Incoming Transfer Students: Composition Requirement
Normally, University of Illinois students take one of the following and course sequences fulfill the Composition I graduation requirement at Illinois. However, you may have already completed your Comp I requirement (or part of your Comp I requirement) elsewhere. Read below to see understand how to navigate the process of determining what to do next.
- RHET 101-102
- RHET 105
- COMM 111-112
- ESL 111-112
- ESL 115
Most students who transfer to Illinois from other colleges and universities will need to have completed a two-course sequence at their previous school in order to receive full credit for the Composition I requirement upon transferring to Illinois. Please read the options below to see whether (1) the course(s) you took previously will automatically transfer in; (2) whether you need to see your advisor for more help with transfer credit; (3) or whether you need to enroll in an additional Rhetoric course at Illinois in order to fulfill the Composition I requirement.
Did you...
(1) take a course or courses at an Illinois state college or Illinois community college? First-year composition courses taken at Illinois state colleges or community colleges may receive full credit when transferred to Illinois if they have already been reviewed by our Rhetoric office and/or the Illinois Admissions Office. Click here to see what schools participate in the program.
(2) take a course or courses at a college or university outside of Illinois, or at a private institution within Illinois? If you were not granted credit for this course based on submitting transcripts to the admissions office, you should submit to your college advisor:
- A complete syllabus from the course that provides a full course description
- A brief description of the writing projects for the course
- The grade weights of these papers, and required page length or word counts of essays
- The course schedule with dates
Please note that if you have taken two courses in a first-year composition course sequence, at least one of those courses must include instruction in research writing and assign a major research paper of 2500-3000 words in order for you to receive full credit for the requirement at Illinois.
(3) take one course elsewhere that transferred for partial credit toward the Composition I requirement, but still need one more course to fulfill the university requirement? If only one of your previous composition courses transferred into Illinois for credit, you can take Rhetoric 233: Advanced Composition. RHET 233 normally fulfills the advanced composition general education requirement at Illinois, so it is typically taken by students who have already taken Rhetoric 105 here. For transfer students with partial Composition I credit, however, Rhetoric 233 will complete the Composition I and fulfill the Advanced Composition requirements at Illinois.
If you have questions about the transfer process this page did not answer, please contact the Undergraduate Advising Office for more information and assistance.