Check Transfer Courses on Degree Evaluation

Overview

  • Up to 90 units of lower- and upper-division coursework can transfer into SDSU, but only up to 70 units of community college classes can transfer. (However, it is possible to take additional CC units to meet a particular requirement, they would just not count toward the minimum 120 units needed to graduate.)
  • To see the status of transferred courses, look under the Academic Coursework section near the bottom of your Degree Evaluation (in my.SDSU Links to an external site.). Some of your courses may not have been reviewed yet or may not have been deemed equivalent to courses you expected.

 

Courses from San Diego area community colleges 

  • Important Note: Because community college courses are lower-division, the only PSY requirements that they can transfer in to meet are requirements that are also lower-division at SDSU, i.e., prep for the major courses. Other PSY courses you may have taken can contribute to general elective units to help you meet the 120 unit minimum requirement to graduate (assuming you have not surpassed the 70-unit CC limit), but cannot meet upper-division PSY requirements.
  • Equivalency of San Diego area CCs to SDSU PSY major prep courses can be found on this page Links to an external site.. Most local CC classes have been reviewed to see if they are equivalent to an SDSU class or not. 
    • If you see a course with a number like the one below, that means that the course is not equivalent to a specific SDSU course but that you are earning "generic" units overall or in a department ("2T" indicates they are lower-division units).

      Course without SDSU equivalent shows as SLHS 2T009>U indicating transferred in as SLHS lower-division course.

 

Courses from Outside of San Diego

  • Important Note: Lower-division courses from another institution can only transfer to lower-division units at SDSU. If you took a lower-division course that does not have an equivalent at SDSU, it will help you meet the 120-unit minimum requirement to graduate, assuming you have not surpassed transfer unit limits.

Reviewed Courses with No Equivalency.  If you see a course with a number like the one below, that means that the course is not equivalent to a specific SDSU course but that you are earning "generic" units overall or in a department ("2T" indicates they are lower-division units).

Course without SDSU equivalent shows as SLHS 2T009>U indicating transferred in as SLHS lower-division course.

 

Transfer Courses Not Yet Reviewed

If there is not an existing articulation agreement between SDSU and the prior school you attended for a course(s) you took, then it can take some time for the course to be individually reviewed and for a decision to be made (the Registrar's Office says they should all be reviewed by October). Below is an example of a course that still needs to be reviewed. 

If you are in this situation, wait until SDSU reviews the course. Keep checking your degree evaluation to see if the course status changes. In the meantime, sign up for courses that do not need the unreviewed course as a prerequisite.

Course transfers as "Unknown" when waiting to be reviewed.

If after review, a PSY course was determined not to be equivalent to an SDSU course but you think it might be, review the section below on "Potential to Review a Psychology Course".

 

Courses that Will Not Transfer to Meet Upper-Division Major Requirements

If you took a lower-division course that was a similar topic to an upper-division course at SDSU (e.g., Social Psychology), the course will appear as above with the department indicated followed by "2T" and a series of numbers. This is because universities can only give credit in a course at the level it was taken at another school. This means that lower-division courses can never be equivalent to upper-division courses here. The lower-division units will still help you meet the 120 units required to graduate, but they cannot count toward the upper-division major.

We are often asked whether or not a student should take the upper-division version of a class if they have previously taken similar content elsewhere at the lower division. It depends on your situation:

  • If the course serves as a prerequisite for another upper-division psychology class. E.g., psychopathology, personality and some others serve as prerequisites for some other classes.
  • If you are thinking about graduate school or a career for which the class is especially relevant, then it is probably beneficial to have the course on your transcript at an upper-division level. E.g., you are interested in counseling or clinical avenues, it is advisable to complete Psychopathology (PSY 350) at the upper-division level.
  • The only course which you must (re)take as upper-division that you might have had before is a Research Methods course.

 

Potential to Petition a Psychology Course

Review information on courses that are and are not petitionable. If a PSY course was reviewed but does not meet a requirement that you think it would, we encourage you to meet with one of our advisors this summer or drop-in the office during the semester to file a petition to have the department review the course. Note that you must submit a copy of the syllabus (from the term you took the course or from a term within the past year if there is not current articulation agreement) as part of the petition request.