TESU second audit/transfer credit deadline for March graduation?

[Merlin]

I'm currently finishing up a few courses. I'll be able the complete everything in time, however, I have no control over the speed of which my assignments will be graded (and the time it will take for the transcript to reach TESU).

TESU sent the following email a few weeks back:

The next deadline to apply for Graduation is January 1, 2020 and the degrees will be conferred in March 2020. All TESU course work must be complete by February 1, 2020 and all transfer credit must be postmarked by January 15, 2020.

The deadline for transfer credits is Jan. 15, meaning that they must be postmarked by that date.

How strict is TESU with this? What is the date of the second audit, and could some courses be accepted a bit before the second audit (but after Jan. 15)?

These dates are to give TESU time to get through the transfer evaluations and audits without having to worry about having multiple rounds of audits to pick up stray credits added at the last minute. So the answer is, "it depends."

I don't think TESU has a rule that says you cannot graduate if your transfer comes in on Jan 16th, but they want the transfers postmarked by Jan 15th so the evaluators have two weeks to process them (and they often have a ton to evaluate right before graduation). If you don't get it in by Jan 15th that means that the evaluation is unlikely to be completed by Feb 1st, which is when the audits begin.

Ultimately it depends on when the auditor gets to your file. If they get to right away (like Feb 1st) and your transfer credits have not been evaluated yet, then your audit will fail and you won't be able to graduate in March. Unless, by some miracle, they happen to have some extra time to go back later and re-audit your file. Of course, if they start on your audit later in the month, then you may be fine getting stuff in a bit late.

There is one exception that I am aware of, which is in cases of graduation applicants who's capstone completes at the end of January but grades don't post until early February. In that case, they will delay your audit until the next opportunity after grades post. That can add a few extra days to complete transfer evaluations as well.

In any case, to be safe, I would do everything in my power to get transfers in by the deadline. Otherwise, you're counting on being lucky.