Pre-Matriculation Transfer Credit

In some cases, students who took college courses after their junior year of high school can apply to receive pre-matriculation transfer credit. This page describes pre-matriculation transfer credit and outlines the processes for requesting credit.

When Pre-Matriculation Transfer Credit May Apply

In order to be eligible for transfer, a course must meet all of the following criteria:

Notre Dame does not grant pre-matriculation credit for the University Seminar.
The course must be taken after the student’s junior year of high school.
The course must be taken at an accredited institution.
The course must be taught by a member of a college or university faculty for college students. The majority of the students in the course must be college students. College courses taught on a high school campus, by high school faculty members, and/or for high school students are not eligible for transfer credit.
The course must not be taken to satisfy a high school graduation requirement.
The course must correspond in length, number of contact hours, and content to a course offered at Notre Dame, either in the regular academic year or in the Summer Session.
The course must be at least four weeks in duration.
To correspond to a Notre Dame three-credit course, the course taken at another institution must have at least 37.5 contact hours (instruction time in the classroom). To correspond to a Notre Dame four-credit course, the course taken at another institution must have at least 50 contact hours.
Courses taken asynchronously (i.e., courses without a regular meeting time) are not eligible for transfer credit.
The course transfer request must be approved by the relevant department at Notre Dame.
A maximum of three courses can be accepted for pre-matriculation transfer credit.
The course must be letter graded (i.e., not as pass/fail, as satisfactory/unsatisfactory, as audit, as correspondence, etc.), and a grade of "C" or better must be earned to transfer.
If a student changes colleges, any granted credits need to be re-evaluated by the college to which the student is transferring.

How to Request Pre-Matriculation Transfer Credit

First-year students must resolve all college credit situations before or during their first semester at Notre Dame.

To apply for pre-matriculation transfer credit, the student must submit the following to their first-year advisor:

the course catalog description of the course taken
the syllabus of the course showing content covered
an official transcript from the institution at which the course was taken
the Pre-Matriculation Transfer Credit Request form
for students taking courses at non-U.S. universities, a grade translation to allow for a determination of whether the "C" requirement is met

**A note for College of Engineering students: In addition to the items listed above, students seeking to transfer credits for classes that fulfill College of Engineering requirements, such as math or physics, must also provide proof that the course is acceptable towards an ABET accredited engineering degree at the institution. This evidence is often found on the degree plan showing the course is required for the degree. For a community college course, the student must provide proof that the course can be used to satisfy engineering requirements at a related ABET accredited program. This information can often be found via a document called a transfer map or transfer pathway.