Transfer Students

All transfer students are required to take the FWIS Writing Assessment in the summer regardless of whether a petition for transfer credit is submitted.

TRANSFER CREDIT

The Program in Writing and Communication accepts transfer credit for a First-year Writing-Intensive Seminar (FWIS) according to the rules and procedures established in Rice University's General Announcements and as administered by the Office of the Registrar.

To qualify for FWIS transfer credit, the equivalent course must be comparable in emphasis, methods, and types and number of assignments. The equivalent course must be content-based, yet emphasize written and oral communication. It is not necessary for the content of your course to match the content of an existing FWIS course. Students should have been expected to fulfill the following requirements:

  • Write multiple academic papers of various lengths and types.
  • Submit drafts and rewrite papers when assigned.
  • Read assigned texts that relate to required writing.

We will not accept AP credit to satisfy the requirement.

If you have taken a course that fits the above criteria, you will need to petition the Program in Writing and Communication (PWC) for transfer credit. Your petition must include the following:

  • A cover letter/email that includes complete contact information (campus or local address, phone number and email address).
  • A completed Transfer Credit Form from the Registrar’s Office. Please leave the "Equivalent Rice Course" section blank — the PWC will complete this portion. Note that regardless of the credit hours you earned from your transfer course, you will receive 3.0 credit hours for the FWIS course (all FWIS courses are 3.0 credit hours).
  • Course syllabus.
  • Transcript showing credit. An unofficial transcript or PDF printed from your online transcript portal are both acceptable.
  • Two sample papers from the course.
  • If available, copies of catalog or web page materials from the college or university showing the course number and course description. The copy must indicate the name of the university, date of the catalog and specific URL (if from a web page).

Submit the petition with all items as ONE PDF document with your name on it to the FWIS Transfer Credit Box by October 1st. You can expect to learn the outcome of your petition by October 15th. Incomplete petitions and documents without petitioner names will not be processed.

Mid-year transfers: If you matriculated to Rice in the spring, please submit your petition no later than August 1st. How we apply transfer credit depends on the outcoe of your First-Year Writing Assessment, so be sure to complete that assessment in the summer after your initial spring semester. You can expect to learn the outcome of your petition by the first day of Orientation Week.

All transfer students whose petitions are not approved will be assigned to enroll in their FWIS course during the spring semester of their first year.

If you have additional questions, please contact Dr. David Messmer, Director of the FWIS Program, at fwis@rice.edu.