I hope this message finds you well. I am a current Cal State student who recently completed my first semester with strong grades. However, I am contemplating transferring to a different school for my best interests and my research has led me to consider two options.
Option A involves withdrawing from my Cal State institution and attending a community college, while Option B entails pursuing an upper division transfer in the future. I am particularly interested in exploring Option B and have a question regarding the transferability of my courses taken at Cal State.
If I choose Option B and attempt an upper division transfer, how will my courses taken at Cal State transfer over, if at all? Additionally, I am aware of transfer prerequisites for UC schools, and I would appreciate any insights or advice on navigating this process.
In general for transfer students going from school A to school B, unless school B has an articulation listing for school A’s courses, the determination of transferability and equivalency or subject credit will be made by school B after the student matriculates. Therefore the student takes some risk in terms of trying to guess what course work at school A will transfer and what it is equivalent to at school B, because the student will not know until after committing to transfer.
In cases where school B has an articulation listing with school A (e.g. where school B is a UC or CSU and school A is a California community college – see https://www.assist.org ), the student can know in advance what courses from school A transfer and what they are equivalent to at school B.
If you want to transfer from a CSU to another CSU, all course work should transfer, but equivalency or subject credit can still be uncertain.