially similar content and rigor as courses offered at UM-Dearborn. Transfer coursework will only be accepted if it is equivalent to a specific UM-Dearborn course or is not directly equivalent to a specific course but is consistent with a program’s content and rigor. Coursework will come in as equivalent, lower-level, or general credit. While some general education credits may be transferred in, course reviewers are not to be distracted by whether a course meets any requirements for general education (Dearborn Discovery Core) categories. Rather, the course review is solely about matching content.

Finally, in order to ensure and maintain the quality of the UM-Dearborn degree programs there shall be a five-year time limit maximum on all courses accepted for course credit at the university. Within the five-year period, the transfer course must be reviewed and accepted again by the discipline faculty or delegate in order to count for UM-Dearborn course credit. 

 

Michigan Transfer Agreement and the Dearborn Discovery Core

If a course is in the Michigan Transfer Agreement, then the university will grant the same transfer credit to all students and the course will count toward the relevant Dearborn Discovery Core category, if given exact equivalency or lower level credit. 

Courses not in the Transfer Equivalency System

The Unit advising office will send to the discipline faculty (or delegate) for evaluation.

  • If the faculty (or delegate) evaluate it as exact equivalency for one of our courses already in DDC, the course will qualify for the DDC category(s) credit.
  • If the faculty (or delegate) evaluate it as exact equivalency for one of our courses not in DDC, the course cannot quality for DDC credit. (The student can petition, but the DDC committee will reject the petition.)
  • If the faculty (or delegate) evaluate it as Lower Level credit in the discipline, then it will automatically qualify for DDC credit in the category associated with the discipline (just as MTA does). 

  • If the faculty (or delegate) evaluate it as General credit, then it will not qualify for DDC credit. (A student could then petition for it to count as DDC, but such petitions should not be encouraged as they will most likely be rejected by the DDC committee.)

Winter 2023 Credit/No Credit Michigan State University Transfer Policy

Any student who transfers to the University of Michigan-Dearborn with credit/no credit course grading from Michigan State University for the Winter 2023 semester will not have those courses count towards the four course Pass/Fail Course Limit for Degree policy.