University of Utah
Department of Computer Science

Transfer Credit

A student may not count more than 12 credit hours of non-matriculated graduate work toward any graduate degree unless the student's registration for more than 12 credit hours is specifically approved in advance by the department chairman and the dean of the Graduate School. Graduate courses taken as an undergraduate at the University of Utah cannot be counted towards a degree program unless a petition for graduate credit was filed with the University's Registrar at the time the course was taken.

Students who have done graduate study at other institutions may apply appropriate coursework to their program at the University of Utah. The following guidelines apply:

1.   The courses must be bona fide graduate credit classwork (e.g., independent study is excluded), with grade B- or better. The coursework must have been taken on a postgraduate basis, i.e., not have been used to fulfill Bachelor degree requirements.

2. Credit may be given to M.S. students for up to 9 quarter hours, and up to 30 quarter hours for Ph.D. students. Semester hours are converted to equivalent quarter hours by a 1.5 multiplicative factor.

3. Approval of each course is granted by the student's supervisory committee. Course appropriateness is determined by consideration of course content and the student's declared research area.

4. Approved courses are certified by inclusion on the student's Program of Study form, which must be submitted to the Graduate School by the end of the student's second quarter of study.

5. Approval of a course taken elsewhere does not imply fulfillment of any specific required course. Such equivalence can be petitioned using a form available from the Graduate Coordinator. Normally, the Utah professor who most recently taught the required course determines whether equivalence should be granted. This can be done at any time, e.g., prior to filing the Program of Study. Petitions may be granted even if the course was applied to complete Bachelor degree requirements (see the guidelines for transfer credit).

6. For Ph.D. students:
   1. Approval of courses taken elsewhere has no effect on comprehensive and qualifying exam requirements. Some students may elect to complete a course at Utah even though they may have taken a comparable course elsewhere, to aid in preparation for these exams.

   2. Approval of courses taken elsewhere has no effect on University of Utah residency requirements (see this section).