Master's (Academic) FAQ

There are 3 types of transfer credit or waivers:

• Transfer credit from other universities

• Transfer Credit from UCSD Extension

• UCSD Undergraduate Course Waivers

Transfer Credit

Please view policy details here and below: https://grad.ucsd.edu/academics/policies-procedures/index.html#Transferring-Credit

• No more than one-half the total units required for a master's degree may be transferred.

• A student may petition to transfer courses completed while in graduate standing at another UC campus (including UC San Diego Extension XSDC courses) for up to one half the total master's degree unit requirement.

• A maximum of eight quarter units of work completed while in graduate standing at an institution other than UC may be transferred.

• Eligible course work may not have been used to fulfill the requirements of any other degree or certificate, and must have been completed with a B- or better grade and must have been taken prior to enrollment as a graduate student at UC San Diego. 

• A student must submit proof that the course work to be transferred was not used to satisfy requirements for any other degree or certificate program. Degree checks or a letter from the institution from which the courses are being transferred will be required stating the courses were not used toward another degree or certificate. 

• Official transcripts of transfer course work must accompany the petition OR be on file at GEPA. 

• Under no circumstances will transferred work be included in calculating a student's GPA nor will it appear by class on the transcript.

Approval for transfer credit from another university is rare, as most students do not meet all of the criteria listed in the policy. 

• Please make sure that the student meets all criteria before submitting request.

• Transfer credit is processed for use towards a master’s degree only. PhD programs are not course-based, therefore transfer credit is not applicable / processed. 

• Follow the steps listed in the PDF below.

UG Waivers

Please view policy details here: https://grad.ucsd.edu/academics/policies-procedures/index.html#Waiving-Course/Unit-Requirement

This policy applies only to master's degree students who completed their bachelor's degree at UC San Diego. 

• On the recommendation of the graduate program/department and with the approval of the graduate dean, UC San Diego undergraduates admitted to a master's program may request to waive units required for the master's degree.

• Up to one half of the quarter units of credit required for the master's degree may be waived on the basis of upper-division and graduate course work completed with a B- or better while an undergraduate at the San Diego campus.

• Waived course work will not be included in calculating a student's grade-point average.

• Approval of such a petition will be notated on the transcript as, "X Units of Credit Waived based upon UCSD Undergraduate Record."

Full documentation on the policy and procedures for transfer credit and UG waivers are available in the following PDF: 

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There is no maximum determined by Academic Senate; students should be encouraged by the department to graduate as soon as they’ve completed the requirements. Some departments do have time limits for master’s students; it would be stated in the program’s catalog copy.

However, there is an academic residency requirement. The minimum residence requirement is three quarters. Residence is established by satisfactory completion of six units per quarter.

Yes. The actual date the student passed the comp exam exam should be listed the Plan II Final Report Form, which should be submitted when coursework requirements have been completed and the student wants to graduate. (*Note: A Plan I FRF would need to be submitted for a thesis student.)

For all students - Plan I (MA/MS thesis), Plan II (comprehensive exam), Plan III (MFA thesis)

Final paperwork to be submitted by the department:

• Application to candidacy/uAchieve (due by the 3^rd Friday of the quarter in which the student wants to advance),

• Final Report Form/FRF (due by the last Friday of the quarter in which the student wants to graduate), complete with all required signatures.* (see below for information on who has signature authority) 

All students need to successfully complete the courses listed on their APPC, have a GPA at or above 3.0, no more than 8 units of U/F, and pass their comp exam or thesis/defense. Additional paperwork for all Plans are only needed if students need to waive academic residency (if they haven’t been registered for 6+ units for at least 3 quarters), are seeking to graduate while not in good academic standing, or have a previous master’s degree. The Graduate Academic Affairs Advisor will go over the process to submit a General Petition in these cases. 

*The Graduate Council (in March 2021) approved department/program faculty leadership to delegate signature authority to staff designates for approval of academic master’s comprehensive exams (Plan II).

• Each program may determine its own delegation of authority for master’s comp exams (Plan II).

• To implement a staff designate, the graduate program faculty are required to vote on all master’s comp exams at the end of each quarter. Once unanimous faculty approval is given, the designated staff member has authority to sign the final report forms (via DocuSign) on behalf of faculty advisors and department chairs/program directors.

• There is no need to notify GEPA that the staff delegate process is being used. Please note that the name of the staff designate must be listed on the DocuSign routing, even if a role account is used for the email address.

See the DocuSign instructions on the DocuSign Forms page.

Plan I and III (thesis) students must also complete/submit the following by the last Friday of the graduation quarter in order to be eligible to graduate in that quarter:

• Preliminary Thesis Review appointment with a Grad Academic Affairs Advisor

• Signed embargo form uploaded to ProQuest

• FINAL, formatted version of their thesis, uploaded to ProQuest

• May or may not apply to student: Signed Cover Letter and all Co-author Permission Letters

See the Registrar's enrollment/registration calendar for the specific deadlines.

View Training Documentation: Steps to MS/MA/MFA Degree Completion: APPC & FRF  (Scroll up/down or use up/down arrow keys to go through slides)

If GEPA did not receive a FRF for a student by the deadline (ie the last Friday of the quarter), then the student will be eligible for a degree the FOLLOWING quarter. “Receive” is defined as follows: the FRF has been signed by the Department/Program Chair (or their staff designee), which sends the form into the GEPA queue for review/approval/processing. 

If there is a need for the student to have their degree conferred in a previous quarter, then the department may submit an exception request for a retroactive degree. See below for specific information to be included in the request.

Examples of extenuating circumstances: 

• PhD student suddenly decides to leave the PhD program with a terminal master’s degree.

• Student notified the department of their intent to graduate this quarter, but the department did not submit the FRF on time, due to an administrative error. Include documentation, such as a copy of the email from the student to the department, dated prior to the deadline.  

• The Graduate Coordinator submitted the FRF on time, but the Department/Program Chair /Designee did not sign it by midnight on the deadline date. Note: Graduate Coordinator is responsible for monitoring forms and reminding Dept/Program Chair to sign any forms that are outstanding, by the deadline.

FEES:

• If the student is not registered in the quarter in which their degree will be conferred, a filing fee in lieu of registration will be assessed when the degree is processed. This is true even if the student was on a Leave of Absence (LOA) in their graduation quarter.

• In addition to the above, if the student was not registered (or on an LOA) in the quarter just before their graduation quarter, a readmit fee will be assessed, in addition to the filing fee.

• Please be sure the student is aware of these fees and check the appropriate box(es) on the FRF:

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Process to submit a Plan II (comp exam) late/retro FRF, as an exception: 

1. Submit FRF in DocuSign.

2. Send an EMAIL request to the appropriate GEPA advisor, cc'd to your Department/Program Chair. This alerts us to the fact that this FRF is in DocuSign, waiting for us, as it is likely separated from the other FRF's for that quarter. Be sure to cc to the Department/Program Chair as this serves as their signature for the request. In this email:

   • Provide an explanation of the extenuating circumstances that led to the FRF not being received by GEPA by the deadline date.

   • In the event of an administrative error, include what the department will do in the future to resolve this problem/avoid similar situations.

   • Explain why the student needs their degree processed retroactively and how the student will be adversely impacted by waiting until the following quarter for the degree to be processed. Ex. they are starting a job in a few weeks; they are applying to medical school, etc.

   • Attach back up documentation as necessary.

3. The request will be reviewed by the Senior Associate Dean at our weekly meetings, and if approved, the FRF will be reviewed & processed in the normal manner.

Process to submit a Plan I/III (thesis) late/retro FRF, as an exception

This process is more complicated as the student must also have completed the following on/before the deadline:

• Defended the thesis

• Completed a preliminary thesis review appointment with a Grad Academic Affairs Advisor

• Uploaded the final version of the thesis to ProQuest

Please contact the appropriate GEPA Academic Affairs Advisor should this situation arise. At minimum, the 3 steps listed under the Plan II instructions would also need to be followed.