Golden West College recognizes coursework completed at other accredited colleges. Additional college credit is awarded as further described below:

Acceptance of Transfer Credit/Transcripts from Other Colleges

Students who have completed coursework, especially English and/or mathematics, at another accredited college or university should submit their transcripts for evaluation to Golden West College. Official College transcripts from accredited institutions are required in order for the student to receive credit toward the associate degree, certificates of achievement, transfer certification, all awards/credit, and advisement. Official student transcripts of records from other institutions become the property of Golden West College. For the purposes of this catalog, “accredited institutions” means those institutions accredited by one of the seven “regional” accrediting organizations recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The seven regional organizations are: 

• MSCHE - Middle States Commission on Higher Education  
• NWCCU - Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities 
• HLC (Formerly NCA) - Higher Learning Commission 
• NECHE - New England Commission of Higher Education 
• SACSCOC - Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges 
• WASC-ACCJC - Western Association of Schools and Colleges - Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges 
• WSCUC - Western Association of Schools and Colleges - Senior College and University Commission

Some private colleges/universities offer courses that have similar titles and appear to be equivalent to courses offered by Golden West College. However, the elements of the course – course content, learning objectives, lecture and/or lab hours, prerequisites/corequisites – may not be congruent with the Golden West College course. When evaluating coursework, all of these elements are taken into consideration. Golden West College reserves the right to evaluate work completed at other colleges in accordance with campus policies. 

Official transcripts submitted to Golden West College are evaluated for every lower division, degree-applicable course completed with a grade of A, B, C, D, F, CR or P. Courses, units, and grades earned are applied as appropriate to the student's goal and used for educational planning purposes. Courses with EW, W, NC or NP notations are not reviewed or applied. 

Transcript evaluations are reviewed during a scheduled counseling appointment. If the counselor or student identifies other credits that need further review, the evaluations department will be contacted. 

Students with Previously Earned Bachelor’s Degree or Higher

Students with a previously earned bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution will be exempt from General Education requirements under the AA/AS General Education Option 1 patterns.

Students will need to complete the following for an Associate Degree:

• Satisfactory completion of at least 12 semester units in residence within the Coast Colleges (Golden West College, Orange Coast College, and/or Coastline College).
• Completion of major coursework as stated in catalog

Receipt of official transcripts prior to submitting a graduation petition is required. A previously earned Bachelor’s Degree does not exempt a student from the General Education requirements of the Associate Degree for Transfer, the CSU-GE Breadth or IGETC requirements.  

Upper-Division Credit

Request for transfer of upper division courses and credits will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Upper-division units may be considered for application towards a Certificate, local/non-transfer Associate Degree, Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT), CSU/GE, and IGETC certification. The units will count toward the 60 units required for the associate degrees and meet the transfer requirements. If a student is using upper-division courses to fulfill a lower-division IGETC or CSU/GE course or Associate Degree for Transfer major requirement, remember that students are required to have a certain number of upper-division courses at the transfer institution. Contact the receiving institution to see how upper-division course credit will be awarded towards the baccalaureate degree. See the IGETC Standards or the CSU policy for details. 

International Transcripts

Golden West College may grant credit for courses taken at regionally accredited institutions outside of the United States. 

Students seeking credit for coursework completed with a foreign institution must provide a transcript evaluated by an accredited evaluation and translation service. Students must turn in the official evaluation to Golden West College for inclusion in their record and then schedule an appointment with Counseling so that international coursework may be applied to the student’s educational plan. Credit can be granted for Golden West College local Associate degree (Option 1) requirements. 

You must use one of the evaluation services listed on the NACES site to retrieve a detailed evaluation of your international transcript.

Transfer to a University: Golden West College cannot apply international coursework to Associate Degree for Transfer, CSU General Education Certification, or IGETC Certification for transfer purposes. Although some courses may be accepted by the institution to which the student transfers, it is up to the destination institution to evaluate and determine what coursework will be accepted and how it will apply to the degree. For more information consult directly with the 4-year college that is the transfer destination.