Before you apply: use the guides
The transfer course guide and the preview tool show how courses from Wesconsin colleges and common institutions map to Porter equivalents. Check your intended major’s requirements against what you have or plan to take, and talk to a transfer adviser before your last term elsewhere — one different course choice can save a semester.
Associate degrees and general education
A completed transfer-oriented associate degree often satisfies most or all of Porter’s general education, arriving as a block rather than course by course. Career-technical associate degrees transfer more variably. Ask specifically how yours is treated; do not assume.
After admission: the evaluation
Send official transcripts from every institution. The evaluation assigns each transferable course a direct Porter equivalent or elective credit at the right level. It posts to your degree audit; run the audit as soon as it does and read every block.
Appealing an evaluation
If a course was placed as a generic elective and you believe it matches a specific Porter course, submit a syllabus (and sometimes graded work) with a course-equivalency appeal to the relevant department. Departments make these calls, and a good syllabus is usually what wins it. Do this early — it can change what you register for.
The residency rule
Porter requires a minimum number of your final credits — and often a minimum in the major — to be earned at Porter, no matter how many transfer in. Plan your last year around that rule so you are not surprised at the graduation check. A reverse-transfer agreement can send Porter credits back to complete an associate degree you were close to.
Connecting once you are here
Transfer orientation, transfer student meetups, and a transfer-friendly course-planning session exist because arriving mid-stream is its own experience. Advisers who work with transfer students know the credit questions cold — start with one rather than guessing from the catalog.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.