“You have to look it up yourself and check on the transfer credits — the process is pretty stressful,” Morris said. “I was limited as to what I could take because some of my classes wouldn’t transfer because they were higher levels (at MSU) than they were at my community college.”

MSU, along with other universities, colleges and community colleges across the state have partnered to simplify this process with the Michigan Transfer Network, www.michigantransfernetwork.org.

“This is like a clearing house, all the schools posting their equivalencies to one site so students won’t have to go to each individual school and look it up,” said Mark Ulseth, director of admissions and registration at Henry Ford Community College.

The network, through the partnership with MSU, costs the state $1,000 a month, Ulseth said.

Before the network, students like Morris were forced to figure out how their credits from one Michigan school would transfer to another by tracking the information on a school’s Web site.

“Each institution and faculty have their own policies and procedures in dealing with transfer credits, and every institution doesn’t accept credits the same,” said Paul Schmidt, registrar at Monroe County Community College.

Both Schmidt and Ulseth are members of the Michigan Association of Collegiate Registrars & Admissions Officers, or MACRAO, the organization that initially conceived of the idea of the transfer network in the late 1980s.

“Currently, there are about 40-something schools participating and we’re gaining momentum,” Schmidt said.

There also are about 580,000 transfer equivalencies posted from the school since the Web site went live on Nov. 8.

MACRAO received the push to go forward with the Network after Lt. Gov. John D. Cherry recommended an information Web site about transfer credits in his Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth, Ulseth said.