Alternative Credit / Credit for Prior Learning

The Student Learning and Student Services divisions collaboratively ensure appropriate procedures and guidelines exist for granting and recording the amount and level of credit for each course.

Amount of Alternative Credit Allowed

At least 1/4 of credit for a certificate, diploma, or associate degree required for graduation must be earned at Central Carolina Community College.
No more than 20% of credit for a certificate, diploma, or associate degree required for graduation may be earned through credit by experience.
A student may earn alternative credit in the following ways:

Advanced Placement (AP), CLEP, DANTES

Students may request credit for subjects tested under advanced placement exams such as AP, CLEP, and DANTES. Subjects must be applicable to the student’s current curriculum program requirements and test scores must meet American Council on Education (ACE) recommendations. Such credit must be supported by official test score reports. The following rules apply:

Students must request that official score reports be sent to the CCCC Student Records and Registrar’s Office for evaluation.
Credit will be granted only for scores earned within the last ten (10) years unless approved by the chief academic officer.
Credit will be granted on a course-by-course basis for courses closely paralleling those offered at the college and must meet the credit hours of the CCCC course for which transfer credit is granted.
Such credit will not be calculated in the grade point average.
An exam score of 3 or better is required to receive credit for an AP course.
Recommended ACE cut-off scores will be used for CLEP and DANTES.
Advanced Placement Credit will not be calculated into the GPA.

Credit by Examination

Students with prior proficiency in a course due to previous educational or work experience may wish to apply for credit for prior learning. The college helps to facilitate this goal by allowing challenge exam requests to award credit by exam. This option is available for selected courses as determined by the department chair/program director. A proficiency demonstration may be a written exam, oral exam, shop exercise, lab exercise, or combination.

To receive credit by examination, the student must complete the following:

Complete the Challenge Exam Request form prior to the start of the semester/session or within the first few days (fourth day of the 16-week session; third day the 12-week session; second day of an 8-week session).
Show evidence of preparedness for a proficiency demonstration (e.g., high achievement in secondary school, military service, and/or work experience) that must be submitted to and approved by the department chair/program director or their delegate.
Take the proficiency exam administered by the instructor no later than the fourth day of the 16-week session; no later than the third day of the 12-week session; no later than the second day of an 8-week session for the term in which the Registrar will transcribe the course. This allows the student to register for the subsequent class following in sequence.
Earn a grade of 85% or better on the proficiency exam.

College faculty and staff must complete the following:

Department chairs will approve or deny requests in a timeframe consistent with procedure and assign an instructor to administer the exam.
The assigned instructor records the challenge exam score on the Challenge Exam Request form and submits the form to the Records Office to award credit.
The Records Office enters the student’s proficiency exam score under ‘Other Tests’ in the Student Information System and assigns a grade of “CE” (Credit by Examination).

Proficiency demonstrations may:

only be attempted once.
only be attempted for the initial enrollment in the course.
not be attempted for courses being audited.
not be attempted for courses where the student has previously received a grade of A, B, C, D, F, W, or WF.

Credit granted through a proficiency exam:

Will not be calculated in the grade point average.
May not be transferred to other institutions.

Articulated CTE High School to Community College Credit

Students may request articulated credit based on CTE courses completed from a NC public high school if they meet the following criteria:

To receive articulated credit, students must enroll at the community college within two years of their high school graduation date.
Students must have earned a final grade of B or higher in high school CTE courses.
Students must have earned a score of 93 or higher on the standardized CTE post-assessment.
Students will complete a HS to CC Articulated Credit form available on the website.
The registrar will verify high school graduation date, CTE course taken, course grade and post-assessment grade.
Awarded credit will be issued tech prep non-course credit with a grade of CE which will not be included in GPA calculations.

Credit by Experience

Students may request credit for work experience, skills, or professional licensure or certification that directly correlate with competencies required in a specific course. The following procedures apply:

Requests for credit by experience must be properly made and acted upon prior to the 10% point of the class and must be made in writing on the Request for Credit by Experience form.
Credit by experience may not be granted for work based learning courses.
The department chairperson/program director or lead instructor will guide the student in determining the appropriate documentation necessary to evaluate the request. Documentation required will vary depending upon the field of study.
For guidance, the following are examples of the appropriate documentation: official work history with job responsibilities and proficiency ratings verified by supervisors and human resource officers within the company; a completed thesis verified by an official transcript could serve as verification that a student should receive credit for a technical writing course; electronically recorded presentations (taped presentations could be evaluated to determine credit by experience for an oral communications class); and brochures announcing a pottery exhibit and displaying the creations of the student could be used for an art class.
Experiences, which may require a demonstration of one’s ability, must be approved by the student’s curriculum department chairperson/program director or lead instructor, the subject area department chairperson/program director, and the chief academic officer.
Experiences must be officially documented per the college’s request.
Veterans may apply credit for training received under the armed forces college training programs and some specialized and technical training completed under the auspices of the armed forces. Appropriate documentation must be provided.
The approved credit recommendation should be submitted to the Records and Registrar’s Office.
The registrar will record a grade of “EL” on the transcript with credit hours; however, no quality points will be assigned.
Documentation shall be kept on file for five (5) years in the Registrar’s Office.
Credit granted for experience will not be calculated in the grade point average.
Financial aid is not available for credit by experience.
Credit by experience will not be entered on a student’s record until after the census date of the student’s first enrolled curriculum course with the college.

Internal Articulated Credit

Students may be granted articulated curriculum credit for non-credit courses that have an approved internal articulation agreement on file in the Registrar's Office.

Academic Policies & Procedures

Subpages