Academic Advising Frequently Asked Questions

You may end up working with just one or several types of advisors throughout your time at Edmonds College, depending on what services or information you are looking for at a given time. We have three main categories of advisors, outlined below.

Career and Academic Advisors

Career and Academic Advisors work with students within the Academic Advising department. They provide both general advising to all students through advising drop-in services, and also hold appointments and sessions for students by individual speciality/area of study. Your academic advisor will be assigned to you inside your ctcLink account. You can also find the advisor that specializes in your field by looking at our booking page by area of study. Academic Advisors are skilled in policy, so in addition to providing guidance on course selection or career paths, can be a great resource for discussing enrollment decisions and college processes.

Faculty Advisors

Faculty advisors are usually specific to the student’s degree or certificate program. Faculty advisors can assess prior coursework, answer substitution questions, help students with academic planning, elaborate on program content, and discuss career and educational opportunities and outcomes, while providing a unique perspective from their field of expertise. They can help students plan specific courses and experiences to support career or transfer goals. They are also the best contacts for students seeking specific course permission based on prior experience. Faculty advisors for a specific program are listed at the bottom of the program's requirement sheet.

Specialized Advisors

Some students may work with advisors as a part of a specific campus program or organization. Specialized advisors may provide unique resources, knowledge, or opportunities related to that program. For instance, some specialized advisors may have expertise in unique enrollment or funding rules, housing qualifications, early or assisted registration, tuition, high school requirements, paperwork, and other advising topics. In most cases, students with specialized advisors should meet with that advisor primarily. Some examples include (but are not limited to): I-Best, EdCAP, ELA, Worker Retraining and OIP.

We recommend (especially for degree-seeking students) seeing an advisor for at least four major milestones. This includes:

1. New Student Advising, to go over your full educational and career goals, and to discuss placement, prior credit, and first quarter courses
2. After your first 1-2 quarters, to check-in and develop your full academic plan
3. At the beginning of your second year (or about 50% through your program) to plan transfer timelines, career goals, transition strategies, and gradaution.
4. When you are ready to apply for graduation (the quarter before), for a final progress check, and support in your next steps.

Running Start (RS) students can potentially earn their Associate in Arts degree while participating in the RS program, or earn several credits that can transfer to a university. We can help you create a plan for degree completion and/or major preparation for your specific goals. While an Edmonds College advisor can help with college course planning, Running Start students must also meet with their high school counselor to ensure high school graduation requirements are being met.

If you are a current RS student and want to check your degree requirements towards your AA degree, you can request a credit check for the status of your degree progress.

Please also see the Running Start FAQ for more information.

You must have a ctcLink ID, be enrolled at Edmonds College, and be active in the term to register. Using your ctcLink ID number, you are able to log into your ctcLink account and manage classes and payments there. Please visit our detailed ctcLink guide page for activation instructions, guides to navigating your account tools, and troubleshooting tips.

Our step-by-step "Signing up for Classes" video may also be useful.

English and math placement may be required for your intended degree or as a prerequisite to a course. Placement tests are administered through Testing and Assessment Services, and alternative placement options are also available (example: high school or other college transcripts, test scores, etc.).

To find out more about math and English placement, please see "Step 3: "Placement and Prior Credit" of New student Advising.

This is a great question to discuss with an advisor! The classes required for your program can be found on the Program Requirements page for your specific degree or certificate, but often you will want to make sure you are taking classes in the right order to avoid problems with prerequisites, classes that need to be taken sequentially, or classes only offered once a year. You may also find your program under our Program Maps page, which outlines ideal sequencing in a template form.

Most full-time students take approximately 15 credits (typically three 5-credit classes), though this may range between 12 and 17 depending on course size. Although students can take more than that, we do not often recommend this path as it may be potentially stressful or result in lower grades. Part-time students are enrolled in 11 or fewer credits. Some funding sources require that you have a minimum amount of credit, so please keep this in mind if you are a part-time student.

When you enroll in a class, you will sometimes see an option to enter a permission code. As long as you are eligible to take the class, you may skip this step by clicking "save" and continue enrolling.

You may be required to input a permission code if you try to enroll in a class that you do not meet prerequisite requirements. This is often due to placement that has not been obtained yet, or transfer credit that cannot be read by the system. Other courses may require a code if you must meet with a faculty member first to determine eligibility (audition-based music or healthcare practicums, for example). You can request a permission code by emailing the instructor and also completing the "Instructor Permission Request form" on our Enrollment Services forms page

You can request a program of study change online. These requests are processed in-between quarters, so depending on your submission date, you may not see your program updated in ctcLink until the following quarter. On the form, your "current" program is the one you were declared in - you will be prompted to select a new one on pages 2-3. Please only submit one request; you may speak to an advisor if you need to correct, resubmit, or cancel your request.

If you are on financial aid, you must also update your program with their office using either the "Program Confirmation" form (if you have not yet confirmed your program as a new student) or the "Update Program" form (if you already confirmed your program previosuly). Both forms can be found on the Financial Aid forms page.

If you wish to add a course after the date to self-enroll in ctcLink has passed, you will need to fill out an "Instructor Permission" form to enroll into the desired course(s). This can be found on the Enrollment Services forms page. Please note filling out the form does not guarantee registration into a class, and faculty have the right to accept or deny requests. It is the student's responsibility to monitor the email you have provided and be ready to show documents that prerequisites are completed (when applicable). Students who know they must email prerequisite proof may send this to the instructor before submitting the form.

It depends on the university and the type of coursework you are taking. Transfer degrees (DTAs, AS-Ts) that are designed to transfer are typically more widely accepted as a "full package" at universities in Washington State (however some universities do not transfer courses that received below a 2.0 grade). Professional technical programs (ATAs, AAS-Ts, certificates) usually have little or limited transferable coursework. Some ATAs or AAS-T degrees may have articulation agreements with local universities or colleges designed for specific transfer options.

Outside of degrees themselves, classes with "&" in them or that are from the distribution area lists are usually easily transferred. Please speak with an advisor for a more personalized discussion of your transfer options.

Not necessarily. Previous coursework must be evaluated in order to be considered towards your intended degree or program of study. Advisors can take a look at your unofficial transcripts to make recommendations for courses to take in the meantime, however the official transcript evaluation will be the final determining factor in whether courses are transferable or not. Both the transferability of the course content and its relevance toward your Edmonds College program are considered in the results of your evaluation. Please see the FAQ directly below for how to transfer credits.

Transferring credits is a formal, two-part process that takes approximately a quarter to be completed. Please note that transcripts sent to Testing and Assessment Services or Advising for placement/planning are not considered official; you will need to order official transcripts to be sent directly to Credentials or to be dropped off, sealed, at our enrollment counter

Step 1: Order official transcripts from all previous colleges and submit them to Credentials and Evaluations, either by email (if official electronic - credentials@edmonds.edu) or by physical mail to:

Edmonds College
ATTN: Transcript Evaluation
20000 68th Ave W
Lynnwood, WA 98036

Step 2: Complete the 'Evaluation Request' form on our Transfer Evaluation page.

No. Quarters and semesters are different in length and run at different paces, so transferred credits will be mathematically adjusted for the differences in time. If transferring courses from a semester school to Edmonds College, you are encouraged to request a progress check from an advisor to understand your adjusted degree requirements based on the credit conversion. Sometimes required content can still be satisfied with other credit making up for the difference, and in other cases, the full amount of exact credit for a requirement must be reached.

You are welcome to request a progress check at any time. These checks typically take 3-5 business days and you will receive an email from an advisor with a list of how your completed coursework applies to your degrees and what requirements you still need to meet. Progress checks can only be sent to the email address listed in your ctcLink account, so please make sure your contact information is updated before requesting a credit check, or your results could be delayed.

Did you apply for graduation for that degree? You can check this by talking with an advisor.

Additionally, while 90 credits are what is mathematically required for most associate’s degrees, you must meet specific course requirements to earn a degree.  The same is true for certificate programs. Request a progress check from an advisor to see if you are missing any classes for your degree.

You will apply for graduation after you have signed up for your final quarter. You should apply no later than the first week of your last quarter. After that point, graduation applications are not guaranteed to be processed until the following quarter's batch.

Yes, you can complete two degrees or programs at the same time, however, if you are receiving Financial Aid, that aid must go towards classes for one specific program at a time. (The one exception to this is completing a certificate that is embedded within a degree). Financial aid assumes you are pursuing the program that is listed in your ctcLink account. If you are changing or updating your program, you must do so before the quarter begins by filling out

1) Program of Study Change Request with Enrollment Services

2) Either the "Program Confirmation" form (if you have not yet confirmed your program for financial aid) or the "Update Program" form (if you already confirmed your program previosuly). Both forms can be found on the Financial Aid forms page.

Generally, there is no limit to earning a degree or certificate. However, students utilizing any special funding or Financial Aid should consult with their funding sources to determine if they have their own degree or certificate limits.

Degree requirements themselves must be met. However, faculty advisors and/or school deans may approve a course substitution that would allow you to replace a specific course needed for your degree with a comparable one. For example, you cannot substitute a math requirement by taking another humanities course, but you may be able to substitute a particular math class with one that is similar. All approved course substitutions are submitted by a faculty advisor via official form.

Repeated courses with a higher grade will be automatically processed and reflected in your transcript 7-10 business days after the grades have been posted. The old grade will still show on your transcript, however, it will not be counted toward your GPA calculation. For more details, you may visit our grade policy page.

It depends on what minimum prerequisite grade is required. In most cases, this is a 2.0, but for other classes, it could be "passing" (1.0) or it could be higher (2.5). You can look up prerequisite specifics for each course in our catalog.

You may repeat a course for a better grade by signing up for the same course again during registration. Previous courses and grades will remain on your transcript, though the GPA value will be calculated using the highest score. Please note that financial aid can only fund one repeat of a class between a 1.0 and 3.0, and beyond that, only course repeats for a grade needed for degree progression/completion.

If you have attempted to retake a course multiple times, there may be interventions such as:

• Mandatory instructor permission;
• Limits on the maximum number of times you may repeat a given course;
• A required meeting with the instructor outside of class;
• Required enrollment in a designated section of the course; and/or
• Co-enrollment or prior completion of a course support designated by the instructor or an academic advisor.