Understanding which credits taken at one school, will transfer to a different school is a struggle many students face. The conversation lingers every semester, with many students wondering why the courses they completed don’t transfer, even though they were told they would. 

Many students transfer from community colleges or other universities, with lots of credits under their belt. They spent time and money in that course, so one can only hope the institution they’re transferring to will accept their completed courses. However, many QU students have had opposite luck, where many courses do not transfer or are not applied to their degree audit. This causes frustration for students, as they have worked hard to complete their courses, but it ends up meaning nothing when it is not applied to their degree at QU. 

“Coming from two different schools, it is frustrating when a lot of those classes didn’t make the cut apparently,” Joseph Vogel, transfer student, said.

A school many students take advantage of is John Wood Community College, which is located in Quincy. JWCC promotes that QU is a top transfer school, that allows students to successfully transfer. This leads the assumption that those transfer schools will accept the credits without any issues, but this seems to be misleading. 

When asking staff about the struggles students face, they gave more factual responses, confirming what students may expect out of their transfer credits but don’t always see. Obviously, there may be some terms and conditions that many students never get to see, but why is it that students are lead to false hope when they just want their credits to transfer?

“Issues or problems can arise with how credits transfer from one school to another if there’s differences between the general education and/or major curriculum at the original institution and the transfer institution,” Justin Ray, dean of admissions, said.

“Differences in curriculum and course requirements can impact a student’s QU degree progression and extend their graduation time frame,” Amy Stollberg, associate dean of transfer and graduate admissions, said. 

Different curriculum between schools is common, as a student could take a course that has the same name and course number but completely different outcomes. Students find this disheartening, as it feels like all the hard work they put in, has no value. It’s double the money they have to spend, more student debt, and more time being spent in trying to earn your degree which is already a tasking job for students. 

“If a student believes that a course should fulfill a requirement, but it doesn’t, just ask, we can always reevaluate and we are here to help,” Heidi Muegge, assistant registrar, said. 

Students can help facilitate their transfer process by staying involved in the overall process, to help make sure that everything that can transfer, will. QU staff is open to helping students and encourages students to be involved in the process. Transferring can be stressful, with the idea of credits not making it towards the finish line just as stressful.