Information for Transfer Students

Science courses that usually transfer from other colleges into biology majors at SIUE (but see cautions below)

Biology: General biology or zoology (usually accepted for Biol. 120), botany (for Biol. 121), genetics (for Biol. 220)
Chemistry: Inorganic chemistry (for Chem. 121 and 125), organic chemistry (Chem. 241 and 245)
Physics: College Physics (for Phys. 206)
Mathematics: College Algebra (for Math. 120), Trigonometry or pre-calculus (for Math. 125), Calculus (for Math. 150)

For transfers from two-year schools, also see the Transfer Articulation link on the SIUE Registrar's web page.

Cautions:

  1. If SIUE Biology offers or requires a course at the junior/senior level (300/400 level) in a particular subject, it cannot be transferred from a community (two-year) college, or from a four-year college if it is a freshman/sophomore course there.
    • Example: Microbiology taken at a two-year college does not transfer as Biol. 350, but as Biol. 250, a nonmajors course.
    • Example: Anatomy and physiology taken at a two-year college does not transfer as Biol. 340, but as Biol. 240a and/or 240b, nonmajors courses.
  2. Transferred courses must have similar prerequisites, laboratory requirements, and catalog descriptions to their equivalents at SIUE, regardless of the name of the course.
  3. Inorganic chemistry to be used in support of a biology major must be taken at a level appropriate for a science major, not the lower level chemistry that many colleges offer for pre-nursing students, etc.
  4. Survey courses offered for non-science majors are not usually accepted for credit toward a biology major.

General Education Requirements:

As of fall, 1998, general education requirements at SIUE were adjusted to comply with the Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI), which is a way to make it easier for students to transfer from one Illinois college to another. Students now meet SIUE's general education requirements by:

  1. Meeting the written expression requirement (usually by getting C's or better in Eng 101 and 102), and
  2. Completing the interdisciplinary studies requirement, and
  3. Satisfying either
    1. the IAI requirements or
    2. the SIUE revised 1993 general education program.

More information about the IAI is available at from academic advisement. Basically the student must meet the following requirements, with some additional details and restrictions that are available elsewhere:

  1. three communication courses, to include two courses in written communication and one in oral communication,
  2. one mathematics course,
  3. two science courses, one from the life sciences and one from the physical sciences, at least one of which must have a laboratory,
  4. three courses in the fine arts and humanities, with at least one in each area
  5. three courses in the social sciences, with at least one in each of two different disciplines,
  6. of the twelve courses used to fill these requirements, no more than two can be in the same discipline.

Just completing an AA/AS degree does not guarantee that you have met the IAI requirements. If you earned a AA/AS degree from a non-participating IAI school or a non-AA/AS degree from a participating IAI school, you will have to meet either the IAI requirements or the SIUE GenEd requirements.

If you have not completed requirements to meet the IAI core curriculum, you will need to complete requirements for SIUE's Restructured 1993 General Education Program. For biology majors, this is not significantly different from the requirements described in General Information for Advisees and listed in the checklists.