There are two kinds of transfers --

(1) You come to Georgia State from a school within the University System of Georgia.

(2) You come to Georgia State from a school outside the University System of Georgia.

I wish to deal with both of these transfer types, beginning with those who have come from a school within the USG.

Transfer from an institution within the University System of Georgia: If you come to us from within the USG, most of what you have taken will transfer without a hitch. Under the semester system, even the course numbering from institution to institution is pretty standard for the Core courses. Moreover, if you have completed the Core in your previous institution and have not changed majors Georgia State must accept your Core as complete. In these cases, however, if we notice that your Core is not as strong as it could be, we will recommend that you take one or two additional courses. You can choose to ignore that advice, but this might put you at a disadvantage in the higher level courses and might adversely affect your efforts to enter graduate school. We cannot, however, require you to take "remedial" courses because this would make your program exceed the 120-hour limit.

If you change majors, all bets are off. A completed Core in one major, whether taken at Georgia State or elsewhere, will not constitute a completed Core if you change majors. Refer to the Georgia State catalog for the differences between core requirements for different majors.

Transfer from an institution outside the University System of Georgia: When you change school systems, there are fewer guarantees regarding transferring courses. The courses you took at your previous institution(s) may or may not be accepted by Georgia State. Generally speaking, courses in which you made lower than "C" will not be accepted. Courses in which you made "C" or better are generally accepted, but they might not apply directly to any Georgia State requirements. In such cases, these courses will appear on your Georgia State transcript but will be listed under Electives.

On the other hand, many of your courses might be pretty standard, i.e. World History or English Composition. In these cases, Georgia State will give you credit not only for having had the course but also for fulfilling a particular degree requirement at Georgia State. You might find, therefore, that you have already met some of the Georgia State Core requirements. Sometimes Georgia State does not immediately recognize a particular course equivalency, perhaps because the title is nonstandard. They will put such a course in Electives, and the course will remain there unless you challenge it. You are welcome to challenge the way your courses are transferred, but be prepared to produce a catalogue and/or course syllabus to support your argument.