Skip to main content
Academic Information, Policies and Regulations »

Academic Information

Transfer Credit

Students who were in good standing at another accredited institution may, within maximums, transfer credit for baccalaureate or graduate degree course work. Course equivalency for major requirements must be determined. Students are cautioned that the University is under no obligation to accept transferred courses for subject credit in addition to unit credit for admission. Normally, however, there is a probability that courses in the accepted core of a discipline will be exchangeable between universities. Policy regarding transfer of courses from California community colleges differs in some respects.

Transfer of Undergraduate Credit From Accredited Community Colleges

A maximum of 70 semester units earned in a community college may be applied toward the baccalaureate degree, with the following limitations and stipulations:

1. No upper-division credit may be allowed for courses taken in a community college;

2. Individual program regulations may include specific transfer limitations along with other requirements.

3. Students who transfer general education certification are still required to complete at least 9 units of upper-division courses at the campus conferring the degree.

4. Any course taken at community colleges can substitute for general education breadth requirements and lower-division requirements, if the course is approved as equivalent to the appropriate CSULB course. Students with more than 70 transferable units from community colleges will get subject matter credit for all such courses, but no more than 70 units will count toward degree units.

5. All transferable units taken at community colleges will count toward computation of the overall grade-point average. All transferable units in the major taken at community colleges will count toward computation of the overall major grade-point average.

Courses Taken by Non-Matriculated Students in Any Term

No more than 24 units total taken during any term while in non-matriculated status may be used to fulfill any undergraduate degree requirements. All students who have not been formally admitted to CSULB and who take courses here are non-matriculated students. Courses taken by incoming freshmen during the summer prior to their first fall are considered non-matriculated units.


University Course Listings
PDF Document IconPrint (PDF) Versions of the Catalog