Prerequisite Courses

A prerequisite course is a course that must be successfully completed prior to being allowed to start on the next course.

Students can see whether their selected course has a course prerequisite by looking at the course description page, either during the registration selection, or from the Program and Course Descriptions page.

When students are registering for a course, the registration help in the system will automatically let them know if they are required to fulfill a prerequisite course first.  Students may fulfill the prerequisite course either by successfully passing it at APUS or by transferring in credit to fulfill the requirement. This credit could be transferred in from either another accredited university or from a test considered an equivalent, such as a CLEP test.

Fulfilling Prerequisites for Non-Degree Seeking Students and Non-Transfer Students

If a student is a non-degree seeking student at APUS, or a non-transfer student who does have previous college credit, they may have their prerequisite waived as long as they have fulfilled the course previously (college credit or testing, such as CLEP). Students may have this waived by emailing us at [email protected]. Students will need to sign a release form verifying that they completed the prerequisite course at another institution and submit a transcript showing the course completion.

If a student is in a degree or certificate program and wishes to request a waiver for a prerequisite they fulfilled somewhere else, they should either fax a copy of their transcript or test results to our Transfer Credit Department or scan and email to [email protected] along with a Student ID and request that it be reviewed for a specific prerequisite course. 

Please contact [email protected] with any questions about prerequisite courses.