A few weeks ago, we erroneously released an editorial condemning Baylor for what we thought was a recent amendment to the policies concerning transferring class credits from outside institutions. We have since spoken with Baylor representatives and would like to apologize for the error and correct it now.
After speaking with students and looking at Baylor’s “General Policies on Transfer Credits” online, we mistakenly believed that Baylor had, over the summer, changed their policy to prohibit students from transferring upper-level courses (3000 level or above) from community or junior colleges to Baylor. This is not the case; the tranfer credit policy has been the same for over 20 years.
Baylor’s policy on transferring upper-level course credits from outside universities reads, “No course at or above the “3000” level may be taken at a community/junior college, and no community/junior college course will be evaluated as an advanced course,” according to Baylor’s “Policies on Transfer Credit,” which is published both online and in the course catalog. This policy has been in place since the 1991-92 course catalog.
We did not read the rules closely enough before writing our editorial and consequently faced repercussions. After speaking to several students who were surprised and angered when their summer classes wouldn’t transfer as expected, we assumed that the school was at fault.
Baylor students: It is our responsibility to be familiar with the rules in their entirety. Yes, there are many and reading them is arduous, especially when our eyes are already aching from work in our other classes, but Baylor cannot be held at fault for our inability to double-check our actions. And while our advisers do want to help us graduate on time, it is not their job to police our every scholastic movement. We have to pay attention and make use of the resources available to us in order to ensure we are acting in accordance with Baylor’s policies.
Baylor posts the transfer credit policies in a surprisingly easy-to-read format online, in addition to printing the policies in each year’s course catalogs (though we highly recommend the online version because of its blatant simplicity.) The Transfer Credit Policies website also includes a Frequently Asked Questions section that addresses the many common roadblocks students encounter when deciding to take classes at outside institutions (including how to apply for a permit for classes that do not transfer easily).
In addition, students who wish to take courses outside of Baylor can use Baylor’s Equivalent Course Tool (ECT) online. This tool allows students to select the institution at which they want to take a class, the subject and course number, and then gives them the exact Baylor course it will transfer as.
Baylor has strict policies regarding transfer credits, but they also give us the resources to check and double check that the courses we plan to take at outside institutions will transfer as we expect them to. There should be no surprises at the end of the summer, and because we are given the tools, we have no excuse to be uninformed.
