Transfer Credit

If you have taken courses at the graduate level at another university, some credit may be transferable to your MS or PhD program here. Graduate School rules allow us to consider transfer of graduate credit only if your transcript explicitly shows the graduate level courses you wish to transfer as having been taken after the date you received the BS degree. They will not allow transfer of graduate level courses which were intermingled with undergraduate courses and taken before receiving the BS degree, even though these course credits are in excess of those required for your BS degree.

• Up to 9 quarter hours may be transferred into either the MS thesis option or the MS nonthesis option.
   
• Subject to the approval of Graduate Studies Committee, up to 30 quarter hours beyond the 45 quarter hours given for the MS degree may be transferred into the PhD-from-MS program (15 credits of course work and 15 dissertation credits).
   
• Up to 39 credits of coursework and 36 dissertation credits can be transferred from another institution into direct BS-to-PhD program also subject to approval of Graduate Studies Committee. Residency requirements may limit the number of hours which may be counted toward a graduate degree, however.

Under these constraints, to request transfer of credit you must:

1. Fill out section one of the Request for Transfer of Graduate Credit. Be sure to indicate that your credit hours were taken on a semester or quarter basis.
    
2. Attach a copy of your university transcript indicating which courses are to be transferred. It must clearly indicate that these courses were taken for graduate credit, beyond the requirements of your BS (or MS) degree.
   
   
3. Attach course descriptions from your university catalog, course syllabi, or any other documentation which would help the Graduate Studies Committee evaluate the courses requested.
    
4. Attach a cover letter, addressed to the Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee, giving any other pertinent information, such as the texts used, the number of hours of lecture each course involved, and OSU course equivalent if possible, etc.
    
5. Give the entire package to the Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee. You will be notified by electronic mail of the Committee’s decision. The Graduate Counselor then forwards the request to the Graduate School.

It frequently happens that a student studying for the MS degree at Ohio State takes more course credits than the 30 hours required (MS thesis option). If that student is admitted to the PhD program at Ohio State, graduate course credits (not ECE 999 or 793) over and above 30 hours transfer into the PhD program, but the transfer is not automatic; it is accomplished by submitting the form Status Beyond Master's Degree: Transfer of Excess Master’s Hours to the Doctoral Degree to the Graduate School via your advisor and the Graduate Studies Chair. This form should be submitted as soon as the PhD Qualifying Examination is passed, and certainly before the Application to Graduate - Doctoral Program form is sent to the Graduate School.

Students who study for their BSECE degree at Ohio State sometimes take more than the total credit hours required. Up to 6 quarter hours of excess credit may be applied for graduate credit under the following conditions:

1. The course is numbered 600 or above if it is in ECE, or 500 or above if it is outside of ECE;
2. a grade of B or higher is achieved and
3. A Senior Petition, obtainable from the Undergraduate Student Counselor, was filed with the Graduate School before the course was taken.

Assuming all these conditions are satisfied, the student may request that the courses in question be transferred to his or her graduate program by means of a letter to the Chair of Graduate Studies naming the courses and grades achieved.