PHYSICS TRANSFER/SUMMER CREDIT

(last updated on December 13, 2011)

Students frequently request transfer credit for physics courses taken at other institutions, commonly for courses taken before they matriculated to CWRU.  Many also request approval for courses they wish to take elsewhere in summer school or in Junior Year Abroad-type programs. Current CWRU students should obtain approval IN ADVANCE before taking a course elsewhere; this policy is in place to protect YOU, so that you don't mistakenly take a course that will not be accepted for transfer credit.

Contact the Office of Undergraduate Studies in Sears 357 to obtain the forms you need or look at the web site http://www.case.edu/provost/ugstudies/forms.htm for the following two forms:

http://www.case.edu/provost/ugstudies/offcampus2009.pdf is used for requesting approval in advance to take a summer course

http://www.case.edu/provost/ugstudies/transfercreditapprovalform.pdf is used for approval after the fact of a course you took at another institution before you matriculated to CWRU.

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There are several general policies that steer the physics department's decision on whether to grant such credit. If you are seeking approval for a course not listed below, YOU need to provide DETAILED information about it. Ideally, you should obtain a syllabus that describes the textbook used and the topics covered. Simply sending along the name of the course is not sufficient since the same name, say MECHANICS, could apply to a high school, introductory college, advanced or even a graduate course. A General Bulletin-type description is occasionally sufficient, but not always.

Introductory Physics Courses such as PHYS 115, 116, 121 & 122

There are three major concerns for transfer credit for these courses.  When you ask the physics department's academic representative to sign the form allowing transfer credit, you must present evidence (hard copies of documents or URL's of appropriate web sites) that the course you wish to take satisfies each of the following conditions.

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1.  MATH LEVEL:

PHYS 121/122  are calculus-based courses.  Any substitute must also be calculus-based, not algebra-based. The information you provide to have a course approved must CLEARY show that it is calculus-based. If this information simply lists a math course number as a prerequisite, you should provide material that shows this prerequisite is calculus.

PHYS 115/116 have also traditionally been calculus-based at CWRU but the physics department voted in December 2002 to modify this requirement, effective for the fall of 2003, and remove the calculus prerequisite.  This change was approved by the College of Arts and Science's Committee on Educational Programs at their May 15, 2002 meeting.  Since students at Case do commonly take calculus before taking physics, the instructor is free to introduce some calculus in our life science physics sequence, but we now use a text that is designed for life science students (algebra-based) and will accept algebra-based courses from other institutions.

HOWEVER, faculty in several CWRU departments that house pre-med students were not pleased about the switch from a calculus to an algebra-based pre-med sequence.  Some thought this would put students at a disadvantage if they later chose to pursue a career in medical research or switched to another major with more rigorous mathematics requirements. You may wish to consult your major advisor before proceeding to choose a physics course.  

Ideally, a university will publish in its paper- or on-line General Bulletin information describing a course as either algebra- or calculus-based.  If they do not do this, then you must find out through other means, such as

- examine the prerequisites to see if calculus is required;

- find out the name of the textbook, anything described as 'College Physics' is probably an algebra-based course, 'University Physics' is a buzzword for a calculus-based course, 'General Physics' is probably calculus-based but this is not guaranteed.

- check for a course web page that the institution may have posted from the current or previous semesters;

- contact the university and ask the question directly.

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2.  CONTENT & HOURS: The courses must meet for roughly the same number of total hours and cover roughly the same material as do PHYS 115, 116, 121 and 122 (as described at  http://www.phys.cwru.edu/undergrad/desc.php )  An exact content match is not necessary,  an overlap of 80% or so is common.  These conditions are generally straight-forward to meet but can become complicated for universities that operate on academic calendars based on quarters rather than semesters. If the institution at which you plan to study physics operates on quarters, then most likely you will need to take three of their physics courses in order to obtain credit for two Case courses (or two courses to get credit for one).

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3.  LAB: PHYS 115, 116, 121 and 122 each include a laboratory component.  These labs meet for 3 hours, 7 times a semester.  Many universities include such a lab as part of their introductory physics courses while others list the labs separately, usually as a 1 credit course.  Either system is acceptable as long as there is a lab that you will take. Some institutions regard physics plus lab as 5 credits but this will only transfer to Case as 4 credits. There are a few institutions which do not offer a lab for PHYS 121/122 or offer only a single semester of lab for this sequence of courses. You cannot obtain transfer credit for any of PHYS 115, 116, 121, or 122 until you complete a laboratory associated with that course. Case does offer separate stand-alone labs, PHYS 113A and PHYS 113B, which can be used to satisfy the lab requirement for transfer credit lecture courses if approved by the Office of Undergraduate Studies.

Advanced Physics Courses - 200 level and above

These courses vary a great deal from institution to institution.  Students who wish to take an advanced physics course from another institution should obtain a course syllabus from that institution and arrange a meeting with the academic representative of the CWRU Dept. of Physics. 

Contact the academic representative of the Department of Physics (Prof. G. Chottiner, gsc2@case.edu ) for more information or for approval of your Transfer/Summer Credit form.  You may stop by my office, Rockefeller 104D, for a signature at any time without prior arrangements if you have all the documentation described above. It can be useful to first send an email with attachments or links for all the relevant information, preferably including a syllabus. I do not maintain regular office hours; it's impossible to do this given the number of meetings that I'm called to attend on short notice. Instead, I've posted a copy of my regular schedule on my office door. If you have trouble catching me, just send an email listing 3 or so times that fit your schedule and I'll get back to you with a firm appointment at one of those times or, if none works, suggestions of alternate times. If you prefer, and IF you've done all your homework, you may just leave your form at my office (slide it under the door or leave it on the neighboring bookshelf; in the latter case you should point me to it by leaving a post-it note on my door - there's a supply of post-it notes handy) or mailbox (Roc 225). I'll sign it and leave your form on the bookshelf outside my office for you to retrieve at your convenience.

APPROVED COURES - as of June 2, 2011

The following courses have been approved for transfer credit as of the date shown. We can't keep track of changes made by other institutions and won't guarantee that the courses in the following table will continue indefinitely to serve as substitutes for our own courses or that they will be available at any given time. If the approval date listed below is more than five years old, the course should be reexamined to determine if it is still acceptable for transfer credit.

A more complete listing of courses, covering all departments and going back further in time, is available below but these lists include courses which may no longer be accepted for transfer credit and should be used as a preliminary guide to the awarding of transfer credit; due to continuing curricular changes, transfer postings change over time.

• Local Community Colleges: See the posting "Credit Transfer from Cleveland Area Community Colleges" at
  http://admission.case.edu/admissions/application/transferAdmission2.asp
• Matriculated 2005-2007
• Transfer Courses - Alphabetical Listing
• Transfer Courses by Institution
• Matriculated 1997-2006
• Transfer Courses - Alphabetical Listing
• Transfer Courses by Institution

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