Earned Course Credit

Earning Credit

No earned course credit completed 10 years or more before the intended graduation date may be applied to a degree program at Drexel University, unless reviewed by and approved of by the academic dean.

Repeating Courses

The University calculates a single, unified grade point average (GPA) for all courses taken at the University. All grades from original and repeated course enrollments are averaged into the cumulative GPA unless the petition for a GPA adjustment for repeat courses for undergraduate students is approved. If the petition is approved, only the credits earned from the first time a course is completed with a passing grade will be included in a student's earned hours and passed hours.

Undergraduate Guidelines for the GPA Adjustment Petition Option

Undergraduate students who wish to repeat courses using the petition option may do so under the following conditions:

• This policy applies only to courses taken at Drexel University
• This policy does not apply to courses which are designed to be taken multiple times, such as an independent study, research, or special topics.
• The earliest attempt resulted in a grade of "C-" or lower. The latest attempt(s) must be taken effective fall quarter of 2024-2025 forward and meet the terms and conditions of the policy.
• A student may not seek a repeat with GPA adjustment for a course taken after degree conferral.
• A student may enroll in a specific course up to three (3) times using the GPA adjustment. The two lowest grades will not be factored into the GPA. However, if the student takes a single course four or more times, all additional occurrences beyond the third occurrence will be factored into their GPA, without the option of a higher GPA adjustment for these additional occurrences.
• A student may not exceed ten repeated courses utilizing the GPA adjustment option. Each additional time a single course is repeated it will count toward the overall ten course limit.
• The original occurrence of the course may not have a grade of Incomplete (INC), Withdraw (W), or Credit/No Credit (CR/NCR). A course with an INC must be completed before any future repeat attempts can be made.
• A student's grade in the original course may not be a result of academic misconduct as documented through the Office of Student Conduct.

In order to begin the process for a petition, please meet with your academic advisor.

CLEP Examinations

If you have taken AP and/or CLEP examination(s) through ETS you're still required to take Drexel's placement examination(s) for scheduling purposes. Once AP/CLEP scores are provided to the university by ETS - often after the scheduling deadline - adjustments to your schedule will be made by your academic advisor.

Credit by Examination

Drexel University's policy on "credit by examination" allows undergraduate students a one-time opportunity to gain course credit toward graduation by taking a comprehensive examination in a course. You will not have to register for the course or attend any classes. In fact, you must never have attended (or currently be enrolled in) the course in which credit by examination is being sought. The grade earned in the examination will be included in calculating your cumulative grade point average.

Students on co-op may apply for credit by examination; however, approval will be granted only if the exam does not interfere with your co-op experience. If you're on academic probation you're not permitted to pursue credit by examination.

You have 30 days in which to take the examination once permission has been granted. Permission is considered granted once the Credit by Examination Application Form [PDF] has been completed and returned to Drexel Central. It's your responsibility to obtain all necessary signatures. The charge for Credit by Examination is the current year's Special Examination Fee and is payable in the Student Financial Services prior to the examination date. Once paid, the fee is nonrefundable.

Transfer Credits

Acceptance of transfer credits from approved institutions is often dependent on the relevance of the work to the degree program you are pursuing at Drexel. Coursework that lies outside the scope of your degree program is not necessarily applicable for degree credit. You should confer with your program of study department at an early date to ensure that no misunderstanding occurs with regard to the use of transfer credits in your degree plans.

Graduate transfer credits must be approved by the Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies and may be subject to the following restrictions:

1. At least 30 graduate term credits (equivalent to 20 semester credits) of any master's degree program must be taken at Drexel.
2. All transfer credits must have a grade of B or higher, and your overall average in all prior graduate work must be a minimum of B.
3. Transfer graduate credit will not be taken unless it is within the general time limit of seven years prior to the receipt of a degree.

In order to receive transfer credit for courses completed at other institutions you will need to submit an official transcript from all previous institutions to Drexel University.

If you take a course off-campus and would like to have it approved you should submit a syllabus to your Drexel advisor. If the course can be included in the plan of study, you may take the course off-campus and submit a copy of the transcript to the advisor once again for final approval. No credit will be allowed for correspondence or extension work.

For information about transferring into the Thomas R. Kline School of Law, please visit the law school's transfer student page.