Undergraduate Admission

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Transferring College Credits

If you are planning to transfer to USD from another college or university, many of your general education credits may be transferable.

  • You should first review USD’s Core Curriculum, which should be the primary focus for transfer admission.
  • If you have attended or are currently attending a California Community College, please use ASSIST and USD’s alignment charts below.
    • For courses taken starting Fall 2025, please consult USD's Core-Cal-GETC alignment
    • For courses taken Fall 2021 - Summer 2025, please consult USD's Core-IGETC alignment
    • For courses completed prior to Fall 2021, you may need to complete a petition with your academic advisor, who will be assigned after you are admitted to USD and have submitted your enrollment deposit.
  • Students who attend community colleges outside of California or 4-year universities are encouraged to search for transferable courses using our Transfer Equivalency Search Tool.
    • Though we do not have complete lists of transferable courses from all colleges and universities, we highly encourage you to consult this tool prior to signing up for your courses.
  • If a course from your current or former institution has not been articulated by USD, the course will transfer as an elective. Please provide a syllabus to assist USD in evaluating your course transfer request.

Transfer Credit Process for Deposited Students

After being admitted to USD and submitting your enrollment confirmation form, a formal transfer credit analysis will determine which of your credits are transferable.

  • General education classes from accredited institutions are generally transferable with a grade of C- or better.
  • As a standard practice, please save your course syllabus for each college course that you complete as you will likely be asked to present the syllabi and coursework materials for classes taken at previous institutions as part of the transfer credit analysis
    • Classes from non-accredited institutions or trade schools will not transfer to USD.
  • The units from all transferable coursework will count toward your total unit credits but the letter grades from these courses will not be calculated into your Cumulative USD GPA.

Once you’ve confirmed your enrollment, you must send all official transcripts to the Office of Undergraduate Admission. These transcripts will then be sent to the Transfer Analyst in the Registrar’s Office who will evaluate the coursework for transferability.

Before you begin taking classes at USD, thePre-USD Transfer Course Evaluation Form can be used to request an additional evaluation of a course you completed at another university and for which you received elective credit to see if it may fulfill a core curriculum, major or minor requirement.

Please note: Recent revisions to USD's Core Curriculum have impacted the way in which general education classes transfer into USD. Learning outcomes are a significant point of consideration used by the Core Curriculum Committee when determining whether or not classes taken at other institutions meet core curriculum criteria. As a result, classes that bear a title similar to USD classes but differ in learning outcomes may not satisfy core requirements for graduation (though they may transfer into USD for elective credit). This may impact the length of time you will need to study at USD in order to satisfy the Core Curriculum as well as the requirements for your degree(s).

Important Information for First-Year Applicants

Students who have been given the opportunity by their secondary schools to take college courses prior to high school graduation will be awarded college credit via the process described above. To be considered for college credits, a separate official college transcript must be submitted even though the college course might be listed on your high school transcript.