Transcript Evaluation

A: When complete, you will be able to view your transferred courses in DegreeWorks. An email will be sent to your my.smcccd.edu email account informing you of this. If the evaluators need additional information or have other questions, they will communicate with you via your mysmcccd.edu student email.

A: Degree Works is an online tool students may use to view how completed courses can be applied to many educational goals. Your official TES evaluation results are loaded on Degree Works and readily viewable by you and your counselor. With the TES evaluation completed, you can see how your coursework (taken within SMCCCD and elsewhere) applies to certificates, associate degrees, CSUGE, and IGETC requirements. To use Degree Works, go to your WebSMART and select Student Services.

A: Because of the complexity of the service and the high volume of requests, completion time for an evaluation may be many months. If the transcript evaluators need you to provide additional information, the evaluation process could take longer.

A: Due to limited course and articulation information for older coursework, TES only completes course–by–course evaluations for courses that have been completed in the last 15 years. Coursework completed over 15 years ago will be added as bulk units onto your student record for the term the evaluation was completed. This will support pace rate calculations for financial aid students. Bulk units will be for local SMCCCD credit only.

A: When TES receives a transcript for evaluation, every lower division, degree-applicable course completed in the last 15 years with a grade of A, B, C, D, CR, or P is reviewed. Only those that are applicable to your current program of study will be reviewed for direct course credit. The courses, units, and grades earned are applied to your SMCCCD program of study and used for educational planning purposes. Courses outside of your program of study will be applied to your academic record as bulk units. Please note: It is critical that your Program of Study is accurate in WebSmart. Should your program change and you would like to request a re-review, please contact: transevaluation@smccd.edu. Courses with a W, NC, or NP notations are not reviewed or applied. As of October 2023, TES no longer includes F-grades from external institutions in the evaluations. Courses with an I, IP, RD may delay an evaluation request and require a written explanation as to why there is no final letter grade or any other notation indicating a final outcome for the course before TES proceeds with the evaluation.

A: TES cannot apply foreign coursework to CSU General Education certification or IGETC certification. You may be able to apply the courses towards an SMCCCD certificate or associate degree. Review the Foreign Transcripts page of this website for more information. Exceptions: In unique cases, foreign courses may be applied to IGETC if the foreign institution has United States regional accreditation and if course equivalency may be determined by the SMCCCD college. Additionally, languages other than English, taken at institutions outside the U.S. may be applied to IGETC Area 6, with required documentation. All other foreign coursework cannot be applied to CSU General Education certification or IGETC certification. Courses outside of your program of study will be applied to your academic record as bulk units.

A: All courses taken at other higher education institutions will be included in the maximum time frame and cumulative Pace Rate assessment, provided the courses will apply toward degree or certificate requirements. Transfer coursework is NOT included in the cumulative GPA assessment. Courses at proprietary and trade schools will generally not be accepted for credit toward SMCCCD degree or certificate requirements. Upper division courses from four-year colleges and universities will be counted when calculating maximum time frame. All students with bachelor degrees will be considered to have exceeded the maximum time frame and must be approved by the appeal committee before being funded. Note that transfer coursework is evaluated by the District Transcript Evaluation Services (TES) department. Because students are able to submit transcripts at any time of the semester SAP calculation reflects the student’s status at the completion of the most recent semester. If coursework is evaluated after a calculation has been done, the coursework will be included in the subsequent semester. This may affect your financial aid eligibility with our district. Please contact your financial aid office. Foreign Coursework: Students with a foreign bachelor’s degree will be considered to have exceeded the maximum time frame and must be on an approved SAP appeal by the appeal committee before being funded, regardless if the degree is equivalent in the U.S. Foreign courses will be counted if they have been professionally evaluated and accepted by the district.

A: Lower division coursework from a college or university with SMCCCD approved accreditation is reviewed and analyzed to determine how or if it can be applied to associate degree and certificate requirements and CSU GE and IGETC certification requirements. Coursework from another California community college that already has established articulation with the UC and CSU systems is evaluated according to that articulation. When evaluating coursework from a California community college, we use data available in www.assist.org. When evaluating coursework from a California State University institution or a University of California institution, we look at how the course was applied at the home institution and attempt to apply it in the same manner within SMCCCD. When evaluating coursework from a private or out-of-state college or university that does not have independent articulation with CSU or UC, we review the coursework as per the rules and regulations for CSU GE and IGETC certification.

A: It is essential students who plan to transfer work with a counselor and engage in academic planning. Having your transcripts from colleges and universities outside of the SMCCCD evaluated is another essential step. You must know the “whole academic picture,” and coursework you completed outside of the SMCCCD is part of that picture. TES will review and analyze your prior coursework and apply it, where applicable, to CSU GE and IGETC. TES cannot tell you how coursework from outside of the SMCCCD will be applied to a university major. The college or university to which you transfer will make that determination. Also, use www.assist.org to view important transfer information.

A: No. However, it is important to know the “whole picture,” and coursework you completed outside SMCCCD is part of that picture. TES will review your coursework and apply it, where applicable, to CSU GE and IGETC. Many students need to attend more than one school to get courses needed to meet lower division major requirements for transfer to University of California or California State University systems. If you have attended ONLY California community colleges, refer to www.assist.org to see how coursework from each institution will meet lower division GE and lower division major requirements.

A: Lower division coursework from a college or university with SMCCCD accepted accreditation is reviewed and analyzed to determine how or if it can be applied to certificate and associate degree requirements and CSU GE and IGETC certification requirements. The main areas of concern are related to CSU GE Area A3 and IGETC Area 1B – Critical Thinking and Composition. These particular requirements represent unique curricula designed by faculty in our three public systems – University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges – and contain very specific components of critical thinking and second semester composition (in the case of IGETC 1B). Most often, coursework from outside the California community college system is not approved to meet CSU GE Area A3 and/or IGETC Area 1B. For application of mathematics courses to meet CSU GE Area B4 and/or IGETC Area 2A, the course must list a college intermediate algebra course as a prerequisite.

A: Catalog rights are associated with certificate and associate degree program requirements. A student establishes catalog rights for the academic year in which the first enrollment is recorded at an SMCCCD college. For example, if you enroll in Fall 2012 or Spring 2013 or Summer 2013, you have catalog rights to the 2012-2013 catalog. You are held to the requirements listed for the certificate or associate degree at the time you first enroll. However, a student may use their original catalog rights OR adopt the catalog rights of any subsequent catalog. For example, if when you begin your studies at SMCCCD, a specific associate degree major is not listed in your “catalog rights” year and, a year later, a major of your interest is approved and listed in a subsequent catalog, you may decide to adopt the later catalog year that supports the new major you want.

A: It may or may not. For courses at College of San Mateo, see collegeofsanmateo.edu/prerequisites/ for more information. For courses at Cañada College or Skyline College, please check with your counseling department.

A: Because some outside institutions operate on the quarter unit calendar system, we have to convert those units to our semester units using a factor of 2/3 semester units per 1 quarter unit (or ~0.667). This will result in odd-looking decimals in multiples of 0.67.

A: Important: Please consult with a Counselor to determine if the following approach is appropriate for your situation and worth the time it may take to complete these steps. If your eventual goal is to transfer to another 4-year institution, each institution has its own policies about whether they will honor other institutions. Also, please note that because of how GPA is calculated, the exact number of D/F-graded courses required to improve your GPA is hard to determine. The more you can successfully alleviate, the better the chances of improving your overall GPA with our district. Please consult with your Counselor as to whether your previous colleges had some kind of academic renewal/grade alleviation process whereby students can petition to officially "exclude" substandard grades (Ds or Fs) on their transcript. If enough of these are granted, this can improve your overall GPA. If you decide to pursue this and are successful at petitioning to exclude any D/F grades, please submit an updated official transcript from the applicable institution(s) as well as a second Transcript Evaluation request. Once we receive both the new transcript and the new evaluation request, we can remove any grades that have been officially excluded on the transcript(s).

A: Often, we are unable to transfer in courses once we've examined the content based on the course descriptions. At other times, we are limited by the technical aspects of our software. In the case of course sequences where two or more courses are the equivalent of one or more of our courses, this is a known limitation that we have, unfortunately. That being said, please consult with your Counselor to see whether anything further can be done in your specific situation.

A: When we cannot locate a 1-to-1 match, our practice is to precede the incoming course number with an “X" followed by the original course number (e.g., if the other course was originally MATH 2658, the corresponding X-numbered course would be “MATH X2658.” This signifies that we do not have a good 1-to-1 match in our current catalogs. Such courses may still be eligible for applicability to specific general education or major requirements. Please consult with an academic Counselor for further assistance. If you believe there is a good course match to an X# course that will apply to your program of study, submit the following to transevaluation@smccd.edu:

1. A syllabus from the external course.
2. The SMCCCD course that you believe matches the external course.

Note: The external course syllabus must be from the same term you took the course.

A: For our purposes, “degree applicable” includes any course that another regionally-accredited institution considers to be BOTH lower division and appropriate in level for a 2-year (or 4-year) degree. IMPORTANT: This does not mean only courses that are applied to your current major. Rather, “degree applicable” courses include any course that is not remedial or developmental in level that can meet elective, general education, or major requirements at the original institution.

A: Bulk units in DegreeWorks are units earned from coursework completed over 15 years ago or coursework completed outside of your program of study.
15-year old coursework: Grouped units from courses that have been taken over 15 years ago. These units are for local SMCCCD credit ONLY and will support pace rate calculations for Financial Aid. TES will still attempt to evaluate courses that are deemed beneficial for your academic progress. However, for specific situations, course–by–course evaluations for courses taken over 15 years ago will be available upon request to transevaluation@smccd.edu.
General Elective Credits: Grouped elective units can include courses not offered at SMCCCD colleges or courses not applicable to your current program of study.