Credit for Courses Completed at Other Colleges

MiraCosta College grants degree credit for courses completed at other institutions accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education, but MiraCosta reserves the right to evaluate work completed at other colleges. If an institution is fully accredited, the credit earned at a time when an institution was a candidate for accreditation may also be accepted for credit.

Courses from other institutions accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency are evaluated for counting toward degree requirements based on C-ID number or course description, comparable or equivalent content and student learning outcomes, and appropriate prerequisites to ensure they meet or exceed the standards of the California Community Colleges. Students may be required to provide a course outline and/or a syllabus to determine course comparability and a transcript to verify prerequisite completion.

Courses completed at another California community college and from other other institutions accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency are applied to the MiraCosta College general education pattern (Plan A) using the following criteria:

• The course completed was approved for the same general education area as the MiraCosta general education area.
• The course completed was approved for a comparable general education area.
• The course completed is comparable to a course offered by MiraCosta in a general education area.

Courses are placed on the transferable general education patterns--CSU-GE (Plan B) and IGETC (Plan C)--according to the policies set by the California State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC).

MiraCosta evaluates transfer credits from quarter-system institutions as follows: one unit in a quarter-length term is equivalent to two-thirds of a unit in a semester-length term (e.g., 3 quarter units = 2 semester units).

Credit for International Coursework

MiraCosta College evaluates international coursework for counting toward associate degree requirements, including prerequisite requirements, when course descriptions are submitted in English along with a transcript evaluated by an approved foreign transcript evaluation service. Only courses that were taught in the English language are considered for satisfying the writing competency requirement. 

Credit for Articulated High School Courses