Transfer credit limits vs residency requirements: how many credits can you bring?

It depends on the college. UMGC: “Transfer up to 90 credits from four-year schools or 70 credits from two-year schools”. San José State: “A maximum of 70 units from a community college can count toward the 120-unit requirement.” UW Bothell, on quarter credits: “No more than 135 transfer credits (lower or upper division) may be accepted to count toward a bachelor’s degree.”

The credits you must take at the college that grants your degree. San José State: “You must complete at least 30 units at SJSU.” 24 of them upper division and 12 in your major. UW Bothell asks that “at least the last 45 of final 60 credits of a baccalaureate degree be completed in residence at UW Bothell”.

No: residency means courses taken at the college itself. Some colleges say so outright. The University of Maine at Augusta: “Credits earned through external exam or external credential review cannot be used toward meeting residency requirements.”

At the colleges quoted here: 70 units at San José State and 70 credits from two-year schools at UMGC, against 90 from four-year schools. SF State lists the same: “Maximum Units for Community College Work: 70 units.” UW Bothell, on quarter credits, applies up to 90 lower-division credits.

At some colleges. UW Bothell: “Students can petition their program to transfer additional credits beyond 90 lower-division credits to apply toward their major.” Its overall cap is 135 quarter credits.

At some colleges. SF State: “Maximum Units by Examination or Evaluation: 30 units.” Ask your college whether ACE- or NCCRS-recommended credit falls under a cap like that.

NCCRS: when you seek a large amount of credit, “a nontraditional college whose mission is to offer adult oriented, distance learning, or nonresidential degrees would have more latitude” than a two-year college, whose programs are often very structured.

Most UPI Study courses carry an NCCRS recommendation for 3 semester hours, so ten of them make 30; Calculus 1, 2 and 3 and Discrete Mathematics carry 4. Subtract what you already have from your college's limit, and keep its residency credits for the college itself.

ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities. Search your school in Find My College and ask how many of your credits it will count and how many it wants taken there.