How Long Do College Credits Last? A Comprehensive Guide

Have you already earned your degree and are now thinking about going back to school? If the answer is yes, you should strongly consider transferring as many of your old credits as possible. But when do college credits expire? After five years? What about after a decade? How long are college credits good for if you were a STEM major? And how does a college or university’s accreditation status impact your ability to transfer credits? This article provides a comprehensive overview of how long college credits last and what factors determine their transferability.

The Longevity of College Credits: An Overview

As a general rule, college credits do not expire. Once you’ve taken a college course, completed the requirements, and have been granted the credits, those are yours forever. The good news is that college credits last indefinitely, technically speaking.

However, whether you can earn a degree with those credits is a bit more complicated. Ultimately, it’ll be up to your new institution to decide. Even though college credits don’t technically expire, they can lose their value over time if they no longer match current academic standards or program requirements. Institutions look at how well your previous courses fit with current degree programs, and not all credits hold the same value over time.

Factors Influencing Credit Transferability

When moving to a different college or university, several factors influence the transferability of your credits. There is no definitive “five-year rule” or “10-year rule” regarding transfer credits, though there are three common areas of consideration: relevance, recency, and accreditation. In addition to accreditation, course relevancy, and time since completion, institutions consider whether the completed course is at the appropriate academic level (e.g., introductory, intermediate, advanced).

Relevance to the Degree Program

Are your previously earned college credits relevant to your new program’s degree requirements? Compare the courses you’ve taken to the program requirements and look for any potential alignment in the course content and objectives. Changing your major can impact how your existing credits apply to your new program. While core curriculum courses often transfer seamlessly, major-specific courses like business management might not count toward a new study of biology.

Read also: Decoding College Classes

Recency within Your Chosen Field

If you retook the course today, would there be crucial differences in the material? A course on the fall of the Western Roman Empire might largely cover the same material whether it was taken in the year 2025 or the year 2005; however, a 2025 course on data security might be quite different from a similar course taken just 10 years prior.

Consider the field of study of your previously earned credits: if it is susceptible to new developments, such as STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), older credits may be outdated. Generally, core curriculum, language, and humanities courses have a higher potential for a longer shelf life. Graduate courses may have a shorter shelf life, about five to 10 years because graduate programs are designed to focus on the latest information and interpretations within a field.

Accreditation Status

Accreditation status refers to the institution that granted your course credits. In order to express certain standards of education, college and university programs are assessed by third-party accreditors. You can check your previous institution’s accreditation status using the US Department of Education’s Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs.

It’s much easier to transfer college credits between regionally accredited schools. For instance, National University is a regionally accredited institution, meaning if you have credits from another regionally accredited college or university, you would likely be able to transfer those credits to a degree program at National University. College credits can be transferred across state lines, too. For instance, the geographic location of your former institute of higher learning may have been located in New York, but you may be resuming your academic career at a school such as National University in California. There is no time stamp on how long college credits last in California.

While nationally accredited colleges and universities often accept credits from both regionally and nationally accredited schools, regionally accredited schools only accept credits from other regionally accredited institutions. It’s much easier to transfer college credits between regionally accredited schools.

Specific Credit Types and Expiration

While the easy answer is that most college credits for core courses will stay valid for years - or even decades - certain types of credits may have a more finite shelf-life.

Core Curriculum Credits

Credits from core curriculum classes, which are the basic general education courses that make up your first two undergraduate years, usually transfer easily between colleges so you can finish your bachelor’s degree. Unlike graduate or STEM-related credits, which respectively expire after seven or 10 years, the credits you earned by completing core courses will generally remain valid regardless of how much time has passed.

STEM Credits

Typically, course credits within the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) expire within 10 years after the time they were earned. Due to ever-evolving technological and scientific advances, information learned in the STEM field more than a decade ago may be rendered obsolete and require students to rebuild a foundation grounded in newer practices before moving forward. Certain college credits in fields like biology, chemistry, and computer science expire after 10 years. This means you might need to retake certain classes, especially if they’re prerequisites for advanced coursework.

Graduate Course Credits

Institutions generally consider graduate course credits valid for up to seven years. If your graduate college credits have expired, you may need to revalidate them.

How to Determine Transferable Credits

To determine whether your previously earned college credits will apply toward a new degree program, you’ll want to learn about the transfer credit policies at your institution of choice. Or if you’re hoping to return to your previous institution, learn about their reinstatement and readmission policies. Colleges have freedom in determining whether or not to count previously earned course credits toward a current degree program, and the only way to find out whether your credits will transfer is to contact your new university directly.

Read also: The Length of a College Semester

If they don’t list any credit age limitations, it’s possible that they will consider transfer credits from all previous courses, regardless of age. Depending on how many credits you’ve earned, you might also want to take note of any upper limits on the number of transfer credits a school will accept. More accessible undergraduate programs may accept up to 90 transfer credits, or about three years of full-time coursework, toward a bachelor’s degree.

Before you contact the admissions office, you may want to be ready to provide the following information:

The name of your previous institution
Dates you attended
Classes you took and number of credits earned
The program you are looking to transfer into

You can find the first three items on your transcript from your previous institution. Ask your new school’s admissions office if they offer a cursory transcript review for prospective transfer students. Commonly, institutions won’t offer an official transfer credit report specific to your coursework prior to admission, but some offer a cursory transcript review for prospective students.

Research Transfer Policies

Review the credit transfer policies of the institution you wish to attend.

Obtaining Transcripts

If you’re planning on resuming your college career, picking up where you left off with one degree, or pursuing a brand new one, you should find out how many college credits you have that can be applied to your new degree. To find out how many college credits you have, you’ll need to contact the college or university you last attended and request a transcript. Most colleges and universities have a web portal or form that offers digital transcripts to students, and former students can also use it to request transcripts. There is usually a small processing fee for requesting college transcripts (ranging between $3 and $10).

College transcripts do not expire and schools are obligated to maintain transcripts for all students who have enrolled in and attended their institution - regardless of whether or not that student graduated. Whether you last attended a school six months ago or more than two decades ago, you are able to request access to your permanent academic records from any school you’ve attended.

The institution’s registrar is responsible for maintaining all student documentation, including academic records such as transcripts. Your transcript will list all courses taken and total credits earned. Regardless of the amount of time that’s passed since you attended college, the registrar should keep a copy of your academic transcript forever. Although there’s no federal law mandating a period of time that colleges and universities must keep student transcripts, chances are that your transcript is part of your permanent record. Most colleges and universities retain transcripts indefinitely, allowing you to request a copy as needed.

Go through the registrar’s office at your previous institution in order to receive either a copy of your unofficial transcript (useful for your personal knowledge about your previous coursework or for submitting to your new institution for a cursory transcript review) or a copy of your official transcript (used when you’ve committed to your new program and are ready to officially transfer your credits).

You might be able to submit a request for your transcript online. They may have a “transcripts” tab where you can request a copy of your transcript, or where they’ll detail the request process. There, they’ll also list any information you’ll need in order to submit the request and how long it should take to fulfill.

Most universities will charge a fee for official transcripts. You’ll want to be prepared to offer them some identifying information, such as:

Your name (or the name they’re likely to have on file)
Your address or other contact information
What school you attended
The years you attended the institution
Contact information for the university you are transferring to

Once you formally submit your request, be sure to ask how long it will take to fulfill. They’ll also be able to tell you how long their review process will take and how you can expect to receive the results of their review.

What if Your Previous College Has Closed?

If your previous college has closed, transferring your credits requires some additional steps. First, you’ll need to locate the custodian of records, typically a state education department or a designated agency that has taken over the responsibility of maintaining student records. Once identified, contact the custodian to request your official transcripts. Additionally, gather any available course documentation, such as syllabi, catalogs, or assignments.

Maximizing Credit Potential

If your goal in transferring your college credits is to minimize time and money spent acquiring your degree, you may be able to maximize your incoming college credits even further by translating real-world experiences into credits:

Credit for work experience: Ask your institution’s admissions office how they assess credit for professional experience. They may have internal placement tests to determine potential credits, or they may accept external assessments, such as the American Council on Education (ACE) Working Transcript.
Credit for military service: If you served in the military, you may be eligible to request a Joint Services Transcript. Essentially, this document translates military service into terms a college admissions office can easily interpret.
Credit for independent learning: Tests like College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) exams can demonstrate college-level knowledge, regardless of where you gained that knowledge. Many universities offer credit for passing CLEP exams, and some may even apply those credits toward a degree program. Ask your university’s admissions office about their CLEP exam policies.

Transferring Credits: A Step-by-Step Guide

Once you’ve been accepted into your program of choice, decided to enroll, and accepted your admissions offer, it’s time to transfer your previously earned credits to your new institution. You’ll have to coordinate your transfer with both the registrar’s office of your previous institution and the admissions office of your new institution.

In 2023, about 13 percent of undergraduate students were transfer students in the US [1]. It’s very common for students to choose nontraditional paths toward their degree by piecing together coursework as their lifestyle allows.

Obtain copies of your transcripts: Start by obtaining your official transcripts from past institutions.
Apply to the desired university: It’s easy to submit your application to National University online. Once your application has been received, we’ll contact you regarding the next steps - and help you determine how many of your credits are transferable. Apply Online here.
Determine how many of your credits are transferable: There are various resources to help you determine how many of your credits will transfer, including our credit transfer calculator.

Ask if the admissions office has contact information for the transfer coordinator who will be working on your transfer credits. That way, if you have any questions throughout the process or want to submit a petition for appeal, you’ll have a direct line.

Overcoming Time Constraints

Institutions often set rules for how long you have to complete your bachelor’s degree, but you generally have some leeway to finish your program. Even if your situation falls outside that window, you can still return to college as an adult later in life to complete your education, and transferring previously earned credits can significantly reduce the time and cost of finishing your degree.

Finding Transfer-Friendly Programs

If you are concerned about age limitations, look for transfer-friendly programs. For example, University of North Texas’s Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences online degree program, available on Coursera, was designed with transfer students in mind. It allows students to transfer up to 90 qualifying credits from community colleges, technical institutions, and/or other universities. Their policy doesn’t specify an age limit on those credits, so incoming students are able to submit any college transcripts, regardless of age, for consideration.

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