If you have Advanced Placement credit or transfer credit from another college or university, it is important to know how this credit matches with Northeastern courses. This will avoid the unfortunate error of retaking a course that you have credit for.
Credit based on the Advanced Placement examinations requires a grade of 4 or 5. The PDF table at the following link provides the match between specific AP exams and the corresponding Northeastern courses.
Notice one important fact: AP credit in Computer Science will not replace any degree requirements in the CCIS degree programs. As you may see from the discussion of Freshman CCIS Courses above, our program begins in a unique way from the point of view of both concepts and skills. The AP curriculum in CS does not cover this material and students would be at a severe disadvantage if we did apply AP credit to any of these courses. Therefore, AP credit is given for a fictitious course number, CS 1990, which has the effect of granting free elective credit but not CS elective credit.
The same fictitious number, 1990, is used for all foreign language AP credit. If you wish to continue with a foreign language, consult with:
Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
For students with transfer credit from another college or university, Admissions processes the credit and makes the course matches based on a large database of historical transfer data. If you happen to have transfer credit for a course that has not been seen before, Admissions will contact the appropriate unit to make an academic evaluation of what course if any will match. In case a course deserves credit but there is no exact match, the magic number 1990 will be used.
You may read the policies regarding transfer credit and access the transfer credit database at the following link:
Transfer Credit Policies and Database
This link will bring you to the transfer credit policies page and a follow-up link will bring you to a large dropdown menu where you may select the college from which you wish to transfer credit. After clicking on the dropdown, type the first few letters of the college name to hone in on the college that you wish.
Note that it is the policy of both the college and the Provost’s Office that students may not take courses for transfer credit after enrolling at Northeastern.
When you come to orientation, please bring a list of AP exams that you have taken where you know for certain or strongly believe that you have received a 4 or 5. Also, if you have transfer credit, please bring an unofficial transcript. With this data, your advisor may check what information is already in the system and what follow up if any needs to be done.
