Penn student government leaders lead campaign to ease transfer course credit application process

Penn’s Undergraduate Assembly and College Dean’s Advisory Board have launched a campaign to improve the process for students seeking to receive transfer course credit through awareness campaigns, policy recommendations, and student-facing deliverables for transfer students.

The External Credit Approval Tool is an online tool used by incoming and current transfer students to Penn to determine if credits from courses taken at their former institutions can be transferred toward their Penn education. The XCAT Working Group was formed in October 2023 with the goal of addressing the challenges faced by transfer students in this process.

The process requires students to submit approval for their transfer credits directly to the relevant departments. 

The working group began meeting with administrators, students, and stakeholders in February 2024 to collect information and data on the issue. In May 2024, it released its findings and recommendations for transfer students in the form of an “XCAT Guide for Transfer Students” that detailed best practices for students undergoing the process.

“Transfer students have worked incredibly hard at their previous institutions, and we want to make sure that [they] earn credit for all of their courses, eliminating any financial and emotional burden that comes with not receiving course equivalencies at Penn,” College senior Mackenzie Sleeman, a transfer student and chair of the XCAT Working Group, said to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Sleeman said that the transfer credit process currently suffers from a lack of transparency, with students required to submit transfer credit evaluation requests directly to departments to verify and approve their equivalency — and with each department having varying criteria and requirements. 

“There is no oversight or regulation [of the current transfer credit system],” College junior Max Waitz — a member of the XCAT Working Group — said to the DP.

Waitz — who transferred from Dartmouth College after his first year — said that he had to take summer classes to compensate for some of the credits he earned at Dartmouth, as many credits from quarter system schools such as Dartmouth do not meet the minimum hour requirements for equivalency at Penn. 

“A lot of transfer students have to take multiple summer classes because they lost credits during the transfer, preventing them from doing internships or pursuing other opportunities,” Waitz said.  

Waitz further claimed that some credit transfer decisions can take months to receive approval, impacting course decisions and graduation timelines. He said that these delays are both “stressful and can result in real financial consequences” for students.

“Based on our focus groups, stakeholder meetings, and research, we saw a need for a holistic guide that can be representative of the questions and concerns that arise during the XCAT experience for transfer students,” Sleeman said. “Our XCAT Guide for Transfer Students is a comprehensive resource for incoming and current transfer students to navigate this process, written by and for transfer students.”