Preparing for MIT: Transfer credit & advanced standing

Many students who apply to MIT are passionate about learning and find ways to challenge themselves academically. Some applicants seek out dual enrollment opportunities, early college programs, and other ways to take post-secondary classes while they’re still in high school. Many of these programs offer both high school and college credit—or even associate’s degrees⁠01 If you're still in high school, you're considered a first-year applicant regardless of how many classes you may have taken at the university level—even if you graduate with both a high school diploma and an associate's degree. upon graduation—so you might be wondering about our policies on transfer credit. 

Broadly speaking, there are three ways to earn transfer credit or advanced standing at MIT. These policies and processes help make sure that you’re set up for success—not needlessly restrained nor recklessly advanced—in your MIT coursework.

Transfer credit

Most advanced coursework programs are “standardized” in theory; in reality, they can differ substantially between regions, schools, teachers, and even individual classes. Each department at MIT reviews transfer credit requests in the subjects they teach: the Department of Mathematics reviews all math courses, the Department of Chemistry reviews all chemistry courses, and so on. 

If you enroll at MIT, you can submit transfer credit requests and supporting materials to these departments over the summer before your first year, and the departments will make credit-granting decisions over the summer or in the fall. 

Advanced Placement & other standardized exams

There are some exams that are—by design and in name—standardized across the country or the world, such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, A-level, Baccalauréat, etc.

Some MIT departments have established credit policies if you achieve a certain score on Advanced Placement exams or common international exams. If you enroll at MIT, you can submit official scores and/or certifications to the Office of the First Year, and they will award you the appropriate credit as determined by the relevant departments.

MIT Advanced Standing Exams

Some students may not receive credit through either of the above methods, but they’re confident that they have been adequately prepared for introductory coursework at MIT through formal classes or independent study. In this case, you can always take an Advanced Standing Exam, or ASE, to test out of a course. 

An ASE is basically like taking the final exam before the class begins. If you do well, you get to keep your grade on the ASE as your grade in the class; if you do poorly, you can simply take the class instead.