In this section:
Transfer Credit | Directed Study | Repeating Courses
Transfer Credits
Up to six semester credit hours of graduate coursework earned at another accredited institution with a grade of B or better may be applied toward course requirements for master’s degrees upon recommendation of the appropriate graduate program and with the approval of the dean of the school.
Up to 24 semester credit hours of graduate coursework earned at another accredited institution with a grade of B or better may be applied toward course requirements for the doctoral degrees upon recommendation of the appropriate graduate program and with the approval of the dean of the school (this includes students who have completed master’s degrees at other institutions).
For students who earned their master’s degrees at Catholic University, up to 30 semester credit hours of coursework with a grade of B or better may be applied toward the requirements for the doctoral degree.
Of the allowed transfer courses, the School of Engineering will accept the transfer of up to a maximum of four online courses taken at accredited colleges and universities in any discipline offered by the University provided the school deems the courses equivalent to University courses and thus appropriate for transfer. The approval of the transfer of online courses is at the discretion of the chairperson and dean. The dean must provide final approval for all transfer credits.
Transfer of Thesis Credits
Students entering the graduate program may be eligible to transfer up to six credits of thesis coursework as part of the 24 credits eligible for transfer. The thesis work and topic are subject to review by the department chairperson and the transfer must be approved by both the department chairperson and dean.
Cases of Transfer of Credit
- A student who joins Catholic University after completing a number of graduate courses without earning a master’s degree at another accredited institution may count up to six semester credit hours (earned with a grade of B or better) of their graduate coursework toward course requirements for a master’s degree at Catholic U upon the recommendation of the appropriate graduate program and with the approval of the dean. Of the 30 credits required for the master’s degree, six are transfer credit and 24 are earned at Catholic University.
- A student who joins Catholic University after earning a master’s degree at another accredited institution may request school’s approval to count up to six semester credit hours (earned with a grade of B or better) of their graduate coursework toward course requirements for a master’s degree at Catholic University. The decision to allow the transfer of the credit hours is based on the total number of credit hours that was required for the master’s degree earned at the external institution and is contingent upon the final approval of the dean. Of the 30 credits required for the master’s degree, six are transfer credit and 24 are earned at Catholic University.
- A student who joins Catholic University to pursue a doctoral degree with or without earning a master’s degree at another accredited institution may count up to 24 semester credit hours of graduate coursework earned with a grade of B or better toward course requirements for the doctoral degree. Of the 53 credits required for the doctoral degree, at most 24 are transfer credit and at least 29 are earned at Catholic University. If during the course of the doctoral study, the student decides to obtain a master’s degree, then he/she can only count up to six credit hours (earned with a grade of B or better) of their graduate coursework toward course requirements for the master’s degree at Catholic University (see Case 1 and Case 2 above). After earning the master’s degree, the student may count up to 30 credit hours of coursework of the Catholic University master’s degree toward the course requirements for the doctoral degree, and no further transfer of credit from external institutions is allowed. In this scenario, of the 53 credits required for the doctoral degree, only 6 are transfer credit and 47 are earned at Catholic U, since the student receives both MS and PhD degrees from Catholic University. In general, courses taken at Catholic University or in the Consortium cannot be double-counted for degrees at Catholic University.
Directed Study
ENGR 693
Directed Research Masters degree students bearing 3 Semester Credit Hours (SCH) is used only in the case of emergency such as non-existence of courses that are required for graduation or for a particular research or study and are not offered through the consortium of the local universities /colleges. This course is study of a specific issue to be proposed by the student and/or a faculty member and to be directed by the faculty member. The student must submit a Directed Study Approval Form to be approved by the directing faculty member and the program chair. The maximum allowed number of directed studies is 1 for Masters degree students. Exceeding the maximum allowed number of directed studies may be permitted by the dean with acceptable justification. All engineering students who are interested in pursuing a directed study in the same semester can register for the same course section. Students will be given permission to register for a specific section of ENGR 693 and the directing faculty member will be assigned to that course section in Cardinal Students so that they may enter the student’s grade at the end of the semester.
ENGR 993
Directed Research bearing 3 SCH is used only in the case of emergency such as non-existence of courses that are required for graduation or for a particular research or study and are not offered through the consortium of the local universities /colleges. This course is study of a specific issue to be proposed by the student and/or a faculty member and to be directed by the faculty member. The student must submit a Directed Study Approval Form to be approved by the directing faculty member and the program chair. The maximum allowed number of directed studies is 3 (three) for doctoral degree programs. Students who have conducted directed study to fulfill a master’s degree requirement can only take two (2) additional directed study courses to full requirements for the doctoral degree. Exceeding the maximum allowed number of directed studies may be permitted by the dean with acceptable justification. All engineering students who are interested in pursuing a directed study in the same semester can register for the same course section. Students will be given permission to register for a specific section of ENGR 993 and the directing faculty member will be assigned to that course section in Cardinal Students so that they may enter the student’s grade at the end of the semester.
Repeating Courses
A student may repeat a course in which a grade of “F” was earned. The course must be identical in listing and cannot be taken at another institution. The repeated course may not be taken on a pass/fail basis. Both the original and repeated course and their corresponding grades will be recorded on the student’s record and transcript. However, for calculating the cumulative GPA and for fulfillment of curriculum requirements, the grade and credit earned in the most recent attempt will be used.
In the case of repeating where a passing grade was originally earned, both grades will count in the cumulative GPA but only the credit for the most recent attempt will count. For example, if a student earns a “C” grade and retakes the course later, both the “C” and the new grade contribute to the calculation of the cumulative GPA, and the student only earns the credit of the repeated course once.