Credit for Prior Coursework

New first-year and transfer students can request credit for prior coursework and override prerequisites

Entry into the UMass Computer Science Curriculum

Course eligibility is based on prerequisites posted to your official UMass transcript. Be sure to have all transcripts and Advanced Placement (AP) scores sent to the Admissions Office. If you believe credit has been withheld by the Admissions Office erroneously, you may submit a Transfer Credit Evaluation (TCE) for review and approval prior to New Student Orientation (NSO), so that you get the right courses. Schedule changes may be made before classes start, depending on whether seats are available.

Entry-Level Courses 

The first three courses in our curriculum are the introductory programming sequence courses:

  • CICS 110: Foundations of Programming: an introductory course intended for students with little or no prior programming experience.
  • CICS 160: Object-Oriented Programming is an object-oriented course intended for students with an introductory programming course, including AP CA A.
  • CICS 210: Data Structures: an introductory data structures course intended for students with experience in object-oriented programming. 

No Credit for the Same Course Twice 

Bear in mind that enrolling in a course for which you have already received AP or transfer credit will cause the equivalent UMass course (with grade) to be posted on your UMass transcript for zero credits. This means that the course will not be included in your UMass GPA. AP credit may be removed (allowing credit to be awarded for the course taken at UMass); however, this option does not apply to transfer credit.

Course Placement (Override of a Prerequisite)

First-year students 

Students enroll in eligible courses according to documented prerequisite coursework on their UMass transcripts. Request overrides at NSO for any CS courses where prerequisite posting is not finalized. Permission to bypass an undocumented prerequisite is not permitted for incoming Freshmen at NSO.

Transfer students

Request overrides at NSO for CS courses awaiting final posting of prerequisite transfer coursework. Prior to NSO, if needed, courses should be reviewed for UMass CS equivalency using the Transfer Credit Evaluation (TCE) process. Enrollment in CS courses for the first semester is subject to drops if prerequisites are not documented prior to class start.

Registration and overrides at NSO

  • Before NSO, submit AP Test Scores and final transcripts from other colleges/universities to the Admissions Office.
  • After Admissions has posted acceptable transfer coursework to your UMass transcript, if necessary, complete a Transfer Credit Evaluation (TCE) for unmapped courses (generic transfer, i.e., COMPSCI 1TRA, 1TRB) that you believe are equivalent to UMass CS courses.
  • Register for eligible courses at NSO.
  • Request Overrides for any CS courses with undocumented prerequisites and follow-up. Registration via overrides will be delayed until your transcript shows the prerequisite course.