I'm a community college student considering transferring to UT Austin. How does UT Austin evaluate and accept transfer credits from community colleges? Is there a cap on the number of credits they accept?
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) evaluates each transfer course credit on a case-by-case basis to ensure the coursework is equivalent to what is offered at UT Austin.
One tool that the school provides to help students understand this process is the Automated Transfer Equivalency system, a database containing all transfer courses that have been previously evaluated by the university. If you see your course listed in this database, this means it will likely transfer over. However, courses not listed in the database are not automatically rejected; they simply haven't been assessed yet. You'll just need to submit your syllabus for evaluation once you apply.
It's worth noting that while UT Austin accepts transfer credits, the acceptance does not guarantee the applicability of those credits to specific degree requirements. In some cases, courses that are transferred could be counted as elective credits rather than counting towards specific requirements for your chosen major.
Regarding your question about a cap on transfer credits, UT Austin allows a maximum of 66 lower-division (freshman- and sophomore-level) semester hours to be transferred and applied toward a bachelor's degree. If you transfer more lower-division hours than this, the additional coursework can fulfill specific degree requirements, but will not count toward the total number of hours required for the degree.
Finally, make sure to maintain a strong GPA at your community college, as UT Austin considers your collegiate academic record heavily in their transfer admissions process.
Good luck with the process!
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