Obtaining Transfer Credit
Requests for transfer credit are handled by the Physics Director of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Erich Mueller, 115 Clark Hall, (607) 255-1568 or physicsdus@cornell.edu. Please contact Professor Mueller with any questions.
Procedural Details
All forms may be dropped off at the Main Physics office. They will be signed within one week.
Pre-approvals may be obtained via email. Send the course information to physicsdus@cornell.edu. Please include the course number, and a link to the course description at the university at which you would like to take the course. Also please state what the equivalent Cornell course is. Sample syllabi are below. Please read the remainder of this page before submitting your requests.
Forms
*Beginning with the Class of 2007, Arts and Sciences transfer credit no longer can be used to satisfy distribution requirements.
Please review transfer credit information for particular colleges at the links below:
College of Engineering: Transfer Credit
College of Arts and Sciences: Transfer Credit
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: Transfer Credit
Advanced Placement
Advanced placement credit (AP/IB or A-level) is handled by the registrar: detailed criteria.
To be acceptable for transfer credit, the course must fulfill four basic requirements:
Coverage
The depth and breadth of topics covered must be similar to the Cornell course for which the student is seeking a substitute. This requires that the DUS be presented with a syllabus or detailed course description. Two common “problems” are that the substitute is part of a sequence that has a different number of semesters or that the college or university of the transfer is not on a semester-based schedule. Courses at Universities with a quarter based system typically do not transfer.
Laboratory
If the course at Cornell has a laboratory component, so must the substitute course. In rare cases the Department can arrange to have the student take the laboratory portion at Cornell, providing there is space available.
Math Level
It is expected that the level of math sophistication of the substitute be equivalent to that of the Cornell course. This particularly applies to 1112/2213/2214 and 2207/2208, for which the course description must clearly indicate that the substitute course is “calculus-based”. Algebra based introductory courses may be appropriate substitutions for PHYS 1101/1102.
“Physics for Poets” courses are not acceptable substitutions for any of the standard introductory sequence courses.
Grade
The student must obtain a grade of C (not C-) or higher.
Acceptable Courses
There is no list of ‘acceptable’ schools. In general, the department accepts transfer credit from most accredited four-year colleges and universities. (Please note that credit is not as readily granted from courses taken at community colleges.) You should have your course pre-approved by the Physics DUS for transfer credit before taking it, if you have any question about the appropriateness of the course.
Sample Syllabi
Below are typical syllabi for some of the courses for which we students seek transfer credit:
Peter Wittich is an assistant professor in LEPP. He collaborates with assistant professor Julia Thom's research group. They are part of an international collaboration preparing the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment that will operate at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) scheduled to begin operation in 2007 in Geneva, Switzerland. Professor Wittich explains that "We're trying to understand fundamental questions such as 'What is the nature of space-time?' and 'Where does mass come from?' We do this by smashing protons together and looking at the very small particles that come out ...