A maximum of 20 quarter hours of graduate academic credit toward a 90-quarter-hour graduate degree may be given for courses appropriate to the SCAD curriculum. Only graduate courses with grades of at least a 3.0 (B) taken at institutions with a level of graduate course content and level of instruction comparable to that of SCAD may be transferred. Credit may be accepted from institutions that are approved by the U.S. Department of Education and hold regional accreditation, or have appropriate specialized or programmatic accreditation, or have been evaluated and proven to be comparable in course content and level of instruction to SCAD, or are recognized by the ministry of education or equivalent agency in the applicant's home country. Prior to the end of the first quarter of enrollment, the student must submit to the admission office official transcripts, course descriptions, a portfolio or, in the case of a lecture class, projects and papers, and a written request for transfer credit review for the course(s) the student wishes to transfer. Materials are reviewed to determine if the work is comparable to that which would earn at least a 3.0 in a SCAD graduate-level course. Transfer credit appears on the transcript as such and is not calculated in the student's grade point average. Students who wish to appeal the transfer credit process after the first quarter of enrollment must submit a written request to the admission department.