Guidelines

The Office of Admissions is responsible for keeping the Equivalency Guide current and accurate. We identify new courses and changes in existing courses at Washington state community and technical colleges and coordinate course reviews with the UW academic departments. Once the review process is complete, the new and revised course entries are added to the UW CC Equivalency Guide In addition, community colleges can request that new or changed courses be reviewed.

Community and technical college equivalency review process
UW departments equivalency review process

Washington state community and technical colleges review process

During our review process we might contact you for more information about a course so it can be accurately reviewed.  In addition, community and technical colleges can request that new courses and course changes be reviewed before the course is published in their catalog. Proposed courses are reviewed as time permits. A course cannot be added to the Equivalency Guide until it has been taught as part of your curriculum.

What we need for equivalency reviews

Washington community and technical colleges that wish to have courses reviewed should send us the following information for each course:

• Cover letter or memo from the college’s transfer coordinator that describes the request
• Course title, description and outline
• A syllabus, which include the title and authors of assigned textbooks, as well as a list of assigned chapters from each textbook
• If possible, a sample final examination with key
• An indication of how the course can be used toward requirements for the academic associate degree
• The quarter and year that each course will be first offered
• Links to any course websites or information online

You can send the information in one of two ways:

Electronically (preferred)
Email all of the requested information, as Word or PDF files, to the Equivalency Review Coordinator (uwequiv@u.washington.edu).

By Postal Mail: 
Please mail two sets of the course packet to:

UW departments equivalency process

The Equivalency Guide is an essential tool for UW departments, UW advising, and the transfer student community. We will send you information about courses that we would like to have reviewed.  If your department would like to have existing courses re-reviewed, contact the Equivalency Review Coordinator (uwequiv@u.washington.edu) and we will work with you to collect the information.

• Please review the course materials and return the transfer course recommendation as soon as possible to the Equivalency Review Coordinator (uwequiv@u.washington.edu).

If your department would like to have existing courses re-reviewed, contact the Equivalency Review Coordinator (uwequiv@u.washington.edu) and we will work with you to collect the information.

Instructions

You will receive an email with the course information and links to any related information on line. This will include course prefix and number, number of credits earned, and course prerequisites. A table may be included for you to use to assign equivalencies and, if appropriate, a UW graduation requirement.

A course can transfer as:

• A specific UW Course, for example ENGL 101: Course content is similar enough to a UW course in your department to assign that course as a direct equivalent to the community college course.
• A specific UW Course with additional requirements, for example, they must take both MATH& 153 and MATH& 254 for the courses to transfer as MATH 126 and 324: Course content taught in UW course or courses is taught over several courses, or in a different sequence, and is otherwise similar enough to assign a direct equivalency.
• Departmental generic, for example CHEM 1XX: Course content is not equivalent to a specific course offered at your department, but is consistent with your program. This is often preferable if the course is not a UW program admission requirement. The equivalency level is the same as the community college course level (CHEM& 110 would be CHEM 1XX).
• UW generic, for example UW 2XX: Course content does not fit within a specific program offered at UW, but is generally consistent with UW academic courses. The equivalency level is the same as the community college course level (HUM 260 would be UW 2XX).
• RC (restricted credit): These courses are not in the guide and are considered to be primarily vocational or technical in nature.
• NC (no credit): These courses are in the guide as No Credit.

If there are additional caveats, for example if they must have a 2.0 grade for it to count, please add that information.

Best Practice Suggestions

For courses that most commonly satisfy UW proficiency requirements or that serve as common prerequisites (gateway courses) for admission to UW programs (e.g., PSYCH 101 or MATH 124) it is helpful for students to have direct course equivalencies.

For courses that are similar to upper division UW courses, and are not common prerequisites or needed to satisfy UW program admission requirements, departmental #XX credit is perfectly acceptable, and sometimes preferable.

UW Requirements

If the course qualifies, please indicate the appropriate Area of Inquiry or proficiency requirements that the course meets: A&H, SSc, NSc, [C], and/or [RSN].

if you have any additional questions contact the Equivalency Review Coordinator (uwequiv@uw.edu) or the Office of Admissions.