Transferring to the UW

The Course Equivalency Guide lists University of Washington credit given to courses taken at Washington state community colleges and provides information on transfer credit policies.

For classes taken abroad, please see the requirements for requesting foreign study credit.

Transfer Planning

If you are currently a student at a community college and plan to major in History at the UW, you should begin taking classes towards the UW General Education requirements for graduation. Many transfer students complete the UW distribution requirements, the Areas of Knowledge, at a community college before transferring to the UW. If you are attending a Washington state community college, you may check the Course Equivalency Guide to see whether your classes will fulfill the Areas of Knowledge requirements. In addition, it may be helpful to complete the foreign language requirement for graduation in the College of Arts and Sciences before transferring to UW.

Transferring History Courses

History courses taken at other colleges or universities may count towards the prerequisites for declaring the History major. You may declare the History major as early as your second quarter at UW.

History courses taken at other colleges or universities may also fulfill some of the distribution requirements for History. Please note that lower-division US History courses must cover all of United States History in order to fulfill the broad United States requirement; students at community colleges often must take a sequence of two or three classes in order to fulfill this requirement.

Transfer credits do not count towards the 30 credits of upper division coursework required for the History major - these must be completed in residence at UW. Students must also take the junior (HIST 388) and senior (HIST 494 or 498) seminars at the UW.

Most classes taken at other colleges or universities transfer as HIST 1XX, 2XX, etc. and do not list an exact UW equivalent. These courses count as history for credit towards the major and may count specific major requirements. Please contact the History Undergraduate Advising Office if you feel that a class should count towards one of these requirements. You will need to provide a description of the course and, if questions arise, a syllabus.

Maximum Transfer Credits Allowed

Effective January 24th, 2005, UW has changed its transfer credit policy in order to comply with recent state legislation requiring universities to treat lower-division credits (i.e., 100- and 200-level) the same whether they come from 2-year or 4-year schools. The new policy states that UW will accept in transfer no more than 90 lower-division transfer credits upon matriculation, but that additional credits may be allowed when all of the following conditions are met: 1) the student is declared in a major, 2) the credits are needed to advance the student to degree completion, and 3) the student has secured approval from the major department. Under no circumstances will more than 135 transfer credits be allowed. If you think you may qualify for these additional credits or if you would like more information , please contact the History Undergraduate Advising Office.

Courses at Other Universities for Current UW Students

Current UW students may take classes at another college or university and transfer the credits to the UW, but keep in mind the maximum credits listed above still apply. Students may take 15 of their final 60 credits at another school without special permission. If you need to take more than 15 of the last 60 credits at another school, you may meet with an adviser and file a petition to the College of Arts and Sciences requesting permission to count additional credits. Please meet with an adviser before taking classes at another school to make sure the courses will meet UW requirements.

Extension Courses

Online courses taken through UW Extension may count towards the History major requirements, but these courses do not count towards the 30 credits of in-residence upper division history courses required for the major.

Advising

You may speak with an Undergraduate Adviser to discuss the History major before you begin studying at the University of Washington. We are more than happy to answer questions about the major and general education requirements.

Please see our Frequently Asked Questions for prospective students.

For information about application procedures and requirements for acceptance into the University, please contact the Office of Admissions.