Credit for what you already know
Tick what you hold, or what you are planning to earn, and see what five online universities will actually grant — with the published source behind every number.
Free to use. No sign-up. Nothing here is a sales page for a school.
Include certifications you already have and ones you are working toward — the point is to see the finish line before you start. Everything is calculated in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Step two
This is what turns a credit total into an order of operations — what to do first, what to stop paying for, and what to do next year.
This is the mistake that costs people the most money. WGU states it plainly: “WGU will not award transfer credit after a student has begun their program.” Get your evaluation done first. Every school evaluates for free, and you are allowed to ask more than one.
Most schools will only count an IT certification earned within the last five years. WGU says so on its transferable-certifications page; Purdue Global applies the same rule. Excelsior, TESU and Charter Oak instead publish dated windows per certification — a certification earned outside the window may be worth less, or only elective credit. If your CCNA is six years old, renewing it is not just a resume exercise; it is worth real credit hours.
If two certifications both map to the same course, you get the course once. The totals on this page are the ceiling, not a promise — and a registrar reading your file will collapse the overlaps. Plan for the honest number.
You will find pages saying “CompTIA A+ is worth 3 ACE credits.” That is not correct. CompTIA and Cisco are not ACE participating organisations. Passing the A+, Security+ or CCNA exam carries no ACE credit recommendation at all. The ACE records people are quoting belong to training companies — ACI Learning and Skillsoft — and attach to those companies' courses, which you would have had to take.
ACE genuinely does apply in two places worth knowing about: the ISC2 CISSP exam carries a live recommendation of 3 upper-division semester hours in ISC2's own name, and the Google career certificates carry substantial ones. Both are covered further down.
Even where one exists, it is advice to a registrar, not an entitlement. Every organisation that publishes one also says the receiving institution decides. So does this page.
Semester credits as published by each university. “Listed” means the school names the certification as transferable but does not publish an amount — your enrolment counsellor gives you the figure. UL marks upper-division credit, which is the harder kind to fill and therefore the more valuable.
These are, between them, far larger than the five above — SNHU alone enrols more online students than any other American university, and AMU is the default choice for a great many service members. Every one of them accepts industry certifications for credit. Not one publishes what your certification is actually worth, which is why they are not in the calculator: we will not invent a number to fill a cell. Ask each of them directly, and get the answer in writing before you enrol.
| School | Certifications named | Max transfer | ACE credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern New Hampshire University | CompTIA and Cisco Networking Academy listed as accepted providers | 90 | not stated |
| Purdue Global | The widest named list anywhere — CCNA, CCNP Security, two CCIE tracks, and thirteen CompTIA certifications. Five-year recency rule. | 75% of the degree | yes |
| American Military University (APUS) | CompTIA named; Cisco not named. Has a searchable certification finder. | 90 | yes |
| Capella University | Publishes awards for CCNA, CCNP, A+, Network+ and Security+ — but almost certainly in quarter credits, which is roughly two thirds of what the number looks like. | not stated | yes |
| Champlain College Online | Keeps a certification-to-course database, but it would not load for us, so we cannot vouch for a single figure in it. | 90 | yes |
ASU Online is the exception on this page, and it is worth knowing before you fall in love with the brand. It excludes life-experience credit outright and states that no transfer credit is awarded for vocational-category ACE recommendations — which is the category most IT certifications fall into. If credit for what you already know is the point of the exercise, look elsewhere.
All 21 of them, straight from our schedule — if it is on the calendar it is on this list. Each one prepares you for a certification that at least one of the five schools above grants credit for. Click through for dates, locations and price.
Not seeing what you need? Browse the full catalog — and if a class you want is not scheduled, tell us and we will put a date on it.
Your certifications cover the technical half of a degree. The other half — composition, maths, history, the general education requirements — is where most of the tuition goes, and it is the half you can get for almost nothing. In rough order of value for money:
Free online courses that prepare you for CLEP exams, and they pay the exam fee if you pass the course with 75% or better. CLEP is $97 an exam and most are worth 3 credits, so this is the single best deal in American higher education. 33 courses. Some test centres add their own administration fee.
Free courses, many carrying ACE credit recommendations, including Introduction to Computer Science, C++ Programming, Software Engineering and Computer Networks. No tuition, no transcript fee — you pay $5 per proctored exam sitting.
The strongest genuine ACE story in IT. The IT Support certificate carries a 10-credit recommendation, IT Automation with Python 16, Cybersecurity 10, and Data Analytics 13. Coursera's need-based financial aid can waive the subscription entirely.
Subscription course libraries with ACE recommendations, and WGU names all three by name on its own transfer page. Roughly $95–$99 a month; a focused person clears several general-education courses in one billing cycle. Ask your target school about caps before you subscribe.
Like CLEP but administered by Prometric, $100 an exam, typically 3 credits, and every one of the 30-plus exams carries an ACE recommendation. Recognised by 1,500-plus institutions. Free for eligible service members through DANTES.
We would rather tell you this than let you find out after forty hours of study. These are excellent. None of them produces anything a registrar can act on.
MIT's actual course materials, free, no account needed. MIT states it directly: “MIT does not offer credit or certification to users of OCW.” Superb for the mathematics and computer-science foundations that make senior network work easier.
Free to take. The best introduction to computer science that exists. A credit-bearing version runs through Harvard Extension School at ordinary Harvard tuition, which is a different proposition entirely.
Genuinely free to individuals: Networking Basics, Introduction to Networks, Introduction to Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity Essentials, the Linux courses. You get a Cisco badge, not a certification and not credit — but it is the right place to start before a CCNA.
Audit almost anything for free; you lose the certificate and access usually ends when the run ends. MicroMasters programmes can carry real graduate credit — but only if you are subsequently admitted to the degree.
Both excellent, both free, neither carries any credit pathway. Khan Academy is a strong free way to prepare for the CLEP maths exams, which do carry credit.
Send us what you hold and where you want to end up, and we will map it out for you — which school treats your certifications best, what you would still need, and the cheapest order to do it in. It is free, there is nothing to buy at the end of it, and if the answer is “you do not need any more training from us” then that is what we will tell you.
Please read this bit. thinQtank Learning is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or in partnership with Western Governors University, the University of Maryland Global Campus, Excelsior University, Thomas Edison State University, Charter Oak State College, CompTIA, Cisco Systems, ISC2, Google, or any other organisation named on this page. We name them to report what they themselves publish about their own transfer policies.
Credit decisions are made solely by the receiving institution's registrar. Nothing here is a guarantee of credit, admission, or transfer. Published policies, credit amounts and validity windows change without notice — confirm anything you intend to rely on directly with the school before you spend money or make a decision.
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