Myles Hinton's transfer story

U of M will simply not let anyone transfer more than 2 years worth of credits towards their Michigan degree from any outside institution (and limits how many outside credits can go towards your declared major), and won't necessarily honor any credits toward the "Major" unless they can directly identify the coursework/requirements via that college's syllabus requirements which must correlate "enough" with what UofM would have had you do in their own coursework.

So the declared major you graduate with on your degree, "Bachelor's of _______ in ________" nearly always requires 2 full semesters of coursework plus another 2 semesters of Michigan's undergraduate degree requirements (a mix of languages, math/statistics, social studies, and arts), which equals 2 years of classes (4 semester, with Spring/Summers off, unless you're that driven)

This is not an athlete-specific thing, all transferring students are subject to this with zero exception.

The idealistic arguent is that UofM will simply not let people attend here for 1 year and then "graduate with a Michigan degree" (many colleges will allow this, EMU for example). And to maintain higher standards to maintain their reputation for their graduates (which is still quite good when you go to apply for jobs)

The cynical argument is "they want more of your $$$, and wring you for everything they can get."

The truth is a mix of both.

I agree w your perspective on this. It does create challenges in terms of bringing transfers in, specifically those that are interested in getting their degrees. If they have to lose 1-2 years worth of credits, they’ll probably look elsewhere.

I can confirm this happens for sure at other more academically elite FBS schools. I have a coach in my family who discusses how frustrating it can be, although to my knowledge I have never heard him blame the institution he coaches at. It is more that we (FBS schools) are not all playing on a level field. But then again we never were and it cannot always be in Michigan football's favor. 

I would also add that any time you are dealing with a vertical curriculum (which human and environmental biology would be) it gets more complicated still. Combine that with the quarters to semesters issue and it's a huge mess. 

I would like an explanation of why Stanford's freshman comp class did not transfer over, even as a quarter, since (at least when I was there) you can test out of the freshman comp requirement with AP credits. But basically, having watched it I think Hinton was playing it for laughs and did not consider the ramifications of how he spoke. I mean he did not actually seem all that bothered by any of it and usually the players have advisors helping them figure everything out given their insane schedules.

that's not even him in the picture

Your irrational pessimism and overconfidence in your own opinion is not cute.

Michigan had one of the best portal classes in the country this past offseason - which included several high-profile undergrad additions in both basketball and football. 

In football, the only big miss that I know of is Davison Igbinosun and that was a NIL issue and not a credit transfer issue.

I am not defending Michigan's stupid policy or stating that we a playoff lock in 2024-2025, just saying that the walls are hardly caving in around us.

I misunderstood a post - so response redacted...LOL

Biology defaults everything to departmental and requires a form to be filled out by the student to request a direct equivalency.  https://lsa.umich.edu/biology/undergraduates/transfer.html  This is not the norm among the academic departments.  

That could be right in terms of the "workaround". 

I do have to reiteration that Michigan was one of the most successful teams in the portal this offseason.  Hausmann, Stewart, Barner, and Hinton were all significant undergrad portal additions.

I don't think this is unfair. I get the watered down argument and I get that they want the $$$. I just happen to think a more case-by-case approach is necessary. Let's take it out of the football realm. If someone from Stanford, UChicago, Harvard, etc. wants to transfer into Michigan after their junior year - let's say mom or dad passes away and they want to be closer to home if they grew up in Michigan - isn't there some value or utility in NOT making that person re-take a bunch of courses? 

Does any one have any other experience with the Public Ivies and how they handle this?

Yeah. There are certainly still workarounds, at least to a point. You can do a couple years at community college to save money before transferring in (and M has a comprehensive equivalency guide for various classes at all the MI community colleges). You can also start at U of M Flint or Dearborn and transfer in to Ann Arbor, and not only do your credits transfer but your GPA does as well. Had a friend that transferred from Flint after his FR year, and his shiny 4.0 came with him.

But it's not unreasonable to put a limit on how much can transfer. Or, put another way, it's really just a minimum threshold of what you need to accomplish at U of M in order to earn an M degree. When you look at it like that, it makes a lot more sense. I.e. why does someone that transfers to M for their last semester deserve an M degree? I mentioned it elsewhere in the thread, but I knew someone who ended her SR year at M a credit or two short, and got those credits the next semester via an online course at BYU. Wouldn't make much sense for her to go to BYU and say, "hey, got my final 1% of credits from BYU, so give me a BYU degree." No, instead she sent the transcript to M's credit office or whatever, got it approved, and got her M degree. For those that might transfer to M for their last year or semester, it kind of makes more sense that their degree would come from their original school, where the vast majority of their credits came from...

It’s also not unique. Almost every highly selective institution has the same requirements