If you have completed graduate classes or a master’s degree prior to enrolling at Harvard, you may be able to transfer course credits to your PhD program. Technically, you can transfer up to 3 courses towards your PhD; in practice, getting 3 courses transferred can be quite difficult. Furthermore, you can typically only transfer graduate-level courses that are relevant to your research and have direct equivalents at Harvard (e.g., MIT’s 2.75 Medical Device Design course and Harvard’s ES227 Medical Device Design course). Sometimes, you can also transfer graduate-level courses that have no direct equivalents at Harvard, but happen to be courses that are highly relevant to your research (e.g., MIT’s 2.032 Dynamics course, if your research is in human gait biomechanics).
To apply to transfer courses, you first need to write a document that includes 1) an explanation of why you want to transfer courses and how the said courses are relevant to your research, 2) the official course listings for the courses you would like to transfer, and 3) official course listings for the corresponding Harvard courses, if there are direct equivalents. Next, you need to acquire official transcripts for your prior coursework and fill out the Prospective PhD Program form, which is available on the Forms section of the Harvard SEAS website. Then, you need to submit all of these forms to the Office of Academic Programs in Pierce Hall, which will then pass on the forms to the Committee on Higher Degrees (CHD). The CHD will approve/deny your request for transfer credit. Finally you need to fill out a form called “Application for Transfer Credit for Graduate Work Done Elsewhere,” which is available on the Harvard Registrar’s website. Please see the "Credit for Work Done Elsewhere" section of the CHD Policies.
Be sure to apply for transfer credit as early as possible in your program, and make sure to submit your forms before the CHD deadline (ask the Office of Academic Programs office for the specific dates).
http://handbook.gsas.harvard.edu/credit-graduate-work-done-elsewhere
