Credit where credit is due: Students transferring from Catholic schools should receive credits from theology classes

I spent 16 weeks in theology class. Though that might not sound like a lot of time compared to other students who have spent their entire lives at private school, I got an A in that class — only to transfer to East that semester and have the class credit not count.

Is that really fair? Private Catholic high schools require a full theology credit each year, and those who transfer to East will not receive any credit hours for this class, and it will instead be listed as “attempted” in Skyward.

I transferred to East from Bishop Miege freshman year, where theology was like a block day class. We met twice a week for an hour and a half, we had the same guidelines that any other class did; I had homework every night and we had a final exam at the end of the semester. 

It feels like a punishment to transfer. Though some might argue that theology is not a legitimate class because public schools don’t have it, it was a required class at private schools, and it shouldn’t affect the classes that I want to take in the future.

And it isn’t just theology class, other credits that counted as a full credit at Bishop Miege only counts half at East. 

I’m currently having to make up a physical education class this year, and had to make up a health class last year, even though I already took physical education and health. If I didn’t get lucky and get social studies in my first semester freshman year I would have had to take World Regional Studies as a sophomore.

It’s hard to plan what I want to put in my schedule because I have to balance the things I want to do with the credits I’m required to have which would have been easier if all my classes got credited for something, not just some.

I wish I had been able to get credits out of the way that are mandatory at East — like financial literacy — instead of having to redo things, and then do the credits I want to do here.

I wanted to do the Exploring Medical Health Science Careers because it’s a prerequisite for many other opportunities in the medical field, but then I realized I had to take a physical education class to get it out of the way so I wouldn’t have to take it junior year. 

Theology credits and transfer credits in general give transfer students a disadvantage and force them to play catch-up, balancing the things they want to do with the things they have to do.