1. Course Transfer
In some circumstances, students can get credit towards their graduate degree (MS or PhD) for courses taken at other institutions. Below are regulations for different types of course transfers. Some general restrictions apply:
- No transfer credit may be given for work completed while currently enrolled or on a Leave of Absence.
- Petitions for transferring credit will be considered only when the work is necessary to fulfill degree requirements.
- Students may not transfer courses from a program in which they have successfully completed a degree.
For more information, please refer to the Graduate Division Regulations and Procedures website.
NOTE: All course transfer requests MUST be received in a student’s first quarter of attendance at UCR.
Transferring from an Outside Institution
Students are allowed to transfer up to 8 units from a program from which the student did not receive a degree. The transfer course minimum grade is “B”. The request to transfer courses is done by completing the Course Transfer and Waiver Request form, attaching the course syllabus and unofficial transcript, and sending it to the Graduate Program Coordinator. Each course request will be evaluated by the CS faculty who teaches a similar course at UCR to determine if the course is equivalent in content and can be transferred. Once the evaluation process is completed, the student will be notified of the courses approved to be transferred. The next step is to submit the Transfer Course Work online petition accessible via the R’Grad application. Only units of transferred courses will show on the UCR transcript, grades are not transferred.
Please refer to the Graduate Division information on transferring outside institutions courses available at https://graduate.ucr.edu/regulations-and-procedures#transfer_from_an_outside_institution.
Transferring from Another UC Campus
A maximum of one-half of the total units required for the graduate degree can be transferred from another University of California campus, as long as they were not used to meet the degree requirements at that other campus. The transfer course minimum grade is “B”. The request to transfer courses is done by completing the Course Transfer and Waiver Request form, attaching the course syllabus and unofficial transcript, and sending it to the Graduate Program Coordinator. Each course request will be evaluated by the CS faculty who teaches a similar course at UCR to determine if the course is equivalent in content and can be transferred. Once the evaluation process is completed, the student will be notified of the courses approved to be transferred. The next step is to submit the Transfer Course Work online petition accessible via the R’Grad application. Units and grades of approved transferred courses will show on the UCR transcript.
Students who are currently enrolled in the CS graduate program can also take graduate courses at other UC campuses through Intercampus Exchange, and can use these courses towards their degree at UCR. This is limited to up to three courses, and it does not require a petition for course transfers.
Please review the Graduate Division website for additional information on transferring courses from another UC campus https://graduate.ucr.edu/regulations-and procedures#transfer_from_another_uc_.
Transferring from UCR Extension
Students are allowed to transfer up to 8 units of UCR Extension courses taken through concurrent enrollment. The transfer course minimum grade is “B”. Courses may be transferred to campus by completing the Transfer Course Work online petition accessible via the R’Grad application. The official transcript from Student Services in University Extension needs to be attached to the petition. Units and grades of approved transferred courses will appear on the UCR transcript.
Please review the Graduate Division website for additional information on transferring courses from UCR Extension https://graduate.ucr.edu/regulations-and-procedures#transfer_from_ucr_extension.
Transferring/Double Counting Undergraduate Courses for BS+MS Students
Students admitted to the BS+MS program are allowed to transfer (double-count) 12 units of undergraduate elective courses toward the MS degree. A list of approved undergraduate technical electives is posted on the CS website. To do this, they must submit the Transfer Course Work/Double Count petition accessible via the R’Grad. Units and grades of approved transferred courses will show on the UCR transcript.
2. Course Waiver
Based on prior graduate coursework at other institutions, the Department may also waive selected course requirements and/or request a degree unit reduction which would decrease the overall number of units required for the Ph.D. For example, if a student has taken a course similar to one of the courses in our Core Areas, it might be appropriate to petition for a waiver to reduce the Core Requirements from three to two courses. Unit requirement requests may be approved for up to five courses (20 units) for computer science relevant graduate courses comparable to the ones offered at UCR. Waived requirements do not appear on the UCR graduate transcript, are not factored into the GPA, and do not reduce the number of required graduate courses at UCR. A petition to also reduce the number of required graduate courses might be filed, but this is by no means automatic and will be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis.
NOTE: All course waivers and unit reduction requests MUST be received in a student’s first quarter of attendance at UCR.
Course waiver request is done by completing the Course Transfer and Waiver Request form, attaching the course syllabus and unofficial transcript to the form, and sending them to the Graduate Program Coordinator. Each course request will be evaluated by the CS faculty who teaches a similar course at UCR to determine if the course is equivalent in content and can be waived. Once the evaluation process is completed, the student will be notified of the courses approved to be waived. The next step is to submit the Waive Course Work petition available in R’Grad.
Additional information regarding course waivers can be found on the Graduate Division website at https://graduate.ucr.edu/regulations-and-procedures#waive_course_work_.
3. Course Substitution
In justified cases, students may be allowed to substitute some course degree requirements by other UCR courses. This must be approved prior to taking the course. A maximum of three such substitutions are allowed, and only one can be applied to CS breadth requirements. To request a course substitution, complete the Petition for Course Requirement Exception form (see appendix) and return it to the Graduate Program Coordinator after you have obtained your advisor’s signature.