Transfer Credit Policies

Cal Lutheran accepts college-level course work from regionally accredited institutions.

  • Courses, which are technical, vocational or personal enrichment in nature, are not transferable.
  • Courses which are transferable but do not meet general education or major requirements will be credited as elective credits and will be counted toward the total number of units needed for graduation.
  • Courses from colleges that are not regionally accredited are not transferable without a petition.
  • All two-year and community college courses transfer as lower-division credit regardless of upper-division equivalency.
  • All students must complete at least 124 semester units to graduate from Cal Lutheran including their general education and major/minor requirements and at least 40 of these must be upper division (300 or 400 level courses).
  • Students transferring to Cal Lutheran as a senior must complete all of our general education and major/minor requirements and satisfy the residency requirement.
  • Pass/Fail or Credit/No Credit courses may not be used to meet general education or major requirements.

Four-Year Institutions

Contact the Registrar's Office (805) 493-3105 for specific questions about transferring courses from four-year institutions for currently enrolled students. Incoming transfer students contact Admissions (805) 493-3135.

Currently Enrolled Students

Cal Lutheran students must submit Transfer Approval Form prior to taking courses to the Registrar’s office.

IGETC Pathway

Students transferring from California community colleges who, prior to transfer to Cal Lutheran, have fully satisfied the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) need only complete the foreign language requirement and one religion course to meet the CORE-21 general education requirements.

CSU GE-Breadth Pathway

Students transferring from California community colleges who have fully satisfied the CSU GE-Breadth Certification need only complete one upper division religion course and a third humanities course (if separate courses from Philosophy and Literature are not completed as part of the CSU GE-Breadth) to meet our CORE-21 general education requirements.


As coursework is constantly changing at Cal Lutheran and these community colleges, articulation guides are constantly being updated. New requirements by the State of California for teacher credential candidates have resulted in changes in the Liberal Studies articulation agreements. If you have specific questions about a course and its Cal Lutheran equivalent, please call us at (805) 493-3105.

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