How do transfer students fulfill the ISUComm foundation courses requirement?
Students transferring to Iowa State University with credit deficiencies in the ISUComm foundation courses should be advised to complete the requirements for their ISUComm foundation courses as soon as possible. Eleventh-hour requests for credit waivers may delay a student’s graduation.
- Transfer credit must be earned from an accredited English-speaking college or university in the United States.
- Transfer students without credit for English 1500 or 2500. Students who enter Iowa State University without credit in the ISUComm foundation courses will have an opportunity to earn credit for English 1500 if their ACT-E, SAT-ERW, or Advanced Placement (AP) credit meets the placement criteria as described on the English Placement Policy page.
- Transfer students with only English 1500 credit. These students will need to take English 2500, or they may choose to take the English 2500 Test-Out if they meet the eligibility requirements.
- Transfer students with only English 2500 credit. These students do not need to take English 1500. Instead, they will need to take an advanced communication course (English 2750, 3020, 3090, 3120, 3130, or 3140). Before this is done, they must receive permission from their advisor and approval from the ISUComm Foundation Courses office. For approval from the ISUComm Foundation Courses office, the student’s advisor must submit an Academic Requirement Override, listing the Advanced Communication course (English 2750, 3020, 3090, 3120, 3130, or 3140) the student plans to take at Iowa State University in place of English 1500.
- Students who transfer English 2500U (RHET: 1030) from the University of Iowa with a C or better meet the ISUComm Foundation Courses requirement. These students will receive 3 credits of English 2500U (the designating transfer credit from the University of Iowa). These students, however, will not receive credit for English 1500. The student’s advisor must submit an Academic Requirement Override to the ISUComm Foundation Courses office stating the student has completed the University Communication Proficiency for English 1500 and English 2500 with the English 2500U transfer credit from the University of Iowa.
- Students who transfer 2 credits of English 1500 and 2 credits of English 2500 from the PAIDEIA course (also includes 2 credits of HIST 2T**–PAIDEIA I and 2 credits of HIST 2T**– PAIDEIA II) from Luther College with a C or better meet the ISUComm Foundation Courses requirement. The student’s advisor must submit an Academic Requirement Override to the ISUComm Foundation Courses office stating the student has completed the University Communication Proficiency for English 1500 and English 2500 with the above transfer credit from Luther College.
- Transfer students with a total of 5 credits in English 1500 and 2500. Transfer students with 5 credits in English composition will have the remaining 1 credit waived. The student’s advisor must submit an Academic Requirement Override to the ISUComm Foundation Courses office stating the student has completed the University Communication Proficiency for English 1500 and 2500.
- Transfer students with quarter credit. Students enrolled in schools with 9 or 10 quarter-credit English composition programs are advised to complete the full sequence at those schools before transferring to Iowa State University. Six quarter credits transferred in ISUComm foundation courses will not meet the Iowa State requirement.
- Transfer credit for courses that do not transfer into Iowa State University as English 1500 or 2500. Students and their advisors should go to the ISUComm Foundation Communication page and review the ENGL 1500 and 2500 course descriptions, objectives, and curriculum to determine if the transfer course may be similar in content. Literature and university orientation courses are not equivalent. Courses lacking a significant amount of multimodal work are also not equivalent.
Students who believe their transfer credit may be equivalent to our English 1500 or 2500 must provide the ISUComm Foundation Courses office (isucommsupport@iastate.edu) with the following:
- Request for Department Review of Transfer Course or Military Credit form filled out with their advisor’s assistance and signature. This form can be found on the Office of the Registrar website.
- catalog course description of the class that the student took
- syllabus and course schedule from the class
- all major assignments composed in class or assignment descriptions
Please Note:
- Transfer course evaluation requests must include all the above information. This information is essential in determining whether the course’s learning outcomes are equivalent to our English 1500 or 2500. Requests not including all the above information will be denied for evaluation.
- Transfer course evaluations will only be reviewed once the student has started attending Iowa State University and after the course has been successfully completed.
- Please allow at least two weeks for a response to a transfer course review.
The Director of ISUComm Foundation Courses will review the information provided to determine whether the course can be used in place of the required English 1500 or 2500 courses at Iowa State University.
- Students who plan to study abroad may not transfer credit for English 1500 or 2500 from an institution in a country where English is not the first and main language spoken.
- What are the requirements for students with undergraduate degrees? Students who are seeking a second undergraduate degree do not have to fulfill the ISUComm Foundation Courses requirement unless their undergraduate degree was earned from an institution outside the United States or from a non-English institution in the United States. For approval from the ISUComm Foundation Courses office, the student’s advisor must submit an Academic Requirement Override stating the student has an undergraduate degree.