Policy on Transfer Credits from Master's Programs

Students may transfer up to 30 master's level credit hours into the Counseling Psychology doctoral program. Students can transfer in credits for (a) core psychology discipline courses (i.e., History of Psychology; Social, Biological, or Cognitive-Affective Aspects of Behavior), (b) Statistics / Research Methods courses., and (c) first-year graduate level counseling courses.  The student's advisor will determine whether course work is sufficiently equivalent and is appropriate for transfer credit, using referral to experts in the specific course content area as needed.

Because the Counseling Psychology Doctoral Program consists of more credit hours than is required by Purdue University / College of Education for a doctoral degree, students may find that, when they can transfer in credit hours for specific course requirements, they reduce the number of credit hours required to graduation. To illustrate, if Student A transfers in 3 credit hours for Social Psychology, then Student A's program is reduced by 3 credit hours because the Social Aspects of Behavior requirement has been met.

Students are required to take all core Counseling Psychology course work from the faculty at Purdue University, even when the student has completed similar course work at a different university. Core Counseling Psychology courses are those that are expected to be taught by a member of the Core Counseling Psychology faculty (Kelly, Hanson, Pistole, Servaty-Seib, Uruk) in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years of the program. This policy applies even when the course is taught by adjunct faculty.

Expectation Associated with this Policy:

Students who transfer in master's level credit hours are expected to increase their participation in research training. Note that some faculty may require registration for 1-3 credit hours for EDPS 590 when a student participates in the faculty member's research team; however, different advisors do different things with regard to such registration. Regardless of registration, students are expected to take greater advantage of research training opportunities when they have credit hours reduced.

 Restrictions / Limitations to this Policy:

1.   Purdue University / College of Education does not permit credit
      hours used to obtain the master's degree to be used to obtain the
      doctoral degree. That is, credits can be applied to only one degree,
      not two; therefore, if students were to transfer 30 master's credit
      hours, they must complete a minimum 60 credit hours at Purdue
      and fulfill all the program requirements.

2.   The master's course work must be equivalent to the courses required
      in the program and must be sufficiently recent that the knowledge
      content is still current.

3.   Students will not be allowed to apply for and complete internship
      without spending the equivalent of three years full-time study on
      campus in the doctoral program.