Learn About Transfer Credit

Any courses taken by a Clarkson student at another campus must be approved before Clarkson credit can be granted. Students enrolling in non-Clarkson courses (except for those taken through cross-registration at one of the Associated Colleges) must complete the Off-Campus Permission Form prior to enrolling in any non-Clarkson courses.

How to complete the Off-Campus Permission Form

• Complete part 1 of the form with your personal information.
• Enter the information about the course you will be taking in part 2 of the form.
• Obtain a course description of the class you wish to take, and attach it to the form.
• Take the form and the course description to the department at Clarkson that would offer a similar course. The Chair of that department will fill out part 3, and sign the form noting the course has been approved to transfer.
• For example, if you wish to take an American History course while home for the summer, you would go to the Humanities & Social Sciences department at Clarkson. If you wish to take a Calculus course, you would take the form to the Math department for approval.
• If you are repeating a course, make sure you properly fill out the box adjacent to part 3 on the form. Take the completed form to your academic advisor for final approval. You and your advisor should sign the form before turning it into SAS.

In order for transfer credit to be posted, you must have an official transcript sent to SAS after you complete the course.

Student Achievement Services
Clarkson University
CU Box 5575
Potsdam, NY 13699-5575

Transferring Knowledge Area and Communication Point credit

Off-Campus Permission Form

• If the off-campus course you are taking is equivalent to a Clarkson course that has a Knowledge Area designation, then the transfer course will also have that Knowledge Area designation.
• If the off-campus course you are taking is equivalent to a Clarkson course that does not have a Knowledge Area designation, then the transfer course will not have a Knowledge Area designation either.
• If the off-campus course is not equivalent to any currently offered Clarkson course, and you wish to have it evaluated for Knowledge Area credit, take the form and the course description to the Humanities and Social Sciences department for review and approval. Approval must be submitted in writing to SAS if approved for a Knowledge Area.
• Communication Points will only be awarded after a review of the course syllabus that demonstrates sufficient communication content to warrant such a designation.

Things to note about transfer credit

• Only approved courses that are passed with grades equivalent to the “C” grade or higher at Clarkson are transferable.
• Grades received in courses taken off-campus are not used in computing your GPA.
• To avoid the possibility of having a completed course disapproved, you should obtain approval before taking a course.
• If you took a course while still in high school and did not have it transferred in when you arrived at Clarkson, you must take a Request for Exception form to your academic department for approval before any transfer credit can be awarded.