Online College Credits Could Leave Transfer Students Short

Students should check to see whether their credits will transfer before enrolling in another accredited school.

[USPRwire, Fri Aug 03 2007] Many students today are surprised when the credits they've earned at one school won't transfer along with them when they decide to enroll in another accredited school. Darrell Hanbury, Vice President of Admissions at Virginia College Online, acknowledges the problem, saying, “Many of today's schools, whether offering online degrees or those with traditional campuses, are instating new rules and regulations that make it more difficult for class credits to transfer from other institutions. It can add significantly to the cost of an education.”

Some colleges, however, are working with students to make sure this isn't likely to happen. Rather than a cursory review of the course listings, these schools, many of which offer online degrees, offer individualized appraisals of all classes a student wants to transfer. Said Hanbury, “If the coursework was done at a legitimate, accredited school, and if the scope of the course is reasonably close to our required curriculum, we are happy to apply the credit toward an online degree at Virginia College Online.”

One stumbling block for students is the increase in schools with “regional accreditation.” These schools usually offer courses that are on par with those offered by nationally accredited schools, but are often rejected for transfer to other schools. The maze of educational institution accreditors can make it difficult for students to know until it is too late whether their credits will transfer. For this reason, students shouldn't commit to a traditional or online degree program without confirming which credits will transfer from their previous college or university.

Hanbury notes, “We don't want to get into a situation where our students lose transfer credits simply because they went to a school that belongs to a different accrediting institution than ours or is a proprietary school. There are many accrediting bodies today that are legitimate and guarantee solid coursework, so we are willing in most cases to take these transfer credits and apply them toward our students' pursuit of their next degree. Many of our students are surprised to learn that they are closer to a degree than they thought.”