How to use Major Equivalency Guides for community college advisers and high school counselors

Beginning in 2021, NMU changed its "transfer guides" to Major Equivalency Guides to distinguish them as only providing equivalency information within a specific major in an easy handout, rather than providing pathway or sequencing information.

Major Equivalency Guides are published on Transferology and are publicly accessible to students. If a Major Equivalency Guide is needed for a major you don't see for your school, please submit a request for a guide or email us at transfer@nmu.edu.

 

Using a Major Equivalency Guide

This is an advising tool broken into two parts:

  1. The academic transfer equivalencies from the major
  2. Other academic and transfer admissions information

On the front of the guide, you and your student can see the specific courses in a particular major NMU has currently evaluated and in our database. These are publicly available in our transfer database, but this guide helps sort and organize them for you.

Next, on the back, we have information on NMU scholarships for transfer students, a how-to blurb for students, and information on general education classes. For students in Michigan, we recommend a student complete the Michigan Transfer Agreement (MTA). Otherwise, there are many individual options to choose from in the NMU categories; more than we can list in the brief guide. Most choices have been mapped out and are available in Transferology as well.

If you have any questions, feedback, or notice a guide needs updates as this change is implemented, please feel free to either contact the NMU Admissions Counselor for your college/territory or email Senior Associate Director of Transfer Recruitment, Lucas Abromowitz, at labromow@nmu.edu.

Frequently Asked Questions

In 2021, NMU changed its previous "Transfer Guides" to Major Equivalency Guides and created a request process. Major Equivalency Guides show ONLY the current transfer equivalencies in the NMU database for a particular major and public community college. 

The equivalencies shown are limited due to space to the major core, required concentration courses, or other required courses. Usually, elective options will not be shown, and a referral to the Bulletin should be made. 

Major Equivalency Guides are also updated to NMU brand standards and include more helpful information regarding admissions and scholarships.

As an adviser, counselor, or other staff/faculty we actually hope you don't have to make a request! Please use and share the guide directory with your colleagues, which can be accessed for free through Transferology.

Please share this information with students. They can make an account in Transferology and track their transfer courses in their portal, find information on schools, and reach out to those schools.

We have students make a guide request for several very important reasons:

  1. Prevent self-advising by connecting the student to the appropriate staff and getting assistance making their degree plan
  2. When we receive a request, if the guide does not exist yet and needs to be created, we can do that for a student. A student who sees the directory list and doesn't see their guide may think we don't offer that program.
  3. By receiving a student's contact information from the request, we know they're interested in more information about NMU. We can help them with admissions, scholarships, and other important info early. Their admissions counselor can make contact and begin to develop the relationship for a successful transfer to NMU.
  4. If you as an adviser submit the request, please check the box indicating you're an adviser. That prevents us from storing your info in our system. But it allows us to tailor the information we provide you.

We strive to respond to a request within 1-2 business days. However, as our admissions counselors are on the road and need to catch up to an email, it could take longer. If you don't hear anything from us in 3 business days, please feel free to check in with your college's NMU Admissions Counselor or email Senior Associate Director of Transfer Recruitment, Lucas Abromowitz, at labromow@nmu.edu.

A new guide may take longer to create as we research the available equivalencies and produce the final guide. We have resources and support to assist in the interim! Our Success Advisers (NMU academic advisers) in each department are able to help with understanding degree requirements. Just contact the department the major is in, or let the NMU Admissions Counselor know you need a connection.

Please let us know! We are happy to help update the guide and want you and your students to have the most accurate information possible. Contact either your NMU Admissions Counselor or email Senior Associate Director of Transfer Recruitment, Lucas Abromowitz, at labromow@nmu.edu.