How long are my college courses good for if I dropped out?

Richard S.: How long are my college courses good for if I dropped out?
I’m 30yrs old and contemplating returning to college. I attended a local community college and accumulated approximately 60 units. I majored in Business Admin and fulfilled most of my lower undergrad requirements for transfer. I stopped attending college in 1998. If I decide to go back to school will most colleges/universities give me credit? Or do I need to take everything all over again?

Answers and Views:

Answer by hplss.rmntc
It depends on the school. At my local community college the credits are good forever. But at the university I will be going to graduate school at, I only have 5 years to finish without having to retake courses. I’ve also heard of universities that have a 7 year limit.

Answer by B U
It depends on the university or system; in my realm, it’s ten years from the end of the semester you stopped attending classes.

Your best bet is to call the university you went to and find out how long they’ll allow those credits to be transferred. Even if they’re expired, you may be able to get them to do it anyway — but after this long, you might want to consider retaking them unless you can demonstrate that you still retain the knowledge.

Answer by AngiSchy
College credits don’t expire, per se. They may lose relevance, especially if you are in a technology-related field, but they don’t go anywhere. Even if some schools want to say that they “expire”…you can usually take some sort of departmental exam or get credit for life and work experience to make up for the “lost” credit.

However, if you transfer to a different school, they may not accept your credits towards your new major. They may post some of them as electives, because they do not meet the requirements of your new school’s curriculum.
Some colleges also require you to take a certain number of credit hours in residence at their school before they’ll give you a degree.
This means if it takes 120 credits to graduate and you have 116, but they require you to have at least 30 credits in residence, that you need to take 30 more credits…which will bring you to a total of 146 credits at least.

The question is…can you just go back to your prior school and finish there? Then you’d have alot less to lose, and you’d finish your degree more quickly.

Best of luck to you.

Answer by Justin D
Your college courses will always count provided that you can produce a transcript sent directly from your community college to the university you wish to attend. Most colleges will give you credit for the basic classes that are universal, like math 101 (college algebra). Core classes that are unique to the business department at a university are trickier to get transferred over. Contact the Office of Records and Registration and the Dean of the Department you wish to enter at the University to find out if they will honor the credits you have taken.