Lock In Catalog

When you apply to a given university program, you are given an evaluation based on the degree program as it currently stands. But degree programs and the acceptance or rejection of given courses can change over time, suddenly abruptly. If you are not a fully-enrolled degree-seeking student, you can find the goalposts shifting unexpectedly, leaving you with a large number of earned credits and nothing to do with them.

The most extreme recent example of this happened in mid-2020 when COSC abruptly announced two major changes to their degree program: the first change was that they would only accept 90 ACE or NCCRS credits. The second change was that these credits had to come from partner institutions. This meant that unenrolled students who had been taking credits at Davar or Coopersmith to transfer them to COSC were now left out because there was no time to enroll and to have those credits evaluated in time.

Lock-in, catalog-lock in, lock-in catalog, and similar terminology refers to the process of becoming a fully enrolled student at a given university. This means that changes to degree programs are much less likely to have an adverse effect on your degree path. Because catalog changes tend to happen around January 1st and June 1st, it is generally recommended that students enroll and/or send in any updated transcripts by the end of November and May to lock in the catalog and to ensure that you are on the right path to obtaining a degree.