Graduate Student Transfer Credit

If I have my official transcript sent directly to the Office of the Registrar will the credit be automatically posted?

No, you must submit a Graduate Request for Transfer Credit form to obtain transfer credit. To obtain pre-approval for future transfer credit or approval for a course taken in the past, please do the following:

Please note that the course numbers and titles listed on the transcript must match those submitted on the completed transfer credit request form. If, after completing the transfer credit form, you take courses that differ in course number and/or title from those originally approved, you must submit another Graduate Request for Transfer Credit form with approval signatures in order to receive transfer credit.

1. Obtain course descriptions or syllabi for the transfer courses (from the transfer school’s course catalog or university website).

2. Look at Rice’s Course Catalog and match up the transfer classes to Rice classes.

3. Graduate students should complete the Graduate Request for Transfer Credit form, available online or in the Office of the Registrar.

4. Graduate students must meet with the graduate departmental advisor and obtain his/her approval signature on the Graduate Request for Transfer Credit form.

5. Submit the completed form to the Office of the Registrar.

6. After completing the course, have an official transcript mailed to:

Rice University
Office of the Registrar -MS 57
6100 Main Street
Houston, TX 77005

What is the Inter-Institutional Graduate Program Agreement and how is credit applied if I participate?

The Inter-Institutional Graduate Program is a collaborative agreement between Rice University, the University of Texas System, Baylor College of Medicine, and the University of Houston. The program allows a full-time graduate student to enroll in a course at one of the participating schools when the course is not offered at the student’s own school. The course is then transferred to the student’s home university.

Rice graduate students should follow the procedure outlined below to receive transfer credit through this program:

1. Complete the Inter-Institutional Graduate Program form online, or at the Office of the Registrar (116 Allen Center). You will need to obtain approval signatures from the instructor teaching the course at the external school, your academic advisor at Rice, the Chair of your academic department, the Registrar of the external school, and the Rice Registrar.

2. Once you complete the course, you must have an official transcript sent to the Office of the Registrar at this address:

Rice University
Office of the Registrar -MS 57
6100 Main Street
Houston, TX 77005

If you have filed an Inter-Institutional Graduate Program form with our office, your transfer credit will be applied to your record as UNIV 555 credit when we receive the official transcript. To receive Rice equivalent credit, you will need to submit a completed Graduate Request for Transfer Credit form.

I attended Rice as a visiting student. How can I get those credits applied to my graduate record?

Students who completed courses at Rice as a visiting student and subsequently entered into a graduate program of study may request to have no more than three (3) courses taken as a visiting graduate student applied to their graduate record. Written requests must be submitted to the Office of the Registrar by email at registrar@rice.edu.

I attended Rice as an undergraduate student. Can I convert some of those credits to graduate level credit?

Departments may consider counting courses taken by a student while an undergraduate at Rice as credit toward a master's degree. The student must submit a Request to Apply Undergraduate Coursework to Graduate Program form, and the following guidelines must be followed:

  • The courses must be chosen from those that normally satisfy advanced degree requirements
  • No course can be used simultaneously to satisfy both an undergraduate and a graduate degree requirement
  • Coursework taken as an undergraduate will not be converted to indicate a graduate level in the student's academic history until after the bachelor's degree is awarded
  • Coursework taken as an undergraduate does not indicate the student's matriculation term for the graduate program - the matriculation term will be the the term the student officially enters the program as a graduate student after completing all undergraduate requirements
  • Regardless of the number of graduate courses taken at the undergraduate level, a student must spend as least one semester (fall or spring) in full-time study at Rice as a graduate student