Advanced Placement & Transfer Credits

Fairleigh Dickinson University Vancouver is committed to promoting student mobility and accessibility to education and welcomes transfer students from recognized and accredited two-year and four-year institutions. 

What are Transfer Credits 

Credit transfer involves one institution awarding credits for courses or programs completed at another institution that are considered equivalent. 

Transfer credits are reviewed and approved by the Program Coordinator and/or the College at FDU. Receiving transfer credits may reduce the total number of credits required to complete your degree at FDU. The exact number of credits awarded will be determined by the Program Coordinator after reviewing your course descriptions and official transcripts. The specific courses required for your program completion will also be discussed with you during the New Student Registration process. 

Students are required to fully disclose information on all academic institutions attended on their application form. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action. In order for coursework to be considered for transfer, transcripts should be provided to the Admissions office at the time of application. The course work you completed should meet the requirements for level, length and grade. 

Which Courses May Be Eligible 

1. International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma/ Certificates: 5 or higher per Higher Level exam; 
2. GCE Advanced Levels (A-Levels): C or above per A-level exam (Each qualifying exam can be considered as a 3-credit or 4-credit course in a FDU curriculum); 
3. Advanced Placement (AP): credits will be given to students who have taken college-level courses in secondary school and have achieved the appropriate test score on the College Board Advanced Placement Examination. Please refer to this chart for a list of accepted courses and required scores for transfer.  
4. University and College Coursework
   Coursework completed at a college or university after graduation from high school may be considered for transfer to an undergraduate program, if it has been completed at a recognized post-secondary institution within the last 10 years. You must have passed the course with a grade of “C” (2.0 on a US 4.0 scale) or better. The course should also be comparable in content and depth to a similar course required for the selected degree program.

   Only the credits from your previous courses transfer; the grade point average you earned does not transfer. 

Maximum Number of Transfer Credits 

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) generally accept up to 60 credits from accredited recognized institutions. 

Bachelor of Arts Individualized Studies (BAIS) generally accepts up to 90 credits from accredited recognized institutions. BAIS welcomes transfer credits for 3000 and 4000 level courses. Detailed course syllabi are often required for transfer evaluation. 

When and How to Apply for Transfer Credits 

If you are enrolled in or have completed coursework that may be eligible for transfer credits, you should disclose the information in your application form and provide the transcripts.  

We will preview potential transfer credits at the time you receive an offer. To finalize your transfer credits and course selection, you need to provide the course descriptions and official transcripts to vancouver-admissions@fdu.edu no later than four weeks before the start date of your program as shown in your Letter of Acceptance. Please see steps for the undergraduate transfer credit process in the chart below, and other detailed requirements under the “When to Provide Syllabi and Official Documents” section.  

Undergraduate Transfer Credits Process Chart  

Apply for Your Program 

• Include all the transcripts of your secondary and post-secondary coursework in the application package. 

• If you haven’t received the final results for some courses, please submit the provisional grades with your application package, and then submit the final results no later than four weeks before the program start date shown on your Letter of Acceptance (LOA).   

Receive Letter of Offer (international students), or Provisional Letter of Acceptance (domestic students) 

Transfer Credits Initial Preview 

• You may need to provide an external evaluation, and the syllabi for some courses, before your transfer credits can be previewed. If this applies to your case, the Admissions Office will contact you by email with further instructions.   

Receive an email notification with the estimated number of transfer credits. 

Make a Deposit Payment (all students), Receive the Letter of Acceptance (international students only). 

Send Syllabi of All Eligible Courses to vancouver-admissions@fdu.edu.  

• Certified translations are also required, if the original documents are not in English. 

Transfer Credits Final Approval and Document Verification: 

• Provide: 

• Syllabi or course descriptions, sent directly from the previous institution to vancouver-admissions@fdu.edu, and 

• Official transcripts, sent directly from the previous institution to vancouver-admissions@fdu.edu. 

New Student Orientation and Start of Program  

You can click here to view the Undergraduate Transfer Credits Process in a timeline format.

When to Provide Syllabi and Official Documents 

What is a Course Syllabus 

A course syllabus is the document that instructors supply to the students and serves as a roadmap for a course.  

To support transfer credit evaluation, the course syllabus should include comprehensive and detailed information about the course to facilitate the review of its transferability.  The course syllabus must include:  

• Course title and code number (required)  

• Number of credits, or number of contact hours (required)  

• Detailed Course description (required)  

• Learning Outcomes or equivalent (required)  

We also recommend that the course syllabus includes:  

• Textbooks, readings, learning materials  

• Detailed course content, including sequence of topics, weekly breakdown of course schedule, etc.  

• Prerequisites, corequisites  

• Course Objectives  

• Course format  

• Assignments, assessments, and their relative weighting  

If a syllabus is not available, you may submit a detailed course description instead. Please note that, for either form of document, if the information provided is incomplete or does not include the necessary details for a transfer credit evaluation, we may request additional documentation, or the transfer credit may not be approved. 

When to Provide Syllabi 

For some courses, a syllabus may be required before we can assess the possibility of transfer credit. If this applies to your case, the Admissions Office will contact you by email with further instructions. 

If you’ve already been informed of estimated transfer credits, we recommend submitting syllabi for all eligible courses as soon as possible. You can either: 

• Provide a direct link to the course syllabus on the university’s official website, or 

• Submit a PDF copy of the course syllabus. 

If the original documents are not in English, a certified English translation is also required. Please send all course syllabi for eligible courses to vancouver-admissions@fdu.edu. Make sure your full name and student ID are included in the email. 

When to Provide Official Documents for Transfer Credits 

To finalize the transfer, you’ll be required to provide the following documents by email to vancouver-admissions@fdu.edu, no later than four weeks before the start date of your program as shown in your Letter of Acceptance: 

• The official transcript, and 

• The external evaluation report, if required, and 

• The course syllabi, sent directly from the university. 

Please make sure your full name and student ID are included in the email. 

Transfer from within BC and Other Provinces in Canada 

FDU–Vancouver is a member of the British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfer (BCCAT) http://www.bccat.bc.ca . Students who have completed coursework at colleges and universities that are a part of the transfer system may receive credits for articulated courses. You can check the BC Transfer Guide at https://www.bctransferguide.ca/ to see if your colleges and universities already have an articulation with FDU-Vancouver. If there is no articulation in place, it doesn’t necessarily mean the courses aren’t transferable; your courses may still be considered for transfer credits. You can e-mail the Vancouver admissions office at vancouver-admissions@fdu.edu for more information. 

Transfer from the United States 

Fairleigh Dickinson University has articulation agreements with most New Jersey community colleges. More information about transferring courses from a community college to FDU is also available at njtransfer.org. If there is no articulation in place, it doesn’t necessarily mean the courses aren’t transferable; your courses may still be considered for transfer credits. You can contact the Vancouver admissions office at vancouver-admissions@fdu.edu for further information. 

Washington State Running Start Program 

FDU will recognize transfer credits for courses completed in the Running Start Program at Washington State High schools. Transfer credits will be accepted under the same guidelines that apply to FDU’s acceptance of transfer credit from any accredited community college. See here for more details.  

Transfer from Colleges and Universities Outside of Canada and the United States 

The University is pleased to accept transfer applications from international students. Credits for coursework taken at recognized and accredited universities or colleges may be accepted. An external course-by-course credential evaluation may be required. For more information, please contact the Vancouver Admissions Office at vancouver-admissions@fdu.edu. 

Requirement for External Evaluation 

Some foreign credentials may require an evaluation from an NACES member before transfer credits can be evaluated. Once you are admitted to the university, you may need to obtain an external course-by-course evaluation of your foreign credentials from a NACES member to determine eligibility for transfer credit. 

• If an external evaluation is necessary for your transfer credit review, you will be notified by email at the time of admission. You would also be required to provide an official copy of the evaluation report from the NACES Member as part of your official document verification before starting your classes. 

• When sending the official evaluation report, please indicate in the add recipient section to check the FDU-Vancouver Campus instead of the New Jersey campuses. 
• Students from accredited institutions in Canada and the United States do not require an external evaluation for transfer credit to FDU Vancouver. For students who have I.B. higher level exams, British A-levels, or AP exams, an external evaluation will not be required for transfer credit evaluation. Please submit all official exam results before starting your classes.