This section explains the procedures that current Cornell students should follow to obtain CS transfer credit approval for courses taken at other accredited schools. For information about transferring to Cornell please visit University Admissions.

To apply for Computer Science Transfer Credit:

Please note: Starting Fall 2025 semester, the CS department will NOT approve transfer credit for courses taken online. Courses must be taken fully in-person in order to be considered for transfer credit beginning Fall 2025 semester.

You should first check with your college and your intended major department to confirm that they allow transfer credit to fulfill the requirement you’re intending to fulfill with transfer credit.

If you intend to major in CS:  you're welcome to use transfer credits for CS 111x. Please note that intended CS majors cannot use transfer credit to fulfill CS major requirements above CS 111x after they have begun studying at Cornell. If you have already taken the course(s) prior to matriculating at Cornell, it may be possible to receive transfer credit for CS 2110 and CS 2800, but it should be noted that it is rare for another school’s course to be approved for transfer credit for CS 2800 or above (even if the student took the course prior to matriculating at Cornell).

In order for a course to be reviewed by the CS department for potential transfer credit, it must at least include the topics listed below. Having covered the listed topics does not necessarily mean the course will be approved, but the course will automatically be denied without these required topics. If your course’s documents explicitly state that these required topics were covered, you may proceed with submitting your transfer credit request.

  • For CS 1110:  Must include recursion OR sorting.

  • For CS 2110:  Must include both graphs AND trees. We will also look for topics such as heaps, lists, queues and asymptotic complexity.

  • For CS 2800:  Must include finite automata. We will also look for topics such as number theory, probability, combinatorics and graph theory.

These required topics must be clearly listed on an official syllabus, topic list with university heading, or on the course’s website. The first step to our review will be to use CTRL-F to search for the above keywords and, if they are missing, your request will automatically be denied!

Please review your course’s documents thoroughly to make sure they include the required topics listed above before proceeding with the instructions below:

  1. Completely fill out appropriate sections of the Transfer Credit Form supplied by your college.

  2. Obtain a complete course description from the school where you would like to take, or have taken, the course for which you are requesting transfer credit. The course description must at least include the following:

    • Course syllabus

    • Course topic list or course schedule showing which topics are covered in each lecture.

  3. Save your college’s Transfer Credit Form (see step #1) and supplemental materials (see step #2) into a single PDF file. Please name this file in the following format: “Last Name, First Name_NetID_Cornell Course #_Transfer Credit Approval Request”. For example: "Cornell,Ezra_ec123_CS1110_TransferCreditApprovalRequest.pdf"

  4. Fill out and complete the CS Transfer Credit Survey which will ask you to attach the file from step #3:  https://forms.gle/McZJghbqUVc6hhFeA

  5. Your request will be reviewed and you will receive a notification by email.

    • If your request has been approved, you will receive the signed Transfer Credit Form in the notification email. You will be responsible for submitting the form to your college. You will also be responsible for arranging to have the other institution send your transcript to your college. Please see step #1 to learn about your college’s procedure for this.