Government addressing transfer credit

The Government Accountability Office released a report Oct. 18 stating that there is a need for institutions of higher learning to have a clearly stated policy on accepting or denying credits from transfer students, something that Boston University students with transfer experience say is needed.

Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, along with Congressmen John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) requested the study in order to investigate the criteria higher education institutions use when determining which credits to accept and how these policies affect the graduations of transfer students and their need for federal financial aid. Health Committee Communication Director Craig Orfield said the legislators requested the study they saw a trend they wanted to explore.

“[The study was created because of] data that had been collected demonstrating repetition of classes among undergraduates and because we’re reauthorizing the Higher Education Act this year,” Orfield said, “so there was a review to look at student aid.”

Amendments to the Higher Education Act were passed last week and portions reflected the findings of this study. Further amendments to standardize university-to-university transfers are still pending.

“There was language included in that that requires colleges and universities to clearly state what their policies are regarding transfer,” Orfield said.

Admissions Associate Director Kevin Lackey said BU’s policy is clearly stated in the course bulletin. He said he doubts this report and any resulting legislation will affect the transfer process at BU.

According to Lackey, the policy states that “we only accept credit from other accredited institutions and the grades have to be a C or above and it has to be similar to coursework at BU.”

Students who have transferred to BU from other institutions describe the process of getting credit for the classes they took at prior schools as difficult and time-consuming.

College of Arts and Sciences sophomore William Barton said he spent his first year of college at Stetson University, a small school in central Florida. He is now at BU and in the process of getting credit for the classes he took at Stetson.

Barton said aside from proving he took certain classes with an official transcript, he also has to prove that the courses he took at Stetson was equivalent to courses offered by BU. This requires submitting course descriptions and in some cases syllabi to the individual departments.

“The layers of bureaucracy are ridiculous,” Barton said.

For classes within CAS, the College of Communication and the School of Management, the Office of Admissions takes the first look at course equivalency.

“We will look up the course descriptions,” Lackey said, “and compare those to what’s offered at BU in the bulletin.”

The GAO’s findings ring true in Barton’s case, and he said knowing more about the work required to transfer his credits to BU might have affected his decision to come to the university.

“Had BU been more up front [about the transfer policy] it might have turned me off a little bit,” he said.

Although he said he hopes to graduate on time in 2008, he said it will most likely require additional work.

“I’m going to have to end up taking classes over the summer if I want to graduate on time,” he said.

CAS sophomore Elizabeth Cohen transferred to BU from Ithaca College. She said all of her credits were accepted toward graduation, but they cannot all be applied to her major or divisional requirements.

“You were given an option to call the department and challenge if they didn’t accept certain class credits toward BU,” she said.

She said she went through this process with two courses, a math and a writing class. After submitting the course description from Ithaca College, she said her math class was accepted as equivalent by BU, but her writing was not.

Cohen said she is a semester behind and does not anticipate graduating on time.

“I still have freshman standing right now,” she said.

College of Communication junior Becca McDade said she has transferred twice, once from Stonehill College to Northeastern University and again from Northeastern to BU. She said the process was confusing at first, but something that she was able to understand after a little while.

“Once I got deeper into the whole process and after someone explained it to me more in depth I had a better understanding,” she said.

She said the process of transferring credits would be easier if universities had to have a clearly stated policy.

“It would definitely make it easier if things were more clear,” she said. “I think that I kind of lucked out in some of my credits that were able to transfer.”

Like Barton, she also had to submit materials to prove that her courses at Northeastern were equivalent.

The difficulty that some students have in transferring their credits to BU reflects the value that the Office of Admissions places on a BU diploma, according to Lackey.

“We really place a high value on a BU degree and we want to know the rigor and the value of the coursework they have done elsewhere [before accepting transfer credits],” he said.