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Transfer Credit Information

Current Student Transfer Credit Procedure

All transfer transcripts must come directly from the institution and cannot come from the student.

  • Graduate/Law students: Please work with your college/school dean's office to determine course transferability.
  • Undergraduate/Pharmacy students: Current students interested in transferring credits from U.S. institutions must complete the Transfer Request Form.  Transfer credits will not be posted without the completion of this form. New students entering directly from high school should not complete this form before attending. To access the form, click here.

Transfer Credit Resources

Drake offers a multitude of resources that help explain how credits will transfer.

Tool Description Works Best For...
Transfer Evaluation System (TES) This simple interactive tool allows you to look up a course you have taken at a different institution and see its equivalent course at Drake.  It also shows which, if any, areas of inquiry the transfer course satisfies. Quickly answering, "What is the Drake equivalent course to Course A taken at Institution X?"
Transferology Transferology is like a more sophisticated version of TES and allows you to enter all courses you have taken at other institutions (including Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and CLEP credit) and see how each of them would transfer into Drake. Those who are thinking about transferring into Drake
Pathways Program-specific courses that transfer into Drake from Iowa community colleges. Entering and transferring students who wish to go to Drake
Course Equivalency Guides These course articulation agreements between Drake and Iowa's community colleges include one-to-one course equivalencies as a list of courses that meet Drake's Areas of Inquiry requirements. Students who wish to take courses at an Iowa community college and are considering transferring the credit to Drake
Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and CLEP

This document displays the most current information regarding minimum scores and Drake equivalencies for AP, IB, and CLEP credit.

AP, IB, CLEP, GCE 2025 (pdf)

 Finding minimum scores and corresponding Drake credit

Policies

Learn more about the Transfer Credit Policy and the General Education Articulation Agreement.

In general, students may receive credit for academic courses taken at post secondary institutions that were regionally accredited at the time the courses were taken. Courses accepted for transfer credit must parallel courses offered at Drake University or otherwise be appropriate for college-level credit. Other details include:

  • Transcripts must come directly from the institution, we will not accept any transcripts from students.
  • You must have earned a grade of "C-" or better in the transfer course.  Non-letter grades such as a "P," "S," or "CR" may be granted if the policy of the institution equates those grades to work completed at C- grade or better.*
    • G.P.A.s from transfer institutions do not transfer into Drake. Transfer courses are for credit only.
  • Courses that are considered vocational or technical (career-specific) will be reviewed by the appropriate college/school dean's office for applicability.
  • You will need to request that the college or university mail a transcript to the appropriate office on campus (please see list below).
  • Credit will not be granted for courses that provide developmental or support topics, ESL courses, professional development certifications, test outs, or experiential learning granted by other institutions.
  • For undergraduate students
    • A maximum of 16 semester hours of vocational-technical credit may be granted at the discretion of the Drake college or school in which you enroll.
    • A cumulative total of 66 semester hours of credit from all two-year institutions attended may be applied to a degree.
    • An overall maximum of 90 hours may be applied toward a Drake degree (181 hours for a Pharmacy degree).
    • A minimum of 30 hours must be completed at Drake.

*Special Note: In response to the disruption of COVID-19, Drake University will accept "P", "S", or "CR" grades, regardless if they are the equivalent of a C-, for all Spring 2020 coursework. This exception is applicable for Summer 2020, Fall 2020, and Spring 2021 coursework if the institution required students to convert to "P", "S", or "CR" grading.

Admitted students who have met the criteria outlined below will enter Drake University having fulfilled the Drake Curriculum general education requirements (Areas of Inquiry), with the exception of the Senior Capstone requirement in the student's major(s) area of study. Students within one year of high school graduation are required to complete a First Year Seminar.

Criteria

  • Minimum 60 semester credits acceptable for transfer.
  • Minimum 2.00 cumulative grade point average in transfer coursework.
  • One of the following degrees from a regionally accredited institution:
    • Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree from a community college in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, or Missouri or Drake University's Bright College.
    • Associate of Science (A.S.) degree from a community college in Iowa.
    • Bachelor's degree from any regionally accredited institution.

Students are required to submit a final transcript with proof of their degree prior to the beginning of their second term (excluding summer or J-term) of enrollment. Students who fail to provide the appropriate documentation will be required to complete the general education requirements.

Students who do not meet the criteria above will have their credits evaluated on a course-by-course basis.

Course Equivalency Guides

Each articulation agreements and pathways below provide a summary of courses satisfying the Drake Areas of Inquiry. Please use the TES Designations to see how courses equate.

In TES, the following designations are used:

  • EQUIVALENT COURSE—a specific Drake course number will appear when a course is considered to be similar in content to a specific Drake course. For example: ANTH 002 may be used to cite an equivalent course in cultural anthropology.
  • ELECTIVE—college transfer credit is granted; the course content is recognized as college-level, there is no direct equivalent at Drake. A course in this category may be used to fulfill required or elective course requirements as the college or school representative deems appropriate.
  • CAREER or VOC-TECH—the course is part of a career- or vocational-technical program. A maximum of 16 semester hours of career- or vocational-technical credit may be granted by the college or school representative.
  • NO CREDIT—the course does not transfer to Drake University. Typically, courses with this designation are developmental in nature.
  • WITH VALIDATION—some courses may have limited application to specific equivalent courses taught at Drake as upper-division courses within the College of Business and Public Administration. A student must validate the course credit earned from another institution to demonstrate the acquisition of knowledge. Three methods are used for validation: passing a higher-level course at Drake within the same department, Challenge Testing, and CLEP examinations, when appropriate.

If your school is not listed below, use the DMACC articulation agreement as a comparison for similar courses at your institution.

Note: These transfer of credit guides provide information on how courses offered by another institution correspond to courses offered at Drake University. Representatives from each undergraduate College and School determine how each course will apply toward your specific major and degree program at Drake.

Official transfer of credit evaluations is prepared automatically for students immediately following admission.

Transfer pathways are useful for both reviewing courses that will transfer to your major and planning your journey to Drake to ensure courses will transfer, preparing for your future major.

Find your Transfer Pathway by selecting the college you are transferring from below.

Transfer Credit FAQ's

All current students should submit a Transfer Request Form before enrolling in a class at another institution. This ensures the course will transfer back to Drake and apply toward your program once it has been approved. Students can fill out the form here.

Use the tools above to view course descriptions from other institutions and see their equivalent courses at Drake.

Transfer college work earns credit only and is not included in computing the Drake University cumulative GPA. Students cannot remove unsatisfactory grades received at Drake by repeating those courses at other institutions and transferring the credit to Drake.

Once transfer credit has been applied, students can view their equated course information on their unofficial transcript.

You must contact the other institution and request that they send Drake your official transcript. Drake will not accept a transcript unless we receive it directly from the other institution. If you’d like to send your transcript electronically, please have the institution email it directly to registrar@drake.edu. If you would like to send it by mail, please use the following address and the appropriate Attention line per the table below. Current students must fill out a Transfer Request Form before submitting their transcripts. To submit your request, please fill out the form here.

Drake University
Attn: (see table below)
2507 University Ave
Des Moines, IA 50311

Transcript purpose Send Attention to Building
Current Drake Students Registrar Carnegie
Study abroad while a Drake student Global Engagement Cowles Library
Re-enroll Students Registrar Carnegie
Undergraduate Admission before your first class at Drake Undergraduate Admission Cole Hall
Graduate Admission - Education Graduate Admission - Education Collier-Scripps Hall
Graduate Admission - Zimpleman College of Business Graduate Admission - Zimpleman Aliber Hall
Law School Admission Drake Law School Office of Admission Cartwright Hall
Cross-Enrollment Students DMACC and Grand View should provide an official transcript to Drake at the end of each semester, but they may run on a different timeline than Drake. If your transfer credits have not been posted to your unofficial transcript one month after the end of the DMACC or Grand View semester, contact the Office of the Registrar first.  

We cannot post transcript coursework for non-degree seeking students. Credits from international institutions may be reviewed by organizations such as the ECE or WES to assist you in validating and evaluating the courses.  They offer different levels of evaluation, so be sure to carefully read their list of services.

A transcript is a snapshot of a record at a single point in time, so only the originating institution knows the current details of your record there. Most organizations would not accept transcripts from a third party, so Drake does not release transcripts from other institutions. Please contact the originating institution for the release of their records.

If you attended an Iowa college or school of nursing that is no longer in existence, the University of Iowa maintains its records.