Foreign transferred credits not clearly indicated on official transcripts

[LittleHunger]

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Hi friends, I am applying this cycle and struggling to figure out how to document my transferred credits from a foreign institute.

I was thinking it should be a simple practice as instructed by AAMC (Independent Attendance, Credits Transferred | Students & Residents), which indicates if these foreign courses were transferred to a US institute, I should enter the matched US class name, hours and grade as it is shown on my US "official transcript".


However, I just looked at my "official transcript", the whole transcript just has one line documenting the foreign school’s name, total credits transferred and GPA (0) with nothing else indicating the class names etc. On my "unofficial transcript", it documents all necessary details which the AAMC is asking for (and the grade is all "CR", in the AAMC grading system guideline, it is equivalent to "P" using "P/F" system. I was a transfer student and did the first 1.5 years undergrad in a foreign institute before transferring to the states.


With that, I have no idea what the legit way should be to input those transferred classes. (1) if it should be fully identical to the US official transcript, I can only put that one line showing "total credits transferred" there as a single class with nothing else. (2) if I input course details as it is on my "unofficial transcripts", I anticipate AAMC should have no way to validate based on official transcript, which may be denied and lead to significant delay.


I can barely find a similar scenario online, but this post in 2019 (Course information not on official transcript | Student Doctor Network), where one body gave a suggestion to input them like AP courses (I don't have AP courses, but it sounds like AP credits on official transcript may also be shown just like a total hours with no further indication what they are exactly; in this case, applicants can distribute them as AP English etc by themselves and AAMC won't care); however, I don't know if this is the way to go as there are no further updates.


I have contacted AAMC twice on this issue, their response is like robot by repeating their policies I can see online but never answered my question.


Any input is more than appreciated!

 

[wysdoc]

I think your most likely way to make progress on this issue is to have a meeting with the registrar of the college where you earned your degree.
Bring copies of your "unofficial transcript" and your official transcript, to show them what you are talking about..
Ask them if an updated official transcript can be produced for you, which shows your foreign transfer credits and which department (math, bio, etc) the credits were applied to.

AAMC is unlikely to be able to process information from your unofficial course list.

 

[LittleHunger]

I think your most likely way to make progress on this issue is to have a meeting with the registrar of the college where you earned your degree.
Bring copies of your "unofficial transcript" and your official transcript, to show them what you are talking about..
Ask them if an updated official transcript can be produced for you, which shows your foreign transfer credits and which department (math, bio, etc) the credits were applied to.

AAMC is unlikely to be able to process information from your unofficial course list.

Thank you for response! AMCAS seems still accepting mailed transcripts from school (I think that is what that transcript request form is for), so it may be doable (I was thinking if the office could print out the unoffiical on their end and sign on it, it can probably work).

I just re-read the AMCAS guideline (Independent Attendance, Credits Transferred) and found I missed one bullet point below:

• If transfer credits are not assigned to individual courses, subdivide the credit-hour total as appropriate and assign credit hours to each course.

Does this sound like applicable to my case?

Thank you

 

[wysdoc]

Thank you for response! AMCAS seems still accepting mailed transcripts from school (I think that is what that transcript request form is for), so it may be doable (I was thinking if the office could print out the unoffiical on their end and sign on it, it can probably work).

I just re-read the AMCAS guideline (Independent Attendance, Credits Transferred) and found I missed one bullet point below:

• If transfer credits are not assigned to individual courses, subdivide the credit-hour total as appropriate and assign credit hours to each course.

Does this sound like applicable to my case?

Thank you

Double check page 15 of this year's 2026 AMCAS guide.
They prefer electronic transcripts by recognized vendors but will accept paper transcripts mailed directly from your college.