Admission of Transfer Students

Applicants who enrolled at another college or university after high school graduation and prior to enrollment at UH Hilo are considered transfer students.

Transfer students who have completed at least 24 college-level semester hours from a regionally accredited U.S. college or university with a minimum GPA of 2.0 are admissible to UH Hilo. Students who are transferring to UH Hilo from outside the UH system must arrange for all official college transcripts to be directly sent to the Admissions Office from previously attended institutions. Those who have completed fewer than 24 college-level semester hours or enrolled in an unaccredited institution must also submit their high school transcripts, if applicable, and SAT or ACT scores (optional).

Transcripts Required

Students are required to submit official transcripts from all academic institutions attended to the UH Hilo Admissions Office. Admitted students must submit transcripts showing the final grades for all courses in-progress at the time of admission by the deadline stated in the student’s official acceptance letter. Failure to report previous college attendance and/or submit all required transcripts is sufficient cause for the cancellation of the student’s admission, denial of registration, and/or dismissal from UH Hilo.

Transfer Credit

Coursework eligible for transfer credit must be baccalaureate-level and from regionally accredited institutions in the U.S. or from nationally-recognized institutions in countries outside the U.S. Grades in these courses must be “D” or above to be eligible for transfer. Students transferring credit completed more than ten years prior to their admittance to UH Hilo may find the credit is non-transferable by the academic department.

To complete a transfer credit evaluation, the Admissions Office must be in possession of the previous school’s catalog, bulletin, handbook, or other institutional document which describes the courses completed. Students may be asked to submit course descriptions from previous colleges attended.

When applicable, transfer credits may be counted towards the specific requirements of a program. Otherwise, they will be counted as general electives. However, neither grade points nor grade point averages earned at other institutions are used in the computation of the UH Hilo cumulative grade point average.

Students transferring into UH Hilo with a transferable A.A. degree from an regionally accredited U.S. institution will be exempt from General Education requirements, unless specific course requirements are required for a given major or specialty. The A.A. degree must be complete prior to initial matriculation to UH Hilo.

Students transferring into UH Hilo from a UH System Community College in Fall 2011 or later who have completed the basic/foundation requirements will be exempt from the UH Hilo General Education basic requirements; similarly, students who have completed the area/diversification requirement at their previous campus will be exempt from the UH Hilo General Education area requirements. See the UH system Memorandum of Agreement for Transfer of General Education Core Requirements (May 2010) (PDF) among UH system campuses.

All students must complete the UH Hilo Integrative requirements in Writing Intensive, Hawai’i Pan-Pacific, and Global and Community Citizenship, as well as all other major and UH Hilo requirements.

All transfer students must fulfill the General Education requirements appropriate for their major and degree as stated in this catalog unless eligible for an exemption.