Approved External Credit
Matriculated students may apply for credit for relevant work experience outside a formal college setting. A maximum of 30 credits may be obtained by examination, external credit or equivalent credit, or a combination of these.
Credit by Examination
Credit by examination refers to examinations given by various external agencies, such as the Advanced Placement (AP) Program of the College Board, the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) of the Educational Testing Service, the Excelsior College Exams (ECE or UExcel-formerly the N.Y.State Proficiency Examination Program), or DSST Exams.
The ETS code for John Jay College is 002115. For Advanced Placement credit, students must receive a score of at least 4 or higher. The minimum score needed to pass a DSST Exam varies by the particular exam. The minimum score needed to pass the CLEP examinations and be considered for these credits is 50.
CLEP examinations are given in the following areas:
American Government
American History I
American History II
American Literature
Analyzing and Interpreting Literature
Biology (General)
Business Law (Introductory)
Calculus
Chemistry (General)
College Algebra
*College French
*College German
College Mathematics
*College Spanish
Educational Psychology
English Literature
Financial Accounting
College Composition
Human Growth and Development
Humanities
Information Systems and Computer Applications
Macroeconomics
Management (Principles)
Marketing (Principles)
Microeconomics
Natural Science
Pre-Calculus
Psychology (Introduction)
Social Sciences and History
Sociology (Introduction)
Western Civilization I
Western Civilization II
*Please note: In order to receive credit for Foreign Language CLEP Exams, students must pass both the CLEP exam and a composition exam given by the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures (by appointment only).
For more details about these exams see the appropriate website:
Advanced Placement http://apcentral.collegeboard.com
CLEP http://clep.collegeboard.org
DSST http://getcollegecredit.com
Excelsior College Exams http://www.excelsior.edu/exams
If a student does not pass the composition portion of the exam, an appeal can be placed by notifying the department. The student’s composition will then be assessed by an additional faculty member.
For languages other than those taught at John Jay College, students may apply to a CUNY College that does teach that language for a composition exam. The results will be sent to the John Jay College foreign language department. If the language to be tested is not taught within CUNY, the student can be tested by New York University for a fee. For additional information on credit by examination, contact the CLEP Administration Center at 800.257.9558 or online: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html.
Military Credit
Students are generally granted 6 credits for military service. Contact Jay Express Services to have these credits awarded.
The college also follows the recommendations of the American Council on Education (ACE) in granting credit for military training, based on review of students' military transcripts. Members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and National Guard order official transcripts through the Joint Services transcript (JST) system at https://jst.doded.mil. After requesting an official transcript through JST, notify the Office of Testing and Evaluation at testing@jjay.cuny.edu and they will retrieve your transcript from the JST system. Members of the Air Force order official transcripts sent to John Jay from the Community College for the Air Force (CCAF) at http://www.au.af.mil/au/barnes/ccaf/transcripts.asp.
External Credit for Public Safety Personnel
External credit is granted for non-collegiate education programs that the College has judged comparable in content and quality to specific courses or areas taught in its departments.
New York City Police Department officers may receive external credit for the following courses completed with a grade of C or better at the New York City Police Department Academy, provided that these courses have not previously been completed as regular college courses. Twenty-nine total credits will be completed using the following: Police Science 101 (4 credits) Police Science 207 (4 credits), Law 203, (4 credits), Law 204 (4 credits), Psychology 221, (4 credits), Sociology 201 (3 credits), Physical Education 103 (3 credits), Physical Education 113 (3 credits), an additional physical education course (3 credits), and 3 credits for field training.
New York City Department of Corrections recruit training qualifies for external credit for: Criminal Justice 101, Corrections 101, Corrections 201 and Corrections 282, as well as blanket credit for a course in Sociology, Physical Education, and another course in Corrections. Each course is worth 3 credits, totaling 21 credits.
New York City Fire Department personnel completing recruit training may receive external credit for: Fire Science 101 (3 credits), a Fire Science blanket credit (2 credits), a Police Science, blanket credit (3 credits), and a Physical Education blanket credit (2 credits), totaling 10 credits.
Credit for additional New York City Fire Department courses may be granted if the courses have been recommended for the award of credit by the American Council on Education (ACE) not to exceed a total of 30 external credits. Graduates of the New York City Police Academy, New York City Fire Academy, or New York City Correction Academy who have earned at least 28 credits in liberal arts courses will be exempt from the CUNY Common Core portion of the College's General Education Program. These students will still need to complete six credits of the John Jay College option (3 credits in the Justice Core 300-level and 3 credits in either the Learning from the Past or Communications categories) to complete their general education requirements.
Students who have successfully completed a training program that has been evaluated by the College for the award of credit, or a program that has been recommended for the award of credit by the American Council on Education (ACE), must apply to the Testing and Evaluation Office for the application of this credit toward their undergraduate degree. Applicants must provide documentation in support of their requests. A statement or transcript indicating subjects taken, grades received, dates of attendance, and the number of hours of participation must be sent directly to the Testing and Evaluation Office from the agency that has provided the training.
Equivalent Credit
Equivalent credit is granted for knowledge gained from either work-related or other qualifying experience. It is the learning and not the experience itself that must be documented to prove that it is at the college level and serves as a valid substitute for the content of a specific course as outlined in this Undergraduate Bulletin. Students must file a formal application for credit with the Testing and Evaluation Office and follow established guidelines. The Equivalent Credit application is available online at the Jay Stop at: http://jstop.jjay.cuny.edu/. Applications for Equivalent Credit are evaluated by the appropriate academic department.