Frequently Asked Questions

Students, who have previously attended college or university outside of KCTCS, must apply to Jefferson and submit official transcripts from all college/universities to the Admissions Office.

Applications to Jefferson Community and Technical College are available online.

If you attended a Regionally Accredited college or university, your 100 & 200 level courses will transfer to Jefferson as long as you earned a passing grade of D- or better. If you need course work higher than the 200 level for graduation purposes you may discuss substitutions with your advisor or program coordinator prior to graduation. Courses from non-accredited colleges or universities will not transfer.

If you have credit earned through CLEP or Military Service you will need to submit official documentation for evaluation to Jefferson's Admissions Office.

To view a listing of courses and how they transfer, view the transfer equivalency database.

Once you have submitted all official, postsecondary transcripts, and your Admission to Jefferson Community and Technical College is complete, a member of the Records Office staff will complete your transcript evaluation within two weeks. Once the evaluation is finalized and posted to your student account, you will receive an email notification.

In order to be classified as fully accredited, a college or university must be a member of a recognized regionally accrediting association, such as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Credit earned from a Non-Accredited institution is not recognized in the Council on Postsecondary Educations general education transfer policy and will not transfer to Jefferson.

Regionally accrediting agency names differ depending on the institutions location. To view the accreditation status of your previous institution(s), you can search the US Department of Education’s Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs. Even if your previous college or university is not accredited all records must be submitted to Jefferson to comply with KCTCS Admissions policy.

Here are some of the associations that Jefferson accepts coursework from currently:

• Higher Learning Commission (formerly North Central Association of Colleges and Schools).
• Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.
• New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
• Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges.
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
• Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Your previous grade-point average (GPA) will not transfer, but the grades you earned will be notated on your Jefferson record. The amount of credits you earned will calculate into your Jefferson cumulative earned hours.

An official line-by-line (or course-by-course) evaluation of international coursework must be completed by a recognized international evaluation agency before Jefferson will consider these credentials for transfer credit. Jefferson suggests using World Education Services (WES) or Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. (ECE).

A complete list of accepted agencies and their contact information can be found on the website of the National Association of Credential Evaluating Services.

The student is responsible for arranging for credential evaluation by an accepted agency and is expected to pay all costs of translation and/or evaluation of these credentials.

After the review has been completed, the student should request that a copy of their evaluation be forwarded to the Jefferson Admissions Office. The Records Office will then determine specific course equivalencies if applicable. Courses that need further evaluation will be sent to the student’s academic area for consideration.

Degree credit work taken at a fully accredited college or university is recognized credit hour for credit hour. Quarter hours are recognized as two-thirds (2/3) of a semester hour.

For example: 4 quarter hours equals 3 semester hours, and 3 quarter hours equals 2 semester hours.

Transfer evaluations are only completed for degree-seeking students. Once transcripts have been received and Admission at Jefferson Community and Technical College is complete, your evaluation will be completed and posted to your academic records within two weeks. If you are in need of an evaluation for registration purposes an advisor or program coordinator can provide an unofficial evaluation.

Some courses taken at other colleges or universities may not be equivalent to courses offered to satisfy major requirements at Jefferson. If you think that a transferred course is compatible with requirements for your major, you may petition to have transferred coursework apply toward your degree. In such cases, you will need to supply a course description and possibly a copy of the syllabus for that class to the Records Office.

The student is expected to contact their own institution for the documents needed for appeal. Once documentation has been received the Records Office, in conjunction, with faculty in the petitioned course division will discuss equivalency options and make a final decision.

You will be notified of the appeal decision through your KCTCS student email.

1. Login to PeopleSoft.
2. Enter your User ID and password.
3. Select “Student Center” tile.
4. Go to Academics Section and select “Transfer Credit: Report” from the drop-down box.

Credits earned through other education programs, such as credit-by-examination, you may submitted to the Records Office. Only KCTCS approved exams can transfer. A listing of approved exams can be found in the KCTCS course catalog.

Official Joint Service Transcripts (JST) must be submitted to Jefferson Community and Technical College. You can request a copy of your transcript be sent to Jefferson from the Joint Services Transcript System. Contact the Veteran Affairs Coordinator/Certifying Official if you need information on how to request your JST or to coordinate the review/evaluation of your military service credit.

In order for your admission packet to be complete and before any of your transfer coursework will be evaluated, Jefferson's Admissions Office must receive an official transcript from each institution you have attended. The official transcript must list final grades and have a print date of less than six months old.

Official transcripts may be sent directly to Jefferson from your previous school, or you may submit transcripts yourself in the original sealed envelope provided by your previous college or university.

The college reserves the right to request an official transcript be sent directly by previous institutions.

If you are hand delivering a student issued official transcript, the transcript must be delivered in a sealed envelope from the sending school.

Military transcripts must be sent directly to Jefferson from the military.
To ensure you are not blocked from any courses that require prerequisites, you must submit transcripts prior to enrolling. All transcripts received become the permanent property of the college.

Please mail transcripts to:

Jefferson Community & Technical College
Admissions
109 E. Broadway
Louisville, KY 40202

If you would like to see if you can receive credit for prior learning experiences (i.e. industry certifications, apprenticeship programs, life/work experiential credit, etc.), contact Cassie Poole at cassie.poole@kctcs.edu or the Program Coordinator within your intended academic area.

Please contact the Jefferson records office by email at jf-records-office@kctcs.edu. 

This is a tricky question. A student can transfer whenever they meet the admissions standards of the university. For example - at UofL that is a 21ACT and 2.5GPA OR if they have completed 24 college credit hours with a 2.0 or better.

To complicate matters, different colleges within the university have different standards - a 2.8 for Business, a 2.75 for Engineering plus the completion of Calculus, Chemistry and Physics.

So the bottom line is that the student is responsible for checking the transfer admissions requirements for both the degree and the college.

Usually colleges only look at the number of college credit hours earned and the GPA for transfer students but some highly selective colleges or programs may have additional requirements.

No. Most four-year colleges only ask for 24 college credit hours before transfer but we encourage Jefferson students to complete the AA or AS before transfer.

Why? Students who complete the AA/AS do better after transfer and are more likely to complete the Bachelors degree and with the new transfer plans they are taking the same classes at a lower price at Jefferson.

Also, some college offer scholarships for student who have completed the AA or AS degree, prior to transferring.

Sometimes it is not in a students best interest to complete the AA/AS especially if specific courses are not offered at Jefferson. Sport Administration is an example. A student can transfer to a four-year and later send a transcript back to Jefferson to be awarded the degree. Research suggests that this additional credential is especially significant for underserved students.

For selective programs like Nursing, Physical Therapy, Architecture etc., students must apply to both the university and the program. Students are responsible for checking the program requirements, deadlines and application process. Encourage them to do this as soon as they arrive at Jefferson and also have them contact the program to which they are applying and talk to a program advisor to get the best information.

Kentucky law says: General Education Transfer Policy (64K PDF) guarantees that if a student completes an associate (AA or AS) degree at a KCTCS college, any Kentucky public university will accept their general education credits as meeting lower-division general education requirements if their KCTCS transcript is certified.

Applied Associate Transfer Agreement guarantees that the general education courses students take as part of an applied associate in science (AAS) degree program will transfer and count toward the lower-division general education requirements at the school to which they transfer. This means that if a student completes all of their general education courses or an associates degree in a KCTCS college that all Kentucky public universities must take those classes as the General Education courses for the Bachelors degree.

Caveat! This does not exempt them from any courses required for their major and often those required courses can also double as General education requirement.

Bottom line.  The sooner a student knows their major and transfer college, the faster they will graduate with no wasted hours.

Three ways:

1. Work with a transfer Advisor.
2. Use the Academic Program Plan, if available, for that college and major.
3. Contact an advisor at the transfer college and work with them on taking equivalent classes.

Another tricky question. A student can transfer as many credits as they have earned BUT must still have at least the minimal number of residency hours (ex. UofL requires 60 credit hours) at the 300 and 400 level to earn a Bachelors.

The bottom line is that any more than 60 is a waste of time and money so again, a well advised student who has taken classes specific to the degree will be on track to complete in a more timely way.

Community college transfers do as well or in many cases do better than native students and graduate at an equal rate if they transfer with 30+ college credit hours. Most professors at four-year colleges cannot tell who is a transfer student in their class. Research suggests that professors and advisors should encourage students to take the most rigorous classes available to make sure that they are well prepared for the university.