Policy - After matriculation, Duke undergraduates may receive credit for two types of transfer courses, namely credit earned:
Note: Transfer credit will not be awarded for a course taken online or at a junior or community college, and no such credit will be awarded for independent study course work completed at another U.S. college or university.
Eligibility for Credit at Duke
The unit of credit at Duke is the semester course. A 3 or 4 semester-hour course taken elsewhere is equated as one course at Duke for students transferring 1 or 2 courses. Courses taken at another university on the quarter system—such institutions are especially numerous in California—must yield 5 or 6 quarter-hours of credit to transfer as a full course. A 4 quarter-hour course will not yield a full course credit at Duke. Note: for transfer as one course, a course taken elsewhere in the summer must meet for 35 full hours (not including lab, exam days, and holidays) over a period of at least three full weeks. The requirement of 35 contact hour is imposed because it is equivalent to the number of contact hours of a Trinity College course. Similarly, the Trinity College limitation to one course enrollment in an intensive summer term also applies to course work taken at another institution--you can receive no more than one course credit for enrollment in an intensive term (under 6 weeks in length) at another institution.
Approval Process
In order to receive transfer credit for course work earned at another domestic institution, you must secure (pre-)approval of the course(s) you wish to take elsewhere by completing STEPS 1, 2 and (optionally) 3 below. Note: if the institution attended is outside the U.S. and is not attended while on a Duke-approved study abroad program, the Global Education Office must establish the accreditation of the international institution before one or two courses taken there may yield transfer credit at Duke.
STEP 1: Departmental Approval
To begin the transfer credit approval process, you will want to print out a copy of the
Transfer Credit Instructions and Form
and, following the instructions carefully, complete the form and take it first to the Director of Undergraduate Studies of the department or program that corresponds to that of the course in question. The DUS must sign the form, approving the content of the course and determining its equivalency to a specified Duke University course. The DUS will also in most cases assign the course an Area of Knowledge designation.
STEP 2: Dean's Approval
Next, submit the form to your Dean's Office at one of the following locations for approval by your academic dean:
- Academic Advising Center on East Campus
- Trinity College Dean's Office in 011 Allen Building
Your dean must approve the course as equivalent to a Duke course with regard to the number of contact hours (35 hours). After your dean has signed the tentative approval form, it will be faxed to Registrar's Office.When you have completed the course, have the institution send a copy of your transcript to the Office of the University Registrar, Box 90754, Durham, NC 27708. Only courses in which you earn a grade of C- or better are eligible for transfer. A grade of TR will be recorded on your Duke transcript for a transfer course.
STEP 3 (optional): Determining Eligibility for an FL Mode of Inquiry Code
Since Fall 2011, students are not eligible to request Modes of Inquiry codes for post-matriculation transfer credit (domestic or international) and study abroad course work, with one exception: students may apply for the FL Mode of Inquiry (1) for foreign language courses taken in study abroad immersion settings, and (2) for less commonly taught language courses not offered at Duke, provided the student has a compelling reason and received permission from academic dean to use this language to satisfy the foreign language requirement. Note that since only two domestic transfer courses are allowed post-matriculation, this means that at least one of these will have to be at the advanced level.
These restrictions do not apply to courses taken at inter-institutional partner schools, for which students may continue to apply for Modes of Inquiry.
Note: even though transfer credit (domestic or international) and study abroad transfer courses may not be eligible for Modes of Inquiry codes (except as noted above), they may still be approved with an Areas of Knowledge.
If you wish to apply for an FL Mode of Inquiry code, you must do so only after the course has been approved for transfer credit and by the last day of drop/add in the semester in which you return to Duke following your study abroad. To apply, print out a copy of the
Transfer Course FL Coding Request Form
Submit the completed form together with the required support materials to the Transfer Course Coding Committee, 011 Allen Building, by the deadline noted on the form. (Completion of the form and provision of documentation does not guarantee that the request will be approved.)
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