PhD Transfer Credit Criteria

Graduate Level	Only graduate level courses are acceptable for transfer credit. A graduate level course is any course for which a student received graduate credit at their previous institution(s). This may include graduate level courses the student took as an undergraduate.
Acceptable Grades	A grade of B or better is required in a graduate level course to be acceptable for transfer credit
Accreditation	Previous graduate work must have been completed at a regionally accredited institution. International coursework must be in English in order to be evaluated for transfer.
Time Limit for Requesting Transfer Credit	Requests for transfer of units must be completed by the posted deadline.
Maximum Units	A maximum of 30 units may be transferred into the PhD program. If a student receives a waiver of courses beyond the transferable units, they must take elective units to meet the total unit requirement for graduation from PAU.
Units Awarded	Any course can only transfer in the number of transfer units equal to the comparable course at Palo Alto University, despite the number of units previously assigned to the course. The number of units of a course the student wishes to transfer must be equal to or greater than the units of the corresponding Palo Alto University course. Palo Alto University operates on quarter academic terms. Semester credits will be converted to quarter units for evaluation using a 1.5 quarter unit per 1.0 semester unit conversion.
Course Obsolescence	Courses must have been completed within 5 years prior to the time of matriculation at PAU.
Syllabi	Students must provide a syllabus/syllabi for the course(s) they would like to transfer. Course descriptions are not acceptable.
Appeals and Exceptions	Credit transfer decisions may be appealed, in writing to the Curriculum Committee.

The following courses are the only transferable courses:

PSYS800 History & Systems
PSYS801 Child & Adolescent Development
PSYS802 Cognitive Bases of Behavior I
PSYS804 Affective Bases of Behavior I
PSYS805 Biological Psychology
PSYS807 Adult Development & Aging
PSYS809 Psychopharmacology
PSYS811 Social & Personality Psychology
CLIN 802 Introduction to Evidence-Based Treatment
CLIN803 Psychodynamic Psychotherapy I
CLIN806 Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy I
CLIN809 Child, Adolescent, & Family Psychotherapy
ASMT809 Intellectual Assessment
ASMT810 Psychometric Theory
ASMT815 Assessment of Personality
ASMT818 Psychopathology & Psychodiagnostics II: Child & Adolescent Disorders
ASMT819 Psychopathology & Psychodiagnostics II: Personality Disorders
ASMT826 Assessment of Psychopathology
STAT809 Research Methods & Statistics II
STAT810 Research Methods & Statistics III

Students may not receive transfer credit for any additional courses, including the following:

MTHD808 Research Methods & Statistics I
CLIN800 Ethics in Clinical Psychology
CLIN801 Clinical Interviewing
CLIN825-827 Professional Standards in Clinical Psychology
CLDV800 Cultural Differences: Cross-Cultural Issues in Psychology
PRAC801-806 & PRAC830 Second- & Third-Year Practicum
DISS800 Dissertation
INTR800 or INTR801 Internship
ASMT800 Psychopathology & Psychodiagnostics I
Any electives

Please note that because the PhD program is billed on a flat-rate, quarterly tuition schedule, transfer or waiver of units will not result in a reduced tuition rate. Additionally, because of the PhD cohort model with required courses in each quarter, students' time to completion of the program will not be reduced; however, students who are allowed to waive required coursework will have more time available for supplemental practica, research assistantships, paid employment, and so forth.

Admission to the PhD Program for current MS in Psychology Students

Admission to the PhD program is not guaranteed for PAU students enrolled in the MS in Psychology program’s PhD Prep Concentration. Students must pass their Research and Statistic competency exam as well as all first-year classes, and they cannot have more than one B- in order to be qualified to interview for the PhD program during the summer between their first and second year. If admitted to the PhD program, all offers of admission are conditional. Students must pass all subsequent required courses for the PhD Prep Concentration, participate in the lab match process, maintain good standing with the program and the University, and take the required PhD summer courses before joining the PhD program’s second year cohort.

MS students who are admitted to the PhD program may defer one year; however, they must have successfully completed the MS program before being allowed to matriculate to the PhD program.

Students who graduate from the MS program in any concentration other than the PhD Prep Concentration cannot enter the PhD program without completing the PhD track courses and passing the Research and Statistics competency exam, and they cannot have more than one B- grade.