How do I transfer credit?

Sociology majors and non-majors can transfer sociology credit from accredited colleges or universities in the U.S. and abroad by following these steps:

Bring a syllabus or reading list from the course you wish to transfer, and if possible, your written work for the course. Either the undergraduate advisor or a faculty member with special expertise in the subject will take a look at this information. If the course has a workload (reading, writing, other requirements) equivalent to a Rice University sociology course, it will transfer.

• What if I need to get approval in advance?
  The Undergraduate Advisor can give approval in advance when necessary (for study abroad, for summer school), but you must still bring a syllabus and whatever you have kept of your written work for final approval after you have completed the course.
• Why would there be problems transferring credit?
  Sometimes courses have significantly less work than Rice courses (e.g. one book compared to eight), or are structured to be more practical than academic.
• What if there's no equivalent Sociology course offered at Rice?
  This is not unusual, because not every Sociology department offers identical courses, and because a course at a foreign university may be very sociological, but listed as, for example, social geography or social history. In such cases, the course will be transferred in as generic Sociology credit, usually at the 300 level -- SOCI 3XX is what it looks like on the form.
• What if the course isn't really Sociology?
  If the course doesn't fit in our department but comes from an accredited institution or program, you can try other departments, or transfer it in as TRAN credit. This gives you generic credit hours that apply to the requirements for the Rice diploma, but does not give you any specific departmental credit.