Transfer Students

Transferring from one institution to another presents problems because each institution typically has its own way of structuring its coursework.  Fortunately, there are some constants among universities and colleges.  For example, College Chemistry is very similar at all schools.  Here are a few tips to help ease your transition to Boise State University.

• You will receive an external credit report (ECR) that will tell you what was accepted by Boise State as being equivalent to BSU courses.  If there is an exact equivalency to one of our courses, your ECR will list the BSU subject, catalog number, and title (e.g., BIOL 100 Concepts of Biology).  If your course fits into a broad class of courses, it will be denoted that way, for example, the course may be listed as Area I or II or III core credit.  If your course transfers simply as general elective credit, it will have an X at the beginning of the BSU course number equivalent, and will count towards your 128 total credits required and may count in other ways.
   
• Don't stop with the ECR.  It is best to see an advisor (the Department Chair or Associate Chair, preferably) who will go through your ECR and your transcript to see if you may have fulfilled any of the various requirements for graduating with a biology degree.   A transfer student once went in for advising thinking that he had another three semesters to go to complete his degree.  After talking to the department chair and receiving full credit for the courses he had taken at his previous institution, he needed only one semester to graduate!  Some of the things that the advisor will be looking for are:  Are your lower division biology courses sufficiently similar to our BIOL 191-192 to allow you to start on upper division work?  Can your upper division biology courses be counted as fulfilling any of the various requirements for the biology core or specific requirements of the requirements for the various emphases of the B.S. Biology or B.S. Biology/Secondary Education degrees?  Do your math and/or chemistry and/or communications courses fulfill the requirements for the biology major?
   
• Correct  sequencing of coursework is important to making rapid progress through the major.
   
• An advisor can help you to get on track with coursework at BSU.  An  advisor can also help you choose other appropriate coursework to help you advance to meet your goals for your education.  It may be that your advisor will need to work out some non-traditional ways to order your coursework to help you to finish in a reasonable amount of time.  Advisors can help with many other aspects of your academic life, such as finding internships and applying to professional or graduate school.