Earning & transferring college credits—good options if you are incarcerated

If you completed any Career & Technical Education (CTE) or college-level courses, whether before, during or after your incarceration, you may be able to apply the credit you earned from those courses toward a CTE certificate or a college degree. This is called “transferring” credits.[2879] The new school you enroll in recognizes the work you did previously (either while incarcerated or at your previous school), and does not make you retake those classes in order to earn your degree.[2880]

Generally, CTE programs and community colleges will accept credit from correspondence courses or other programs you completed while incarcerated. Four-year colleges and universities may accept some of these credits, depending on the program. Four-year colleges generally accept transfer credits earned at community colleges. Each school will have a different policy for applying transfer credits toward a certificate or degree program.

NOTE: Generally, you must have completed the course within the last 10 years and earned a C or better for a school to give you credit for it. Also, you cannot transfer credits from a non-accredited program to an accredited program. (See PG. 856 for information on “accreditation.”)

  1. 2879

    U.S. Dep’t of Educ. Office of Vocational and Adult Educ., Take Charge of Your Future: Get the Education and Training You Need (2012); see also Transferring Colleges, My College Guide, http://mycollegeguide.org/guru/15/transferring-colleges. ↑

  2. 2880

    U.S. Dep’t of Educ. Office of Vocational and Adult Educ., Take Charge of Your Future: Get the Education and Training You Need (2012); What is College Transfer, CollegeTransfer.net, http://www.collegetransfer.net/AskCT/WhatisCollegeTransfer/tabid/2320/default.aspx. ↑

  1. How can I find out if my credits will transfer?

  2. How do I transfer my credits?

  3. Distance education

    1. What is Distance Education?

    2. How do the two types of distance education work?

    3. Are there benefits to distance education?

    4. What credentials can I earn through distance education?

    5. How do I find and enroll in a distance education program?

    6. How much do distance education programs cost?

  4. Correspondence courses

    1. What credentials can I earn through correspondence courses?

    2. Are correspondence courses right for me?

    3. How do I find and enroll in a correspondence program?