Study Abroad Transfer Credit Form Instructions

1. After you find your desired program, list the courses you want to take on the Transfer Credit Approval Form. You can access the form through your UVA Education Abroad application.

2. See if your courses are listed in the international equivalency database. If you are uncertain about the UVA course equivalency, leave that field blank and the transfer credit evaluators will fill in the appropriate class.  

3. Where possible, list both the course title and course number – some institutions will not have course numbers. 

4. Major or Minor Approval: Any courses you want to transfer for major or minor credit must be approved by your major or minor department. If you need major or minor credit for any courses, contact your department (usually the department Director of Undergraduate Programs) with the syllabi, or course descriptions if syllabi are not available. Your department must sign the form to approve any major or minor courses.  

5. If you hope to use coursework taken abroad to count toward UVA’s World Language Requirement, contact the department (usually the World Language Coordinator) with the syllabi, or course descriptions if syllabi are not available. You only need departmental approval if you take the courses to fulfill the World Language Requirement; departmental signatures are not required if you take the courses as electives. 

   NOTE: By request of the departments, the following languages require both pre and post approval, regardless of whether you are taking it for your major, minor, or World Language Requirement: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Russian.

6. Once you have any necessary departmental approvals, either send your form to [email protected] for approval of elective courses and final, overall approval, or come to Monroe Hall during walk-in office hours. Attending walk-in hours is recommended, as it is usually quicker than requesting approval over email. 

7. Once your form has been signed for the final approval, it will be returned to you so you can turn it in with your application. All forms must be returned to UVA Education Abroad and can be emailed to [email protected].  

Due to many factors, most students need to change their pre-approved schedule once they are abroad. Follow the steps below to get new courses approved. 

1. Send a list of only your new (not previously approved) courses to [email protected]. Include a link to the course descriptions or syllabi.

2. Any new major courses will require approval from your major department. At this stage, an email of approval from the department will suffice. Contact your department (with syllabi or course descriptions) to request approval, and then email your department’s approval to [email protected].  

3. International transfer credit evaluators will reply with course equivalencies for your new courses. 

1. First, we ask for your patience as it takes a while for international credit to both arrive and get posted.  

2. Check with the institution where you studied abroad to make sure they are sending or will send an official transcript. Please note that we cannot accept PDFs sent via email. PDFs sent via email do not constitute an official transcript. However, electronic transcripts are accepted if sent through a secure delivery platform such as Parchment, myEquals, etc.

3. If the only way to get an official copy of your transcript to UVA is to have a paper copy sent, please be sure they are sent to the address below:   

   International Transfer Credit Evaluator
   248 McCormick Road 
   P.O. Box 400133 
   Charlottesville, VA 22904 

4. Start the post-approval process if needed. If you are not having any courses transferred for major or minor credit, or you have not taken a language course that requires post approval, you can skip this step. 

5. Often a student’s pre-approved major courses either change while they are abroad or require post-approval. When we receive your transcript, if the courses on your transcript are different from the courses you had approved by your department before you left, we will send an automated email noting an “Inconsistency”. Once you get new approvals (usually done via email) send them to us at [email protected] and we will post your credits once we have all the necessary approvals.   

Questions? Email [email protected]