Some students elect to study at Qasid in order to obtain university credit. We help facilitate this through the following options:

Direct Transfer of Credits

The most straightforward approach, and the one that we highly recommend, is arranging for a direct credit transfer between Qasid and your university.To do this, begin by contacting your registrar at your earliest convenience — ideally before finalizing your plans on coming to Qasid. Communicate what you intend to study, provide them with a digital copy of our academic brochure, website, and any other supporting material that they might be interested in perusing. Feel free to put them directly in touch with us if they have any follow-up questions; we will be happy to provide you and them with any additional paperwork required to buttress your credit request.Upon completing your studies, we will prepare and furnish you with a transcript that reflects which program you took with us as well as other relevant academic details. At that point, it will be up to your registrar and / or department to decide how those courses will be reflected on your transcript.Again, the primary advantage of this approach is that it is the most straightforward route to credit, as such credits are awarded directly by your university. The overwhelming majority of students coming to Qasid opt for this approach.

Credit via Testing Equivalency

We have been teaching Arabic for almost two decades to students from hundreds of universities, so there is a good chance that your university has already gone through the above process with a previous Qasid alum. If your university won’t facilitate an automatic, direct transfer, there is another approach possible: obtaining credit by writing a proficiency exam (sometimes called an “equivalency test”) upon returning home. The vast majority of our students handily pass such exams.Please note that some universities don’t issue credit per se via testing, but instead use testing to allow students to “test out” of particular courses and enroll in higher level courses. For example, many students finish Year 1 of Al-Kitaab at their university, then come to Qasid for a summer term to complete our second year core MSA course. They then return to university just before the fall semester / quarter, test out of Year 2 MSA altogether (often cataloged as MSA 201-203), and begin the Year 3 MSA program (often cataloged as MSA 301-303), having thus saved an entire year of Arabic studies and related tuition costs; all this after 9-12 weeks (summer term is 9 weeks; fall, winter, and spring are 12), which provides nearly the identical number of classroom hours (180 hours) as does a full year of typical university-level Arabic.In the above scenario, depending on the university, students don’t get “credit hours” as such, but instead get the benefit of having tested out of the entire second year of their university’s Arabic program. They can thus accomplish more in less time, and use the tuition funds that would have been spent on the 200 series to go further and deeper in their Arabic studies. In one (albeit non-typical) example, one of our students came in having completed Year 1 MSA, did the 9-week summer term, took the placement test when he returned to his university, and tested out of two years of university Arabic. He was given the option to enroll directly in the equivalent of Year 4 MSA--having studied at Qasid for only 9 weeks (core MSA courses and extensive private tutoring). Again, this example is atypical, but demonstrates what is in principle possible.In either case (testing-for-credit or testing-for-placement), upon successful completion of your course, we will prepare a formal letter, syllabus, and / or transcripts that can be provided to your home institution (university or otherwise) detailing the objectives that were met by the end of the course. This will help the appropriate staff or faculty member from your department determine the type and level of proficiency / equivalency exam to administer.Irrespective of which credit path you elect, we remain committed to providing you an exceptional academic and cultural immersion experience. We stand ready to assist by taking a multi-dimensional approach to supporting your goals before you come, during your stay, and long after you’ve returned home.If you have specific questions about your unique situation, please don’t hesitate to drop us a note.NOTE: As of May 23, 2018  California State University - San Bernardino (CSUSB) no longer serves as our School of Record. As such, credit options are limited to the two options detailed above.