Transferring Credits from a Community College to AIU Houston

When you first start college, you may not always know what kind of degree you want to pursue. Taking some general education courses at a local community college can be one way to start exploring your interests. During the process, you may want to confirm if the credits you earn may eventually transfer into a degree program at another university. At AIU Houston, we work with students transferring from Texas community colleges to evaluate the number of qualifying courses that may transfer credits* that count towards a degree.

How to Transfer Qualifying Credits From Community College

AIU’s Prior Learning Assessment Specialists work with community college transfer students during the admissions process to identify qualifying courses that may be eligible to count towards a degree program’s requirements. In order to qualify, eligible undergraduate courses must have been offered by an accredited college or university and must have been completed with a grade of C or better. In some cases, you may also be able to provide scores from a College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) exam to demonstrate enough proficiency in a topic to earn transfer credit.

Transferring credits from a community college to university degree programs also requires a determination that the previous courses for which you hope to get credit for are actually relevant to your current degree program's requirements. Your Prior Learning Assessment Specialist will review the courses on your transcript in order to determine which ones overlap with the classes AIU requires for a degree program. By confirming that qualifying courses have similar or equivalent content and curriculum, we may be able to help you move on to the next stage in your learning without skipping over any skills and knowledge you may need to pursue your educational goals.

Agreements with Local Community Colleges

Some colleges establish articulation agreements, where a community college and a university share a transfer credit plan between the two institutions. For example, AIU Houston has articulation agreements with a number of Texas community colleges. This means certain classes (and even entire groups of courses) have already been approved for transfer credit within some of our degree programs. By ensuring the credits from your community college experience will transfer directly into your particular degree program's course requirements, you may be able to earn credit for prior learning experience and pick up right where you left off with your previous education.

AIU maintains articulation agreements with the following Houston-area and online community colleges:

• Houston Community College System
• Lee Community College
• Lone Star College System
• StraighterLine

Do you have questions about whether you can earn transfer credits for your qualifying community college courses? Request information from an AIU Admissions Advisor.

* Not all credits are eligible to transfer. See the University Catalog for transfer credit policies.