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. For graduate students to obtain transfer credit at Rice, students will need to:

  1. Coordinate a meeting with their graduate program advisor
  2. The graduate program advisor will review the transfer courses and identify the comparable course at Rice University
  3. Complete the Graduate Request for Transfer Credit form available online or in the Office of the Registrar
  4. Obtain the approval signature of the graduate program advisor on the Graduate Request for Transfer Credit form
  5. Submit the completed form to the Office of the Registrar in person or by email at registrar@rice.edu
  6. Provide an official transcript from the transfer institution. If an official transcript was sent directly to the graduate program at Rice, the graduate program can forward the transcript to the Office of the Registrar. Otherwise, the student must request that an official transcript be sent to Rice. Instructions on how to send your official transcript to Rice can be found here.

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
Instructions on how to send your official transcript to Rice can be found here.

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. Students must fill out the Request to Apply Visiting Post Baccalaureate Coursework to Graduate Program form. Obtain approvals from their program department and Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The completed form will need to be submitted to the Office of the Registrar 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