Transferring to an American university after your first or second year isn't so much a bureaucratic task as a strategic one. Grades earned at home are not automatically carried over to the US. They must first be converted into the American system, and then you must convince the receiving university to accept what has been converted. These are two separate processes, and at each stage you can lose some credits.
What Is Credential Evaluation?
Credential evaluation is an assessment of foreign educational documents that establishes how they compare to American qualifications. It is not done by universities but by specialised services accredited by NACES — the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services. For transferring credits, only a course-by-course evaluation is used: the report lists each completed course, its American equivalent, the number of semester credits, the grade on the GPA scale, and the level — undergraduate or graduate.
The most common service is WES (World Education Services). It works with most American universities and offers two types of reports: Basic course-by-course and ICAP course-by-course. The second option is more expensive but keeps verified copies of transcripts on file, which simplifies sending documents to multiple institutions. ECE (Educational Credential Evaluators) is the second most popular service. It offers a General Report with a GPA and a Course-by-Course Report that includes a list of courses with credits and grades. The cost of evaluation varies: WES Basic course-by-course costs about $205, ECE Course-by-Course — around $160–199. Processing time is about 7 business days for WES and 15–20 business days for ECE after all documents are received.
The process begins with creating an account on the chosen service's website. Then you need to request official transcripts from your university and send them directly to the evaluation service — not by the student, but directly from the institution to the service. For some countries, WES requires additional verification through national education authorities. After receiving the documents and payment, the service prepares the report and sends it electronically to the universities the student has designated as recipients.
What Happens After the Evaluation
The credential evaluation report reaches the admissions office of the American university, but this does not mean automatic acceptance of credits. The university conducts its own assessment — a transfer credit evaluation. The decision is made not by the admissions committee as a whole but by the registrar or the relevant department: if it's a psychology course, it's evaluated by the psychology faculty; if it's engineering, by the engineering faculty.
Here the principle of course equivalency comes into play. Each foreign course is compared with courses in the receiving university's catalogue by content, number of credits, and level of difficulty. There are three possible outcomes. A course may be accepted as a direct equivalent — then it fulfils a specific programme requirement. It may be accepted as elective credit — the credits go into the general pool but do not fulfil a required subject. Or it may be rejected entirely.
A U.S. Government Accountability Office study showed that students who transferred between 2004 and 2009 lost an average of 43% of their credits. Since then, evaluation mechanisms have become more transparent, but losses are still possible. Most often, a credit is not accepted if the institution where it was earned is not accredited by an agency recognised by the receiving university. The second common case is a grade below C: many American universities do not accept credits with a grade below this threshold. The third is when the course content doesn't overlap enough: if a course was called "Principles of Economics" but its content does not match an introductory economics course at an American university, it may be accepted only as an elective.
What to Do If Credits Are Not Recognised
A rejection isn't final. Most universities have an appeal procedure. A student can request a re-evaluation by providing the course syllabus — a detailed description of the programme with topics, readings, and assessment methods. Some institutions require the syllabus specifically from the semester when the course was taken. If the syllabus is unavailable, you can provide the university's course catalogue or other documents confirming the content.
The appeal is reviewed by the relevant department. At Rowan University, for example, the process takes 7–10 business days, and to submit you need to fill out a Transfer Credit Appeal form, attaching a translated syllabus. At Texas Tech, the application is reviewed by the Transfer Evaluation Office, which consults with academic departments.
If a course was not accepted as a direct equivalent but was accepted as an elective, sometimes you can get a review by showing that the content matches a specific programme requirement. It is also useful to talk to your academic advisor: they can see which requirements remain unfulfilled and can suggest which courses are worth appealing first.
Practical Steps
It is best to start a year before the planned transfer. First, choose universities and check their credential evaluation requirements: some accept only WES, others work with ECE, and still others accept reports from both services. Second, order the course-by-course evaluation in advance, because processing times can stretch. Third, save the syllabi of all completed courses while access to university systems is still open. This is the most important document for an appeal, and it can be difficult to recover after graduation.
Fourth, keep in mind that transferring credits and transferring SEVIS are different processes. After enrolment at the new university, you need to arrange a transfer of your SEVIS record: the current school passes the record to the new one, and the new one issues a new I-20 form. A student cannot begin studying at the new institution until the SEVIS record is transferred. Fifth, be realistic about possible losses. Even with careful preparation, some courses may not be accepted, and that's to be expected. The goal is not to transfer every single credit but to preserve as many as possible and not lose an extra semester.