You took some general education classes at the local community college a few years ago. Now that you're planning on attending an online college you can't help wondering if those credits will transfer. Transferring credits to an online degree could make a significant difference to the amount you spend on your online education, financially and time wise if you have several transferable credits.

Before you even ask if you can transfer the credits you earned at the traditional university check with the Council of Higher Education Accreditation and make sure the university you attended was an accredited school. There are very few schools that will accept transfer credits from an unaccredited school.

Don't make the mistake of assuming that just because your former school was accredited that the credits will simply transfer to your new academic institution. Almost every college student who has ever transferred credits has a horror story. It doesn't seem to matter if it is from traditional school to traditional school, online school to traditional school, traditional school to online school, there always seems to be glitch. Some students even run into problems when transferring credits from on degree to another at the same college. The best advice is to plan for the worse and hope for the best.

If you are trying to transfer several credits be prepared to be shut down. Several schools have a limit about how many transfer credits they are willing to accept. A few credit hours isn't a big deal but if your talking about several semesters worth you might be better off finishing your degree at your old school. Other schools don't care how many credits you are bringing, they're just happy to have you as a student and are willing to apply the credits you have to your degree.

Because every school has its own sets of guidelines when it comes to the transference of credits you really have to do your home work. The best thing you can do is to sit down with one of your schools guidance counselors discuss the situation with them. They are the only ones who really understand the schools policy. Do not try to get information from the service desk, insist on talking to the counselor, face to face if possible. If the counselor says that you credits are transferable make sure they explain how. Schools have been known to accept transfer credits but rather then apply them to the students actual degree they treat them as elective credits. Elective credits apply to the total number of credit hours a student take but don't replace any of your course requirements.

While you have the guidance councilors ear it wouldn't hurt to ask about how difficult it would be to transfer credits from the online school to another school. You might not be planning on switching schools before completing your degree but it never hurts to be prepared. The worse possible thing you can do is wait to address the issue of transferring credits. Start talking to people about transferring credits as soon as the school accepts your application. Some schools actually have a statute of limitations about transferring credits and if you wait to long the credits are no longer viable.