Transfer Credits

DETAILS ABOUT TRANSFER CREDIT

COURSES AND CREDITS

All coursework must be on an accredited college or university transcript to be considered for transfer. This includes dual-enrollment credit; courses listed only on a high school transcript do not earn credit at Hope. Online courses are accepted just as on-campus courses are.

Courses must be 100-level or higher to be considered for transfer; remedial, vocational and developmental courses do not transfer. Math courses must be pre-calculus or higher; college algebra and lower courses do not transfer.

You can earn a maximum of 32 credits through AP, IB and CLEP exams.

You can transfer a maximum of 65 community (2-year) college credits. Overall, you may transfer up to 90 credits. Your final 30 credits must be completed at Hope.

The number of credit hours does not change in transfer. For example, if a course is 4 credits at the other school and the equivalent at Hope is 3 credits, the course will still transfer as 4 credits.

If the other school follows a quarter calendar instead of the semester system, the quarter credit hours will be converted to semester credits as follows:

QUARTER CREDITS	SEMESTER CREDITS
1	.66
2	1.33
3	1.99
4	2.66
5	3.33

GRADES

Transferable courses graded C or higher will transfer. However, if your cumulative GPA at the other institution is at least a 2.00, you may earn credit for transferrable courses in which you earned a C- or below. The exception to this is failed and withdrawn courses; if you receive an F or W grade, you will receive no transfer credit.

Grades and honor points do not transfer to Hope; only the credits transfer. On your Hope transcript, transfer courses will be listed with a grade of TR, which does not affect your Hope GPA.

You may not earn duplicate credit for a course. If you choose to retake a transferred course at Hope, your transfer credit will be deleted.

If you passed a course at Hope (D- or higher) but are not happy with your grade, you cannot retake the course at another school to improve your GPA. You must retake the course at Hope.

If you failed a course at Hope, you may retake the equivalent course at another school, but only for credit. The grade from that course will not transfer and your F grade at Hope will still factor into your Hope GPA.

FULFILLING REQUIREMENTS

If a transfer course is equivalent to a Hope course that completes a requirement, the transfer course will count toward the requirement. TES and Transferology will note any exceptions to this.

Three Anchor Plan requirements cannot be completed via transfer credit: US Diversities, Global Perspectives, and Senior Seminar.

Consult your advisor and the chairperson of your major/minor department before taking any major or minor required courses at another school. Some departments have restrictions on transfer courses. Additionally, if a transfer course is fewer credits than the Hope equivalent course, you may have to make up the missing credit(s) to reach the overall number of credits required for the major or minor.

If Hope doesn’t offer an equivalent to the course you’d like to transfer, but is similar in content and academic rigor to the type of class offered at Hope, you can still earn general credit. Courses like this will be listed on your transcript as 0100, 0200, 0300 or 0400, based on the course’s level at the other institution. The course counts toward your minimum 120 credits required to graduate, but does not automatically count toward a specific requirement. To petition that the course count for a specific requirement, you must complete an Anchor Plan/general education substitution form or a major/minor substitution form. These forms should only be completed by currently enrolled students.

If you have already completed coursework at another school, contact that institution to request your official transcript be sent to Hope College. Either electronic or paper transcripts are acceptable.

Current students: Check your unofficial transcript in plus.hope.edu (Registrar and Student Accounts > Student Records > Unofficial Transcript) or Degree Works to confirm the credit has been added to your record.

Incoming first-year students: Transfer credit is evaluated starting May 1 for deposit-paid students.

Incoming transfer students: Upon acceptance to Hope College, your transcripts will be sent from the Admissions Office to the Registrar’s Office for evaluation. After you are admitted and submit your enrollment deposit, you will receive an official transfer evaluation.

Faculty and staff: Read more about approving transfer credit.

CURRENT HOPE STUDENTS

Check to see if the course you want to take is already listed in the Transfer Equivalency System (TES). Search by school and then by course. Courses listed in TES are pre-approved to transfer. Courses that are not listed in TES require a transfer credit request. Submit the transfer credit request form before taking the course to ensure it will transfer as you desire.

If the Hope equivalency posted in TES is not the exact class that will meet the requirement you are trying to fulfill, you will need to complete an Anchor Plan/general education substitution form or a major/minor substitution form to request the class count toward the requirement.

Want to search for a specific course to transfer, but don’t know where to take it? Try Transferology. Log in with Google using your 1Hope email and password, then choose the “Find a Replacement Course” option in the upper right corner.

To apply to another school, first check their website for an online application for guest students. Some schools may also require verification that you are a current Hope student. Their website will give you more details. If they ask you to fill out the Michigan Undergraduate Guest Application, complete the top portion of the form. Email or bring it to the Registrar's Office so that we can complete the bottom. After we send it to the other school, they will contact you directly about registration and next steps.

When you have completed your course(s), have the other school send us your official transcript. Electronic transcripts are preferred. If the school uses Parchment/Credentials or the National Student Clearinghouse for processing electronic transcripts, you can choose Hope College from their network of recipients. If not, you may use registrar@hope.edu as the recipient. Paper transcripts are also acceptable and should be mailed directly to the Registrar's Office.

INCOMING STUDENTS

Create an account in Transferology and select your previous school(s) and course(s). Click “Search for Matches” to see courses that have been pre-approved to transfer (Match), those that are not approved to transfer (Miss) or any that have not yet been reviewed for transfer (Maybe). You can click the “Request Information” button in the upper-right corner to send the unreviewed courses to the Registrar’s Office to evaluate for possible credit.

Transfer Students

Official transcripts should be sent to the Admissions Office as part of your application. Electronic transcripts are preferred. If the school uses Parchment/Credentials or the National Student Clearinghouse for processing electronic transcripts, you can choose Hope College from their network of recipients. If not, you may use admissions@hope.edu as the recipient. Paper transcripts are also acceptable and should be mailed directly to the Admissions Office.  Official transfer evaluations are processed for transfer students who have submitted the enrollment deposit. 

 

First-Year Students

Official transcripts can be sent to the Registrar's Office. Official transfer evaluations for first-year students are processed after May 1 for students who have submitted the enrollment deposit. Electronic transcripts are preferred. If the school uses Parchment/Credentials or the National Student Clearinghouse for processing electronic transcripts, you can choose Hope College from their network of recipients. If not, you may use registrar@hope.edu as the recipient. Paper transcripts are also acceptable and should be mailed directly to the Registrar's Office.