Will My Courses Transfer to Texas A&M?
 

I ) First we need to make sure you understand that at the Departmental level we have nothing to do with transferring your courses to A&M. That is done by the University, usually by transfer admissions after you apply and are accepted.

 

That being said, there are three ways that courses transfer to Texas A&M.

 

1. By Equivalency - These are courses accepted for credit by the Office of Admissions and Records (979-845-7387), having been deemed equivalent to an existing Texas A&M course.
2. By Title - Courses which might be equivalent to a TAMU course, but for which additional information is needed. Thus if the course has something to do with Philosophy, but they cannot tell which course it is equivalent to, you may have to go to the philosophy department for a decision as to whether the course will transfer.
3. Not Acceptable - course is not equivalent and cannot be used to satisfy a TAMU course.

 

You will not know how, or whether, your courses will transfer until you have submitted your application for admission to the University and they have analyzed your transcript. Until this you have no assurance on whether A&M will accept the course, nor do you even know if the University will admit you.

 

Further complicating the problem, the Office of Admissions and Records cannot possibly hire a sufficient number of transcript analysts to analyze the transcript of every student who is “shopping around” and might consider coming to A&M depending on what credit they are given. Thus they rigidly adhere to the following rules:

 

• Office of Admissions and Records processing and transfer admissions requirements

 

Once the Office of Admissions and Records has looked over your courses they may ask the Civil Engineering Department to help them determine whether they are equivalent to C.E. courses. They don't ask us about courses like political science and history - if they accept them, that’s good enough for us. However, if you want to transfer a technical course like Statics and Dynamics they may send it to us to decide if it is equivalent to our course.

 

Once we get this request from the Office of Admissions and Records, we may require the following information:

 

1)    A description of the course copied from the catalog from the institution where credit was earned, or a print out of the course description from the institution’s web site, or an exact URL where we can view the course description online.

2)    The title, author, and edition number of the textbook used in the course.

3)    A copy of the course syllabus, detailing exactly what material was covered, either from the professor of record, or from the institution’s web site, or an exact URL to the course syllabus where it can be viewed.

4)    In some instances we may require copies of the homework and exams that you took in the course.

5)     If the course is not a Civil Engineering course, but is rather, say, a statistics or drafting course, you may have to go to that department for a decision.

 

We will then make a detailed study of the course and determine if it is equivalent to one of our courses.

 

II) I contacted the Office of Admissions and Records, and they say the class comes in "by equivalency." Now what?

Since the course came in "by equivalency" you're through. Your course is rated 100% equivalent to one of ours, and they will tell you the A&M course for which you now have credit.
 

III) I contacted the Office of Admissions and Records, and they say the class comes in "by title." Now what?

Since it came in "by title",  they are saying that the course is good for something, but they don't know what. You now need to go talk with the department at A&M which teaches that course. For example, if you took Philosophy 111 at Potawatomi, then you must contact the Philosophy Department at A&M and ask them if the class is equivalent to something they teach, and get a letter from them so stating.

You must contact that department with the information listed above and ask them for a written opinion on whether the course is equivalent to one of their courses. You can also ask them if the course has International and Cultural Diversity content. You have the following choices for contacting them:
 

• You can contact them by email. Be sure to carefully indicate something like "Request for information on course transfer" or something like that in the header. If you leave the header blank they will probably discard it as spam.
• You can contact them by U.S. mail, which is a more formal request and somewhat harder to misplace.
• You can call them and talk with them. If you call them you still must get a written opinion, not just a verbal answer. Otherwise you have no proof of their decision and will have to go through the procedure again.
   

Be sure to include a copy of the course description, text used, etc. Depending on the course, they may still require a copy of your homework, written papers, and exams, so be prepared to submit these if requested. Be sure to hang on to their response and give us a copy so we can attach it to your petition for credit. Click here for a contact list of all departments at TAMU, listing telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses, etc.

 

IV) How can I get some idea as to whether my non-technical courses will transfer?

 

You can get a pretty good idea of whether your non-technical courses (English, political science, history, social and behavioral sciences, visual and performing arts, etc.) will transfer by using the Texas Common Course Numbering System:

 

• Texas Common Course Numbering System (TCCNS) - Use this to see if your course and ours have a common  course number. If they do, your course will very likely transfer.
• Detailed description of all A&M courses - Use this for a complete description of all courses at A&M, to compare with yours.
• Information regarding transferring political science courses to A&M. You want to see how messy these things get? Check out this dissertation on whether your political science class will transfer to A&M. And this is just one class - political science.

Thus if you are trying to see if your ENGL1302 - Composition II will substitute for A&M’s ENGL104 - Composition and Rhetoric, simply check the numbers listed in the TCCNS. (It will not substitute.) However, ENGL 1301 will transfer as ENGL 104, and ENGL 1302 will transfer as technical writing (ENGL 210.)

These non-technical courses are the ones that the Civil Engineering Department is unable to help you with. They aren't our courses and we have no idea whether the summer course you are taking in Philosophy 111 from Bryan College in Dayton, TN will transfer for credit to A&M, and whether it will count towards your international cultural and diversity requirement. Such questions can ONLY be answered by the Office of Admissions and Records, or by the department teaching that class.

Example:

Question: I want to take the Performing Arts class at Austin Community College during the summer and I was given the website where I can see if the classes will transfer. I found that the class that I wanted to take  there is 201 Music and The Human Experience, I was wondering if that class will count towards the Performing Arts Credit.

Answer: Look at the Texas Common Course Numbering System (TCCNS) and see if the class at ACC is equivalent to anything at A&M. If it is, it will count. If not, go to the  contact list of all departments at TAMU and find out who teaches your class. Look under College of Liberal Arts and click on Performance Studies (or whatever your class looks like.) Root around in there and click on Music, or Theatre Arts? That gives you a list of advisors, telephone numbers, and email addresses to contact and ask if the class you want to take will transfer to A&M. If they say they don't have that class, you are at least close. Ask them which department does.

Question: I would like for you to do all this work and time-consuming research for me.

Answer: I would like for you to double my salary so I can hire someone to do all that digging for 900 students a semester and let me get home sooner than 9:00 pm each day. Not only that but but 99 times out of 100 the student asking this question decides not to take the class anyway. They were just curious.

 

V) Will my course get me credit for one of the technical courses in Civil Engineering?

 

Perhaps. For your technical courses (math, chemistry, physics, statics, dynamics, structures, etc.) you can get a pretty good idea as to whether or not they will transfer by comparing your course description with those required for a degree in Civil Engineering at Texas A&M. For that you can use the following information.

 

• Flow chart of courses needed for a degree in Civil Engineering - Use this to see what courses we require, other than your Technical Electives, which are listed below. There are several flowcharts here. Use the one which agrees with the year you first entered any university.
• List of required Freshman Year Civil Engineering courses
• List of required Upper Level Civil Engineering courses - Same as above, in table form.
• List of required Civil Engineering courses - Same as above, in Excel format.
• List of required Technical Electives - Required C.E. technical electives depending on which option you select (General, Environmental, Structural, etc.)
• Detailed description of all Civil Engineering courses
• Detailed description of all A&M courses - Use this for a complete description of all courses at A&M, to compare with yours.

 

Thus if you are trying to see if your Statics course will satisfy our CVEN 221 course, you will probably find that neither your course nor ours is listed in the TCCNS. In that case you would next compare your course's description with ours. For example, our CVEN 221 class states:

 

CVEN221 - Statics and Particle Dynamics. (2 hours lecture, 2 hours lab) Credit 3. Application of the fundamental principles of Newtonian mechanics to the statics and dynamics of particles and the equilibrium of trusses, frames, beams and other rigid bodies. Prerequisites: Admission to a major degree sequence in civil engineering or mechanical engineering; MATH 251 or 253 or registration therein; PHYS 218.

 

If your course is very similar then you will probably get credit for ENGR221. If you took two separate courses, one in statics and another in dynamics, you would probably still be given credit for ENGR221. If you had statics, but not dynamics, you would either have to take ENGR 221 and be bored during the statics part, or you could take a separate course in dynamics to complete your 221 requirement.

 

If you cannot find a match, you are welcome to send us complete information on your course (description, name of text used, course syllabus, etc.) as stated above, and we will give you our best guess. Please note that we will not try and dig out what your STDL219 course from Potawhatami Junior College is, so don't just send us a course number. That's your job to get that information together and transmitted to us.

 

One thing is for sure. If you take PHYS 218 or PHYS 208 and they are not calculus based, they will not transfer. Thus if you check the prerequisites for your PHYS class and it says that trig and algebra are required, but not calculus, you can almost be guaranteed they will not transfer.

 

If you would like our thoughts on whether your technical courses will transfer before submitting your transcript to the Admissions Office, we can do our best, but can ONLY give you our "best guess."  That is the sad fact of life, because until Admissions has officially processed your transcript and rendered a decision, we cannot give you any guarantee on what will be accepted.

 

Please note that we will not answer any questions regarding other than technical courses, and then only if you have included the supporting documentation listed above (description, text used, course syllabus, etc.)

 

VI) Will my course taken elsewhere get me credit for a Dual Credit course?

 

If your course comes in as "equivalent" (see above), it will give you the same credits as would the equivalent course at A&M. Thus if you take a course elsewhere that is listed at http://TCCNS.org that is also listed for A&M, you would get dual credit. For example, if you take a class somewhere that is listed at TCCNS as ANTH 2351 - Cultural Anthropology, you will find it is equivalent to TAMU's ANTH 210 - Social and Cultural Anthropology, and will come in as equivalent to that course. Since it is equivalent, you will get credit for both a Social and Behavioral Science class, and an International and Cultural Diversity class, just like you would, had you taken it here. This is typical of what you should look for:

 

Common Course Numbers			Blinn College		Texas A & M University
Course Prefix	Course Number	Title	Course Prefix	Course Number	Course Prefix	Course Number	Title
ANTH	2351	Cultural Anthropology	ANTH	2351	ANTH	210	Social & Cultural Anthropology

 

If your course comes in "By Title" (see above) we don't know. Please see the instructions above stating how to deal with "By Title" courses.

 

VII) Typical requests we get regarding whether courses will transfer, and replies

 

From: Bill
To: Lowery, Lee
Subject: Which courses will transfer to A&M

Dear Dr. Lowery:

I am attending Perdition Mountain Valley Upper State Junior College and am considering transferring to Texas A&M. I am enclosing a 3" thick catalog which lists all the courses they offer. Please mark which ones will transfer for credit to either Civil Engineering or Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M and return it to me.

Thanks,

Bill

 

Dear Bill:

Go away.

Lowery

From: Joe
To: Lowery, Lee
Subject: Need to drive down and talk with an advisor about which courses will transfer

The main thing I need to come talk about is which classes will transfer. I talked to Transfer Admissions and looked online, and looked at the links you sent me but I've heard something about needing 24 hours that will transfer from the college I'm at now to A&M, and just by going by what the internet says I only have around 18, but there are still a lot of classes that weren't online that I would like to know whether they will transfer or not. I just wanted an advisor's opinion on it. The main thing I would like to know about is classes.

Joe:

I will be happy to talk with you but you must understand that I have absolutely nothing to say about which courses A&M will accept for transfer. Nor does anyone else in the Civil Engineering Department. That is completely within the purview of the Office of Admissions and Records (979-845-7387). If you would like to drop by you are welcome. However, we will get absolutely nothing accomplished unless you bring the materials I asked you to review at

http://lowery.tamu.edu/Advising/admission/TransferCredits.htm

and unless you are talking about Civil Engineering courses, not even then. Thus if you want to know if your Sociology 217 course will transfer, and you can't find out from all the information above, then I have no idea. I'm sorry, but that is just a fact and you need to know that before you drive 400 miles and are disappointed. What courses, after going to the above web information can you not figure out?

Dr. Lowery:

I am an incoming freshman. I am taking a Summer course in Philosophy 111 from Bryan College in Dayton, TN. I need to find out if this will transfer as credit to A&M, and if so will the hours count toward multi-cultural requirement, and/or social/behavioral sciences requirement. I have attached a course outline/content and explanation.

Joe:

Sorry, but that's not a Civil Engineering class and I don't have any idea, nor could I make you any guarantee even if I thought I knew the answer. You can call the Office of Admissions and Records at 979-845-7387, and since you have already been admitted to A&M, they will probably tell you. If they say it comes in "by title", that means it may be good for something, but they don't know what. At that time you will have to contact the Philosophy Department and get their opinion. See the information at http://lowery.tamu.edu/Advising/admission/TransferCredits.htm

I wasn't able to get into chem 107 this past semester and therefore took chem 101 instead and planned on taking chem 102 this summer. I just had a couple of questions:

In taking both chem 101 and 102 is it required to take a lab with both of those...I took the chem 101 lab this past semester and where I'm looking to take a second semester of chemistry this summer there isn't a lab open.

Also the chem class (chem 1307) that I would be taking at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio is different from what I would have taken at A&M. They don't offer a chem class that is exactly equivalent to the chem 102 at A&M and I just wanted to make sure that would be acceptable to get the credit for chem 107 and if it was ok that I don't take the lab that goes with it.

Joe:

The Northwest Vista course description for CHEM 1307 says it is "suitable for non-science majors." A&M would not substitute 1307 for CHEM 102. Also, the Texas Common Course Numbering System does not show the courses as equivalent. As far as the labs are concerned only one would suffice. A student taking CHEM 107 attends only fourteen 3-hr chemistry labs (14 weeks in a semester), so if a student has had at least one General Chemistry course that includes 14 3-hour labs then that is good enough. You've had the lab experience.

Dr. Lowery
I am wondering if I take MATH 2420 Differential Equations over the summer at Podunk College will this transfer for A&M's MATH 308 Differential Equations.
Joe

Joe:
We generally substitute differential equations taken at a community college for our MATH 308. We require a course description (syllabus) which you should send to me when you get a chance. If possible you should send us the syllabus before you register for the class so we can double check that it is the correct course.

Dr. Lowery:
I would like to take my physics 208 course back home at Texas A&M International University during the summer. I looked up the course on the Texas common course numbering system and did not find any that correspond to physics 208, but another student told me that he took phys 2126 at the same place and it transferred as a 208. Is it possible for me to do the same even though it is not on the Texas common course numbering system?

Joe:
PHYS 2426 (University Physics II) = our TAMU PHYS 219 (Electricity) = can be substituted for TAMU PHYS 208. Thus if you take PHYS 2426 it will come in as PHYS 219, which we will substitute for your required 4 hour PHYS 208. PHYS 2126 is nothing but a 1 hour lab and will definitely not substitute for 208.