Incoming Transfer Students
Any student who has completed courses for credit after graduation from secondary school should apply via the transfer admissions process. Once admitted, the Office of Undergraduate Admission will initiate a preliminary transfer credit evaluation on the student’s behalf, which will be conducted by the Office of the Registrar based on transcripts that were submitted at the time of application.
Once the preliminary transfer credit evaluation is complete, a report that lists the courses accepted for transfer credits as well as the estimated total number of transferred units will be made available to the student via their online admissions portal.
Please review our Transfer Credit Policies to see what Northwestern considers when preliminarily evaluating transfer credit.
A credit conversion formula is used to determine the number of NU units a student is awarded. The sum of transferable credits is multiplied by the number of credits required to earn an NU degree (42, 45, 48 or 50), then the result is divided by the number of credits required to earn a degree at the student’s previous institution (we round up or down to nearest integer. We round up if the result has a decimal of .5 or higher).
Formula for transfer credit
Number of credits NU accepts from previous institution X NU school minimum degree requirement (42, 45, 48 or 50) / Previous school minimum degree requirement = NU units
16 (transferred credit hours) x 45 (NU degree requirements) ÷ 120 (incoming institution degree requirements) = 6 NU units
Transfer credits may appear as a specific equivalent Northwestern course (i.e. ECON 201), as a general department elective at a particular level (i.e. BIOL_SCI 1XX), or as general conversion credit (i.e. GEN_CRED 1XX). The subject and level of the course is determined as closely as possible after reviewing publicly available materials, such as course descriptions, and compared to the curriculum at Northwestern. Admitted transfer students will be provided instructions on how to have any general department credits reviewed in more depth by a department after the student has deposited.
International Transfer Credit
Admitted students who wish to transfer post-secondary courses completed outside the United States should request evaluation from Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE) and submit the report to the Office of the Registrar at Northwestern. ECE reports describe the level of the student’s academic work and the accreditation and credit system of the institution, and inform the degree to which courses taken abroad may transfer to Northwestern University. The ECE report will enable transfer credit evaluators to make articulation decisions quickly and accurately. Students must contact ECE directly to 1) request the review and 2) request that the report be issued to Northwestern’s transfer credit evaluators in the Office of the Registrar. Costs are borne by the student.
Weinberg College Students Application of General Departmental Credit Towards Degree Requirements
Entering Northwestern as a Weinberg College transfer student, some of the coursework from your prior institution may be designated during the initial transfer credit evaluation as general departmental credit (i.e. CHEM 1XX),. Usually this is when a transfer unit is recognized as equivalent to a specific Northwestern subject and in a limited number of cases, a general unit in a subject may count toward a Foundational Discipline automatically. Please consult this equivalency table for more information.
Department-Specific Practices
Certain Northwestern departments will only approve the awarding of general department credit on the preliminary transfer credit evaluation (i.e. CHEM 1XX). These departments may have additional requirements, such as taking a placement or proficiency exam, or may require their own departmental review before awarding a more specific NU course equivalency.
- Foreign Language credit: all foreign language credit will transfer in as general one hundred level credit initially (i.e. SPANISH 1XX). Students must take a proficiency exam and submit a request for department review in order to have any coursework updated to a different articulation (i.e. SPANISH 121-1).
- Chemistry credit: all eligible prior coursework will transfer in as general department credit (i.e. CHEM 1XX). Students must take a placement exam and submit a request for department review in order to have any coursework updated to a difference articulation (i.e. CHEM 151). Transfer credit for Organic Chemistry or higher will only be eligible for general CHEM 2XX credit.
- The following departments only approve general credit on the preliminary transfer credit evaluation. Students will need to petition the department for further review to seek approval for a different articulation:
- Philosophy
- Neuroscience
- Physics
- Environmental Science
Department-Approved Transfer Course Equivalencies
While Northwestern does not currently have a searchable database to see how courses have transferred in the past, some of our departments have conducted their own review of courses from select external institutions and have published a list of NU course equivalencies. Please visit our Department-Approved Northwestern Transfer Course Equivalencies webpage for more information and to view the list.
Courses taken the summer before attending NU
Students who took courses over the summer prior to beginning at Northwestern should have their official college transcript sent directly to The Office of the Registrar, or electronically to nu-transfer-credit@northwestern.edu and not to Undergraduate Admissions if possible. If the transcript is sent to the Admissions Office, students should contact them and request that their transcript be forwarded directly to our office.
Courses taken during high school
Please visit our webpage for College Courses Taken During High School for more information about the eligibility criteria and how to transfer this kind of credit to Northwestern.