Transferring to OWU

SOMETIMES, YOUR COLLEGE EXPERIENCE isn’t all you hoped it would be. Maybe you’ve changed career direction and find that your current school’s academic program doesn’t match your new interests. Perhaps you’re not close enough—or too close—to home. Maybe your social options are too limited.

Transferring is an important and sometimes difficult decision, but at Ohio Wesleyan, we do all we can to make the transition as easy as possible, both academically and socially. We value our transfer students and know it’s important to help you find and follow your interests and passions.

Making the Switch: A Student’s Story

“I just didn’t fit in at my previous university, but when I came to visit OWU, I felt at home. People [here] were happy to be at school. It’s really a community instead of just a school. I was in a very competitive theatre arts program before I transferred, and when I discovered I wanted to be a teacher instead of an actor, I needed to make a change.

“[At OWU], I made friends with a lot of the theatre and education students once I had classes with them.

“A transfer student can become involved at OWU very quickly. I’m in Choral Art Society, a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, was on the education student board and the Panhellenic board. I also tutored kids at a Columbus public school. I’ve been involved in the theatre department and did my student teaching last spring. I’ve been an RA [Resident Assistant] and I’m a tour guide for admissions. Right now, I’m studying abroad in Salamanca, Spain.

“I’m glad I made the transfer. At first it was scary, but I wasn’t happy at my other school, where college was just a place to learn. OWU has become my home away from home.”

Emily Foster ’08
Theater major / education minor
Transferred from a state university in Ohio

Transferring Credits

Courses will transfer if they meet these criteria:

• Your previous college must be accredited by a regional accrediting organization.
• Your performance in the course must have been satisfactory (C- or better).
• The course must have been of a liberal arts nature and for which OWU offers an equivalent.

When you are admitted, the registrar’s office will complete a preliminary evaluation of the courses you took elsewhere, including the credit OWU will award for those courses and what OWU requirements the courses have fulfilled. The courses don’t have to have an exact equivalent, such as the same Ohio Wesleyan course title, to be transferable.

Transcripts

If you are admitted and make your enrollment deposit, the registrar will establish your official OWU record. Your transferred courses and grades will show on your transcript, but only your OWU course grades will count toward your official GPA. Graduation honors are also based only on the grades you earn here.

The Ohio Wesleyan academic program is offered on an early semester calendar, but credits are based on units rather than on semester hours. Most courses are worth one unit of credit; you’ll need a minimum of 34 credits to earn your degree. Some courses offer fractional credits; for example, science courses with a lab component are worth 1.25 credits.

At Ohio Wesleyan, a unit of credit is equivalent to 3.75 semester hours or 5.5 quarter hours. So a three-hour semester course would be equivalent to .80 units and a four-hour semester course would count as 1.07 units.

The chart below—a first-year student’s model transcript—shows you how semester-hour credits from an accredited university might earn OWU credits and be applied toward graduation requirements.

These courses would meet a variety of requirements, including OWU’s freshman composition and language requirements, the diversity requirement, and the distribution requirement in the arts. (The OWU Catalog provides a full description of distribution requirements.)

If you have questions about transferring credits, the professional staff in the registrar’s office would be happy to answer them. Call (740)368-3200, e-mail registra@owu.edu or go to the Office of the Registrar.