Transfer Credits

[emhafe]

The PhD program I will likely enter allows me transfer 27 credit hours into the program from my MA. I had always assumed I would just take advantage of the courses at my PhD institution because it would add to my understanding of the field. However, since this is a 5 year program and normally the last 1.5 are dissertation writing, I am considering transferring just enough to have a full 2 years for the dissertation. Did you transfer credits in? Is this the norm? For whatever reason I had never considered the possibility of transfer credits and I wanted to see what others have done.

[TMP]

I did.  I transferred 30 credits.  I just did what my PhD adviser wanted me to do: 2 years of coursework and then spent a year studying for my exams.

Non-American History PhD rarely take five years....like mine. 

I know of another student who came in with a MA and did American history.  He took his exams by the end of his second year (he spent all summer reading between his first and second year).

This is definitely something to discuss with your adviser.  Share your concerns.

[emhafe]

Thank you for the input! I asked some of my current professors for their thoughts as well. I just wanted to gauge whether that seemed unusually high or anything. I'm visiting this upcoming week and what to figure this out.

[Neist]

On 4/5/2017 at 9:53 AM, emhafe said:

Thank you for the input! I asked some of my current professors for their thoughts as well. I just wanted to gauge whether that seemed unusually high or anything. I'm visiting this upcoming week and what to figure this out.

 

I don't think it's especially high, given a program accepts transfer credits at all. That said, I've heard of some programs only accepting a single year of credits (i.e., about 15 credit hours). And some programs don't accept any transfer credits. I'm not sure if it's still the case, but for example, Princeton history of science did not accept any transfer credits when I've talked to relatively recent graduates of the program. Harsh.