Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon Portland Community College

How to transfer from PCC to a four-year school

We have transfer guides for many schools, but what if you want to transfer to a school that we don’t have a guide for? You’re in the right place! Below is a do-it-yourself strategy for transferring from PCC to any school.

Step 1: freshman or transfer?

Most schools admit students either as a freshman or as a transfer student.  Your admissions status is based on the number of previously-earned college credits that the transfer school will accept. The first thing you need to do is find out what your admission status will be, and what that means at your school.

  • Read the transfer policy of your future school and find out:
    • What it means to be admitted as a transfer student (vs. a freshman student) at that school. Are there implications for registration, scholarships, GPA, and general education requirements?
    • The number of credits that will trigger you being admitted as a transfer student.
    • The maximum number of transfer credits the school will accept.

Step 2: find equivalent classes

Now you can identify which PCC classes will transfer to your future school.

  1. Find required classes at your school. On your school’s website, look for a list of required classes. This will usually be in their catalog. You are looking for two types of classes:
    • General education classes. These classes are required for all degrees. Each school has a unique name for this – Oregon State calls it “Baccalaureate Core”. PSU calls it “University Studies”. University of Oregon calls it “Group Requirements”.
    • Major-specific classes: These are classes that are required for your major. For example, if you are majoring in Psychology, along with Psychology classes, you may be required to take Statistics.
  2. Find equivalent classes at PCC. If we have an equivalency guide, it will be in our list of transfer schools. If we don’t have a guide, look for a transfer guide on their website. This might be called a “course equivalency table” or a “transfer equivalency guide” – you may have to look under several names. If you can’t find one, contact an advisor at your transfer school to create a transfer guide for you (see the next step).

Step 3: check with an advisor at your future school

Don’t skip this step, even if you’re pretty sure you are taking the right classes. Every few terms, touch base with an advisor in your future major.

  • Ask them to evaluate your transcript (they look at the classes you have taken and tell you which ones will transfer).
  • Ask them to create a transfer guide (a list of PCC classes that will count toward your future degree).