Credit Evaluation for General Education and Elective Units

• Members of the Office of Admissions staff determine credit for general education courses or elective units.
• Credit evaluation begins with review of transcripts. Classes that are already articulated (meaning already identified as completing CSU A-E requirements), and for which the student received a C grade or better, are automatically credited.
• The Associate Director of Admission evaluates non-articulated courses on a case-by-case basis. This process determines whether a course sufficiently matches the content and learning outcomes for a general education course. This evaluation is usually completed by reviewing the catalog entry for the course in question but may require a review of the course syllabus.

Credit Evaluation for Major Requirements

• Undergraduate program faculty determine transfer credit for major requirements.
• Students requesting transfer credit toward their major should complete the Transfer Credit Request Form, and submit syllabi of the courses they wish to transfer. These requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, with faculty determining whether a course sufficiently matches the content and learning outcomes for an upper-division degree requirement course.

General Guidelines

• Courses that are not awarded as general education or major requirement transfer credit may still transfer as elective units, upon review and approval of the Associate Director of Admissions.
• A complete summary of transferable credits will be provided to admitted students before the deposit deadline.
• College Level Examination Program (CLEP) exams (MIN SCORE OF 50), High School Advanced Placement (AP) exams (MIN SCORE OF 3) and International Baccalaureate (IB) exams (MIN SCORE OF 4) may be used as substitutes for some general education requirements.
• Only courses from regionally accredited institutions with a grade of C or higher are transferable and must be at the 100-level (non-remedial) or equivalent in order to be eligible for transfer.

Transfer Credit Policy for Veterans

Palo Alto University’s undergraduate programs will evaluate courses taken in the armed services for transfer credit. In order to have your military educational experiences evaluated for credit, you must submit evaluated transcript(s) from the appropriate agency.

The Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard now use the centralized Joint Services Transcript System, which will electronically send your official transcript to PAU upon your request. The transcript includes your military training and occupational experience along with American Council on Education college credit recommendations. The Air Force uses the Community College of the Air Force.

Palo Alto University considers both military service and military coursework for academic credit using the guidelines issued by the American Council on Education (ACE). We refer to the ACE “Guide to Evaluation of Educational Experiences in the Services” when determining applicable transfer credit for military experience and training. Job specialties (MOS, AFSC, Rate) must have a recommendation evaluation by ACE (in the ACE Guide) for credit to be awarded.