The Engineering Communications Requirement and Transfer Credit Considerations

Please see Cornell University Registrar: Credit Evaluation Services for more details.
Page Contents

Transfer Course Minimum Requirements for the Engineering Communications Requirement (ECR)

  • Transfer Courses Minimum Levels

    Transfer courses to be considered for fulfilling the Engineering Communications Requirement (ECR) should be junior (3xxx) or senior (4xxx) level courses.

  • Regular Transfers, Study Abroad Courses, and Global Hub Courses

    The below information applies to regular transfers, Study Abroad courses, and Global Hub courses.

Transfer Credit Requirements and Review Process

  • Accreditation Requirements for Transfer Credit

    Any U.S. institution from which transfer credit is sought must be regionally accredited by the United States Department of Education.

    See Cornell University Registrar: Credit Evaluation Services for more details.

  • Required Materials for Transfer Credit Evaluation for ECR

    Transfer credit will be considered, initially, only upon the student’s submission of a syllabus for the course for which the student is seeking credit and an official transcript from the institution at which the credit was earned.

    • Note: For more information on how to begin the process, see Guidelines and Process for Transfer Credit Consideration.
    • All students asking for ECR consideration will be asked for syllabus, transcript, sample assignments, drafts, and graded final pieces.
    • Note: Students in Study Abroad or Global Hub placements should ask for consideration for transfer in advance of enrolling in a communications courses at their target institution.

  • Academic Departments Decide on Course Equivalency

    Equivalency is evaluated by the academic department/major that offers (or is the parent department of) the Cornell course in question.

    • Note: For the Engineering Communications Requirement, if the syllabus and grade are promising, the College Curriculum Governing Board’s Subcommittee for Engineering Communications will request additional course materials including assignments, drafts, and final versions of written, oral, and/or other course artifacts. No equivalency credits will be granted without the additional materials. Expectations are that the transfer course to be considered is more than a writing-focused course.
    • Note: To determine if a course may meet the threshold for consideration, please see Guidelines and Process for Transfer Credit Consideration.
    • Note: Students in Study Abroad or Global Hub should ask for consideration for transfer in advance of enrolling in a communications courses at their target institution.

  • Time Limit for Transfer Credit Eligibility

    As a rule, courses completed seven or more years ago are not eligible for transfer credit.

Guidelines and Process for Transfer Credit Consideration

Any course requested for transfer credit consideration for fulfilling the Engineering Communications Requirement should be at a junior (3xxx) or senior (4xxx) level.

Courses such as “Technical Communication” or “Engineering Communication” are the most obvious equivalents. Such courses focus on writing, presenting, using multimodal forms, rhetorical strategies, genres, ethics, AI, and more; courses submitted for consideration must address, at their core, communication for the engineering, science, and technical fields.

Many common writing-only courses or general presentation courses or experiences will not be considered as equivalent.

Example Courses That Will Be Declined

This is a non-exhaustive list of some examples that will be declined for fulfilling the Engineering Communications Requirement.

  • General upper-division writing courses
  • All fiction writing courses
  • All literature studies courses
  • Non-fiction writing courses
  • Business writing courses
  • All marketing courses
  • All journalism courses
  • General oral presentation courses (those that do not specifically focus on delivering technical, engineering, or scientific content)
  • Multimedia courses (writing blogs, producing video, etc.)
  • UI/UX courses
  • MOOC courses 
  • LinkedIn Learning, Coursera courses, or similar
  • eCornell individual courses or certificates, or similar from other institutions
  • Professional or executive education courses
  • Undergraduate courses in engineering that happen to have writing and/or presenting as some of the artifacts for course completion
  • Teaching or research assistant positions

Minimum Requirements for ECR Consideration

  • Checklist for Consideration

    The proposed class for consideration

    1. is not the kind of course in the bulleted list above, and
    2. was a junior (3xxx) or senior (4xxx) class, and
    3. was passed with a grade of “C” or higher, and
    4. was a 3-credit course or equivalent, and
    5. was from an accredited university or college, per Cornell guidelines, and
    6. was taken within the last seven years, and
    7. can be verified and supported by a student-provided course syllabus, example assignments, and saved files of completed assignments.

Students: To Begin the Consideration Process

To begin the process of consideration for a transfer class to fulfill the Engineering Communications Requirements (ECR), students should send an email to engrcomm_info@cornell.edu with “Transfer credit inquiry” in the subject line.

The Engineering Communications Program will then advise of next steps and provide a list of expected materials for consideration.

For the Engineering Communications Requirement, the appropriate body for assessing transfer credit requests is the College Curriculum Governing Board’s Subcommittee for Engineering Communications. The Engineering Communications Program will shepherd each student’s request to this committee and respond to students with the outcomes.