Transfer Credits (Graduate Admission)

Courses completed at other recognized graduate institutions, not exceeding 6 semester credits, may be applied toward the requirements for the MA degree provided that the studies are of acceptable quality, have a shelf-life not to exceed ten years, and, as judged by the relevant faculty, are equivalent to parts of the approved program of study.

Transfer credits are accepted only from other institutions of higher learning accredited by an association recognized by the United States Department of Education (USDOE), or any institution of higher learning, including foreign institutions, if the institution offering the program documents that the institution of higher learning at which the units were earned offers degree programs equivalent to degree programs accredited by an accrediting association recognized by the USDOE.

Upon requesting permission to transfer graduate-level course work into the Soka University of America program, a student is instructed to provide a copy of a syllabus or a catalog description of the course from the institution where the course work was completed.

Transferred courses will not compute into the GPA, but will appear on the student’s transcript. This policy may be applied toward no more than 2 courses and no more than 6 units per student. Although a higher requirement may be set as a condition for a particular course, no courses will be accepted as meeting Soka University of America Graduate School graduation requirements, nor will they have credit transferred, if the grade received is less than B.

If a course from another institution was taken so long ago that the content has become outdated, the Dean will recommend that a student retake the course at Soka University of America rather than transferring it in.