SPECIAL SITUATIONS

Study Away

While some majors require study abroad (notably the Modern Languages), many students take advantage of the opportunity to study away while at Keene State College.  If you are interested in studying abroad or at another institution in the United States through our national or international exchange programs, it is imperative that you plan for that from the beginning of your time at Keene State.  Discuss this possibility with your advisor, your family, and with the National and International Exchange Office staff.

Sometimes study away can lengthen the time to graduation if you haven’t made careful plans to meet all of your certification and education requirements here.  The personal, academic, and professional growth that study away provides is well worth the additional planning effort.

 Transfer of Courses

Sometimes students choose to take summer courses at an accredited college other than Keene State College and then transfer those credits to apply to their Keene State College academic program.  There are some important things to be aware of when planning to transfer courses.

• Only credits, not grades, transfer.  Your cumulative GPA will not be affected by your grades in transferred courses.
• You must earn a C or better in the course to have the credits transfer to KSC.
• An official transcript must be sent to KSC from the other institution.
• Only courses taken at accredited institutions can be transferred.  The Elliot Center has a list of accredited institutions for your reference.
• Using a transferred course to meet a Integrative Studies requirement may be approved by the Elliot Center.
• Substituting a transferred course for a specific KSC course requires special permission and approval by the department chair involved.  It is a good idea to check prior to taking the course if you want it to meet a specific requirement for your major(s). 
• Some courses are not eligible for substitution from another institution. For example, education courses above the 200 level are normally not accepted as substitutes for program requirements.

Transfer Students

Transfer students have special advising needs because the courses you transfer with you from your previous college may or may not “fit neatly” into the categories and requirements of your Keene State College program.  Thus it is particularly important for you to find an advisor who has experience with transfer students.  Discuss this with the Elliot Center or the Education Department Chair during your first semester.  It will be your responsibility to ensure that you get appropriate advising and that you get the necessary documentation on file with the college.  Transfer students are held to the same decision points and standards for Teacher Education as all other students.

Transfer students will need to present catalog descriptions of the Education courses they have taken previously, along with a transcript, and supporting evidence such as syllabi, text(s), projects, exams, papers, etc.  The Education Department Chair must approve all course substitutions of transferred courses for Education courses.  This process should be completed during your first semester at KSC.

Please note that KSC does not accept transfer or substitution for courses in methods, field experience, and student teaching.  Our state approval rests on our supervision of these major practical experiences leading up to certification.  Transfer students may need additional time to complete their program(s) of study, depending on the results of the transfer evaluation process.