Transfer Students

The School of Engineering’s Admissions website lists the admissions criteria for engineering transfer students. Mechanical Engineering follows the general engineering admissions criteria.

The University accepts, and will place on the student’s permanent KU record, credits for all academic courses taken at an accredited college or university. Vocational and technical institute courses are excluded. Course transfer equivalency from almost any university in the US, and a large number of international universities, can be found at the CredTran site. 

It is advised that potential students take only those courses which directly transfer as specific KU courses having a department and a number (e.g., ENGL 101 and MATH 125), because others may transfer as generic courses (e.g., ENGL U and MATH N) but not be acceptable as substitutions for the specific KU courses required for the KU-ME BS degree. Refer to Degree Curriculum.

General Course Transfer

Even though courses have been accepted by KU and placed on a student’s permanent record, some of these courses will not apply toward a degree in engineering, as specified by the following:

  1. Courses in which the grade was lower than C, other than courses satisfying the KBoR SGE, or which were graded credit/no-credit or pass/fail.
  2. More than 64 hours from community or junior colleges.
  3. Courses in advanced engineering science or engineering design unless they were taken in an engineering program accredited by ABET.

Engineering Course Transfer

In general, lower-level engineering courses from accredited by Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, http://www.abet.org. can count towards a mechanical engineering BS degree provided the grade earned was greater than a “D+” Engineering course number equivalents greater than KU Mechanical Engineering’s ME 399 cannot be transferred to count towards the 128 credit hour BS in mechanical engineering curriculum. For a non-KU course that might be related to a KU Mechanical Engineering course greater than ME 399 level:

  1. The KU Mechanical Engineering program may consider a one-time petition for transfer.
  2. To be considered for transfer, the petitioned course must have been taken from a program accredited by Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, http://www.abet.org.
  3. Study Abroad courses will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Transfer Students Who Completed the Kansas Board of Regents Systemwide General Education

The University of Kansas and Kansas Board of Regents (KBoR) require that all students, starting Fall 2024, meet the Kansas Board of Regents Systemwide General Education (SGE) requirements which is known as the KU Core 34 at the University of Kansas. If a transfer student has met the KBoR SGE requirements at another KBoR institution then they are exempt from meeting any additional KU Core 34 general requirements. By KBoR rule, a degree program cannot require program-specific courses to meet these criteria without special exception. Implementation of the SGE Math requirement is waived until at least the 2025-26 academic year. Exceptions were granted for mechanical engineering for science, economics, and ethics. They are as follows:

  1.  KBoR SGE Bucket #4: Natural & Physical Sciences (KU Core 34: Natural and Physical Science NPS), mechanical engineering requires Engineering (calculus-based) Physics I (lecture and laboratory) with a grade of “C-“ or better.
  2. SGE Bucket #5: Social & Behavioral Sciences (KU Core 34: Social and Behavior Science SBS), mechanical engineering requires ECON 104, ECON 105, ECON 142, ECON 143, ECON 144, or ECON 145 with a grade of “D-“ or better for 3 credit hours of the 6 credit hours required.
  3. SGE Bucket #6: Arts and Humanities (KU Core 34: Arts and Humanities AH), mechanical engineering requires PHIL 160 or PHIL 161 with a grade of “D-“ or better for 3 credit hours of the 6 credit hours required.

KU Residency Requirement

Important note: it is required that the last 30 credit hours of your degree program be taken on the KU campus. For this time period, exceptions must be petitioned and approved in advance of taking off-campus courses that you plan to transfer for your degree program.