When transferring credit from another institution, students should send their official transcripts to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Once processed, the Registrar’s Office will then populate your transfer credit report and audit with those courses eligible for transfer. Please see the Transfer Credit Center’s website for more information on this process.
Most Biology courses will be listed on the transfer credit report in one of three ways:
- Equivalent to a specific course at OSU (i.e. Biology 1101, 1113.01, etc.)
- Nothing further needs to be done for these courses.
- Special Credit (listed as S000.*)
- This course has been previously evaluated and determined not to have a direct equivalent at OSU.
- While you may request a re-evaluation of a Special Credit-designated course, please be aware that unless the course is dramatically different than what was previously reviewed, the determination is unlikely to change.
- A student’s Program or College will make the determination about whether Special Credit can be used to fulfill any requirements or just count as hours toward graduation. Those questions should be directed to your Academic Advisor.
- General Credit (listed as G000.*)
- This course has not previously evaluated and must be reviewed by the transfer credit coordinator for a determination about any potential equivalency.
- General credit does not count toward a student’s graduation hours. The course must be changed to either Special Credit or a specific course equivalency to be applied toward a student’s graduation requirements.
What do we look for in a course evaluation?
When evaluating a course, we are looking for four factors to determine whether there is an equivalent Ohio State Biology course:
- What is the depth of the material presented in the transferred course? Who is the audience, STEM Majors or Non-STEM Majors? Does the textbook appropriately align with the stated audience?
- Does the content of the course meet the minimum threshold for equivalency? Each Biology course has a prescribed set of Expected Learning Outcomes that dictate the necessary course content, divided into major content areas. To meet the minimum threshold, a course must address 70% of our ELOs in all of the required content areas.
- Does the course have a laboratory component or is a separate laboratory course being transferred along with a corresponding lecture course? All of our introductory biology courses with laboratories integrate the lecture and lab into a single course. Equivalency is not possible to one of our courses without transferring both the lecture and laboratory components. We do not accept online or take-home laboratory kits as an equivalent to the in-person wet-lab experience. Such courses will not receive direct equivalency to our courses.
- When was the course taken? Owing to the rapidly changing nature of the life science disciplines, we do not give direct equivalency for any course taken more than 10 years previously.
Who do I contact with questions?
For questions or to request a course evaluation, please contact Adam Andrews.