Transfer Credit Policies and Procedures

Transfer Equivalency Self-Service (TESS) is a tool designed to help prospective transfer students determine how their transfer credits may be accepted at Fordham and how those credits may apply toward an intended degree.

Step 1: Create an Account so that you can save your preliminary degree audit and return to it at a later date to update your selections. Only prospective transfer students should create an account. If you are a counselor, parent, or other community member, please utilize the ‘Continue without signing in’ option.

Step 2: Answer a few questions about when you wish to transfer and what your intended major is.

• Enrollment Dates: Select the term in which you plan to enter Fordham
• Intended Level: Select Undergraduate
• Intended Degree: Select either Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, or Bachelor of Science
  • If your intended college is Fordham College at Lincoln Center, you may select BA, BFA, or BS
  • If your intended college is Fordham College at Rose Hill, you may select BA or BS
  • If your intended college is the Gabelli School of Business, please select BS
• Intended College: Depending on your Intended Degree, select either Fordham College at Lincoln Center, Fordham College at Rose Hill, or the Gabelli School of Business
• Intended Major: Select the major you plan to pursue
• Intended Concentration: Select if you plan to pursue a major in Business Administration or Global Business in the Gabelli School of Business. Otherwise, select ‘None’
• Intended Minor: Select a minor you plan to pursue. This is an optional field.

Step 3: Select your institution and class information

• Search for the name of your college/university. Search for ‘Advanced Placement’ if you wish to add AP scores.
• Select the course you have completed or will complete. For each course, you will be required to enter the term you wish to enroll at Fordham, number of credit hours received/expected, final grade received/expected, and the type of credits earned (semester, trimester, or quarter hours).
• Select ‘Add another class from this school’ or select ‘Proceed’.
• Repeat this step so that courses from all institutions you have previously attended or currently attend are included.

At this time, we are able to provide transfer credit information for a limited number of institutions. If your institution is not listed, or if you cannot find a specific class in the database, you will find out how your credits transfer after you have applied and been admitted. Additional institutions and classes are regularly added to the transfer database.

Step 4: Review your preliminary transfer credit evaluation and degree audit

• The results page will indicate how your courses will be accepted for transfer credit and how these courses will apply toward your intended degree.
• Download and save the PDF of your degree audit. If you are admitted as a transfer student, you may provide this document to the transfer dean.
• If you have created an account, save your work by clicking on the disk icon in the top right hand corner of the website.

Please note that the preliminary transfer credit evaluation and degree audit is not official. The degree audit should be used as a guide to help you understand how your courses taken at previous institutions may transfer to Fordham and apply toward your degree requirements. Official transfer credit evaluations are not completed until you have been admitted and have submitted official transcripts. At the time of admission, you will be connected with an academic transfer dean who can assist you in this process. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.

Prior to applying, a student attending another college or university may utilize our transfer credit equivalency database to determine how their credits are transferable. At this time, we are able to provide transfer credit information for a limited number of institutions. Please refer to the above section for more information.

If your institution is not listed in our database, or if you cannot find a specific class in the database, you will find out how your credits transfer after you have applied and been admitted. At that time, we will connect you with an academic transfer dean, who will provide you a transfer credit evaluation of all previous courses completed.

We encourage admitted students to wait to submit an enrollment deposit until after their transfer credit evaluation has been completed by their dean.

An accepted transfer student's online admission letter provides the contact information for the transfer dean of the college to which the student has been admitted. Admitted transfer students should contact their transfer dean to request an evaluation of credit. If you attend an institution in our transfer credit equivalency database, your preliminary transfer credit evaluation will be prepared according to the information in our database. We recommend that you save a copy of your degree audit when using the database and provide this to the transfer dean upon admission.

The Dean's Office for each of the three undergraduate colleges (Fordham College at Lincoln Center, Fordham College at Rose Hill, and the Gabelli School of Business) ultimately determines which classes will transfer as equivalents to those in Fordham’s core curriculum. Additionally, to determine how credits transfer into the student's intended major choice at Fordham College at Lincoln Center and Fordham College at Rose Hill, a transfer student will be asked to request this information directly from the Associate Chair or faculty advisor of the academic department.

Students who have previously completed coursework at international universities must have their transcripts or mark sheets evaluated by World Education Services (WES) before contacting the dean.

Fordham University accepts a maximum of 60 credit hours towards degree completion in our three undergraduate colleges (Fordham College at Lincoln Center, Fordham College at Rose Hill, and the Gabelli School of Business). Students are required to complete at least two years of full-time coursework, for a total of 120-124 credits (depending on the program), in order to receive a Fordham degree. Students who have over 60 credit hours may instead consider applying to Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies.

Approved courses taken at a regionally accredited two-year or four-year college or university will likely transfer to Fordham as either core curriculum credit or elective credit if the courses meet the below criteria. Fordham also accepts AP and IB coursework for transfer students.

Courses will be considered for transfer if:

• 3 or more credit hours
• Grade received is a C or higher (2.0 or above on a 4.0 scale)
• Pass/Fail grades will be accepted and considered for credit for students completing Spring 2020 and Summer 2020 coursework only. Pass/fail grades will not be accepted or considered for credit for students completing coursework before Spring 2020 or from Fall 2020 and beyond
• Online coursework will be accepted and considered for credit for students completing Spring 2020, Summer 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Summer 2021, Fall 2021, and Spring 2022 coursework
• Course description is similar to a course offered at Fordham. Often, if a course is not similar to courses offered at Fordham, the class may still be transferable as elective credit
• Course is approved by the academic transfer dean

Courses will not be considered for transfer if:

• Grade is lower than a C (below a 2.0 on a 4.0 scale)
• Course has fewer than 3 credits (certain science labs may be accepted)
• Please see our college coursework policy for courses taken prior to high school graduation, such as dual enrollment
• Course is not approved by the academic transfer dean
• Course credit is for a prior learning experience, including, but not limited to, U.S. Armed Forces credit, and CLEP or DANTES examination results

Will my GPA transfer or will I start with a new GPA at Fordham?
A student's GPA from Fordham will be based on the student's performance in Fordham courses alone. Grades from previous institutions will not be included in the calculation of a Fordham GPA.

In general, we advise prospective transfer students to focus on completing college coursework that will fulfill requirements in Fordham’s robust core curriculum. This will ensure a higher likelihood of your coursework being accepted for transfer credit. If a student pursues coursework within a specific major prior to Fordham, we advise that you focus on introductory classes, as more advanced level classes within a major may be more challenging to transfer. 

Additionally, we recommend students seeking advice on what courses to take at their current college or university to consult with their current academic advisors.

Fordham College at Lincoln Center and Fordham College at Rose Hill Applicants
We encourage students who are pursuing majors in the liberal arts and sciences to review the below resources as a guide. This information will allow you to explore the requirements for graduation at Fordham, and then select similar coursework at your current institution. 

Resources:

• Core Curriculum General Information
• Academic Bulletin Core Curriculum Requirements
• Fordham College at Lincoln Center Major and Minor Requirements
• Fordham College at Rose Hill Major and Minor Requirements

Please note that all students pursuing a Bachelor of Arts (with the exception of psychology majors enrolled in the pre-health program) must complete a foreign language requirement. Students are required to take a language placement exam, which will place them in the appropriate language requirement sequence. In order to fulfill the language requirement, a student must complete all courses in the sequence leading up to and including an exit-level (2001) course. Typically, most transfer students do not have the required foreign language sequence complete when transferring.
 
Gabelli School of Business Applicants
We encourage students who are pursuing majors in business to review the below resources as a guide. This information will allow you to explore the requirements for graduation at Fordham, and then select coursework at your current institution that is similar. 

Resources:

• Core Curriculum General Information
• Gabelli School of Business Academic Bulletin Core Curriculum, Major, and Minor Requirements

Please note that there are specific prerequisite courses needed to be considered for transfer admission to the Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill and the Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center. Please refer to our Gabelli Transfer Admission Requirements section for more detailed information. A student must have the prerequisite courses completed prior to their entry to Fordham University.
 
Please note that the Gabelli School of Business has two different core curriculums running simultaneously. If it is at all possible, students will be placed in the Integrated Business Core curriculum as seen in the information links above. In the event that transferring into this curriculum causes a significant loss of transfer credits, students will only at this time be placed in our Traditional Business Core curriculum.