Waitlisted at 5 UC’s and one CSU denial

[Gumbymom]

1 year CC to UC Transfers are definitely possible but most successful students have a combination of AP and Dual enrollment credit. If she has no DE credit from HS, then she will be applying with only Summer grades on the UC application and Fall grades reported in the TAU (Transfer Academic Update) due in January.
One Year Transfer without TAG:

1. Calculate your current amount of UC semester/quarter credits

 Add up all of your current UC semester/quarter credits from passed AP scores and college courses taken during high school.

 To find AP Score to UC credit equivalents, look at your CC’s AP credit chart

2. Choose a major offered at a UC(s) and search it on www.assist.org

 This is, of course what you’re working for

 Enter in your major and your intended CC to see what courses you need to complete.

If there are no major preparatory courses required, still complete as many as possible. The completion of IGETC is still required for some majors.

3. Plan out your summer, fall, and spring courses

 Remember you must have 60 semester (90 quarter) units, the completion of IGETC if needed, and as many courses towards your major as possible prior to transfer.

 Since you’re not getting a TAG, you don’t need 30 semester (45 quarter) units by the end of the summer before you apply, but still take a couple courses so your fall/spring course load won’t be so heavy

 Some courses towards your major can also towards finishing IGETC or the 7 course GE pattern. Sitting down and planning this out with a CC counselor is a great way to plan a solid schedule.

 Pay very close attention to your registration dates each semester since classes fill up very quickly.

4. Apply to your UCs before the end of November

 Don’t miss this date and plan your personal statements!

 You’re also going to have to list all of your classes you’re planning to take and the ones in progress

5. Complete TAU in January

 TAU stands for Transfer Academic Update. In January, you must update your application with your fall grades and declare spring classes in progress

6. Keep up your GPA!

UC 1 year transfer with TAG:

Choose which UC you want to TAG with and also if the major is available for TAG.

 Remember you can still send your application to another UCs

 Look at the UC TAG matrix to look at each campus’ requirements

 TAG matrix: https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/_assets/uc-tag-matrix-2024_2025-2.pdf

 Since majors are guaranteed with your TAG admission, there are certain preparations for each major at each campus. Some campuses may not have major requirements, but complete as many courses for your major as you can.

 Check your TAG campus for the TAG specific requirements

Note that each campus has different requirements in terms of GPA, course requirements, and excluded majors in their TAG

4. Take summer classes to meet 30 semester (45 quarter) unit requirement. This is where it gets complicated.

 As part of TAG, you need 30 semester (45 quarter) units by the end of the summer before your TAG application.

 You also need to have ONE a UC-transferable English course and ONE UC-transferable math course completed with a “C” or better

 That means the summer right after graduating high school, you NEED to enroll in your next Math and English course over the summer.

 Example (Math): Finished Pre-Calculus in high schooltake Calculus 1 at CC over the summer OR Finished Algebra II in high schooltake Pre-Calculus at CC over the summer

 Example (English): Take Introductory College English at CC over the summer OR if you’ve received a passing English Comp./Lit. AP score in high school Take 2nd level college English course (This is because a passing English Comp./Lit. AP score is equivalent to the introductory CC English course, so you’re on the next English level)

5. Apply for TAG before the end of SEPTEMBER

 The TAG filling period is BEFORE UC applications close  You must fill one out before the end of September 30th

6. Plan out your fall and spring courses

 Remember you must have 60 semester (90 quarter) units, the completion of IGETC or 7 course GE pattern, and as many courses towards your major as possible prior to transfer

 Some courses towards your major can also towards finishing IGETC or the 7 course GE pattern. Sitting down and planning this out with a CC counselor is a great way to plan a solid schedule.

Pay very close attention to your registration dates each semester since classes fill up very quick

7. Apply to your UCs before the end of November

 Don’t miss this date and plan your personal statements!

 You’re also going to have to list all of your classes you’re planning to take and the ones in progress

8. Complete TAU in January

 TAU stands for Transfer Academic Update. In January, you must update your application with your fall grades and declare spring classes in progress

9. Keep up your GPA!

Best way is to both check the transfer admission website for your major/college/UC and look for the list and then back that up by picking a stand in CCC and checking what you’d need from that school to the UC and then what classes at your UC are considered a match for the classes at the CC

[tamagotchi]

For UCB COE for example, the time line is five semesters: Policies & procedures: Scholarship & progress requirements - Berkeley Engineering

I stand corrected that in this case it’s 2.5 years rather than 2 years. But there is definitely a limit, and some students find it limiting, like my son’s lab partner who is worried about completing all his requirements on time.

[cy7878]

" Entering freshmen are allowed eight semesters at Berkeley to graduate, and entering junior transfers are allowed five semesters at Berkeley to graduate. Summer terms are optional and do not count toward the maximum. Students are responsible for planning and satisfactorily completing all graduation requirements within the maximum allowable semesters."

There goes his 7-year plan.

[tamagotchi]

And here is UCB College of Letters & Science as another example. In this case it’s two years. (Unit Ceiling and Semester Limit | L&S Advising)

• If you entered as a freshman, you are given eight semesters to complete your degree.
• If you entered as a transfer student, you are given four semesters to complete your degree.

[MMRose]

If she’s already young, how does she feel about taking a gap year to do something fun/add compelling ECs etc to her narrative and/or working to build a college fund to bridge any future gaps, and trying again next year either for the UCs or for private colleges that would be delighted to have a high-stats student and who would give her merit money?

Is she goes this route, it might be a good idea to take the SAT or ACT while still a high school student. if she scores high, she can submit it and if she doesn’t, she can go TO to the colleges that are still TO.

[IBG]

We’re getting off the topic of the thread a bit, but graduating in under four years is typical in some fields of engineering at Cal. For example, EECS provides study plans for graduating in 3 or 3.5 years. My son is expecting to finish in three. So five semesters is probably plenty for a transfer student.

[hgtvaddict]

@Gumbymom

Since you’re not getting a TAG, you don’t need 30 semester (45 quarter) units by the end of the summer before you apply, but still take a couple courses so your fall/spring course load won’t be so heavy

Are you sure this is correct? My daughter is considering a one year transfer to UCD, and was specifically told by the transfer rep for our community college that she will need to have 30 units completed (either a combo of UC transferable units or AP units) by the end of this summer session, even if she’s not using TAG.

[tamagotchi]

@IBG

EECS provides study plans for graduating in 3 or 3.5 years. My son is expecting to finish in three. So five semesters is probably plenty for a transfer student.

It can actually be more difficult than you might think for transfer students, though, because EECS has classes that are specific to its own program (not easily replicable at a CC), has long prereq chains for some desirable advanced classes, and has popular classes in both lower and upper division that fill with waitlists. My son’s lab partner specifically transferred into the EECS major and is struggling to stay on track within the time limit.

[Gumbymom]

You need to have 30 semester units or more at a California CC prior to matriculation to get the CCC transfer priority but if not doing TAG, the 30 units do not need to be completed by summer prior to applying for TAG. That is my understanding and this is what is stated on the TAG matrix.

A CCC transfer student is one who has completed at least 30 semester (45 quarter) UC-transferable units at one or more California community colleges. The last college the student attended in a regular session (fall/spring or fall/winter/spring) before admission to a UC campus must be a California community college.

[IBG]

I think getting into the popular classes is difficult for everyone there. My son spent a few weeks attending an upper div while on a waitlist. He expected that enough students would drop by the deadline given prior years. They didn’t. Transfer students coming in as juniors should have better enrollment dates for classes. But I expect it must be difficult if they also need low div prereqs.

[socalmom007]

My son got off waitlists last year at UCI and UCSD, so there can be movement there!

[ucbalumnus]

@worriedmomucb

Some CSUs do have guaranteed admission for any student in the service area if they meet the minimum GPA requirement.

Note that many CSUs now list their local service area as the state of California because they are not campus-impacted, so they admit at CSU baseline to non-impacted majors.

But those are not the CSUs that are popular; the popular ones are campus-impacted and usually have most or all of their majors impacted.

[ucbalumnus]

@tamagotchi

And here is UCB College of Letters & Science as another example. In this case it’s two years. (Unit Ceiling and Semester Limit | L&S Advising)

• If you entered as a freshman, you are given eight semesters to complete your degree.
• If you entered as a transfer student, you are given four semesters to complete your degree.

However, if you look further down that page:

@UCB College of Letters and Science

Again, if you are able to graduate within your allowed semesters, you can take as many units as you want and your unit ceiling will not be assessed. The unit ceiling comes into play only when you want to take additional semesters.

If you will finish your final semester at or under the unit ceiling, you can be extended to the next Fall or Spring semester.

For students declared in a single major, the unit ceiling is 130 units.
For students declared in a double major or more, the unit ceiling is 136 units.

College credit earned before you graduated high school, including college exam credit (AP/IB/etc), will not be counted toward your unit ceiling.

Basically, UCB L&S allows 8 semesters for frosh or 4 semesters for transfers with as many units as desired, but students who take more semesters need to finish within 130 (136 if >1 major) plus one more semester of courses.

Note that transfer students get at most 70 units of lower division transfer credit, so that still leaves plenty of headroom before hitting the above unit ceiling for UCB L&S majors (which political science is).

@IBG

For example, EECS provides study plans for graduating in 3 or 3.5 years. My son is expecting to finish in three. So five semesters is probably plenty for a transfer student.

Transfer students sometimes face problems with lower division courses not offered at community colleges (so they have to “catch up” after transfer), although this is more of an issue for engineering majors than political science majors that the OP’s student intends to be.

[tamagotchi]

@ucbalumnus

However, if you look further down that page …

So… this came up because OP was mentioning her D potentially graduating at 20 years old,

@PrayingToWaitlistGod

That is what she intends to do if taking the CC route. Which, like you said, puts her into junior year at a UC after 1 year at cc. She is already young in her class… she would potentially be graduating college at 20 years old lol

and @cy7878 was talking about not worrying about finishing early, and apparently wasn’t aware there were any time limits for transfer students to finish their degree at UC.

So I gave some examples of time limits, including links to UCB pages, but didn’t want to go into every detail of UCB’s policies… since this is just an example to show that time limits exist.

The big picture is, transfers to UC should look up these details for whatever UC campus they end up transferring to, whether it’s UCB or another UC campus.

[Ebwlbc]

Tucson is such a fun city with a great college vibe and experience!! It was very high on my daughter’s list.

[twoinanddone]

It sounds like the Arizona schools are now in the running, but consider some of the other WUE schools too (and I know the Ariz schools have limited majors for WUE). Wyoming is not expensive and has the Cheney school of government for poli sci majors (and extra money available for that major, study abroad, internship opportunities). U Utah is in a state capital. Montana, Montana State, Idaho are all smaller than the UCs (or most of them) but have D1 sports, activities on campus, and many majors. And most of them will cost much less the UW at $55k.

Maybe she just wants to get out of California and forge her own path. There are a lot of opportunities for that.

[MMRose]

Oh, WUE would be a great resource to look into. OP— are you familiar with WUE? It’s a consortium of specific colleges )and sometimes specific majors) in various Western states that offer reduced cost to residents of the other member states.

Not sure how many are still taking applications, but definitely looking into. Here’s a link I’ve used in the past:

For Undergraduates: WUE

[Dirge1]

The main campuses of U of AZ and ASU are very limited for WUE, which is why they give merit scholarships to out-of-staters. Nevada-Reno is another school that has lots of kids from CA. My friend’s daughter had the GPA but not test scores for WUE there, but they gave her a separate scholarship that was almost the same amount. She had a great time there, graduated last year and is now a teacher. They’re still accepting applications.

WUE admission rates and deadlines are usually more strict than the general ones, so it’s good to find schools that have other out-of-state scholarships.

Northern Arizona University is still accepting applications; they’re also a big school for Californians because of WUE and their nursing program.

[MYOS1634]

WWU, which is a good school in Washington State, indicates it is still taking apps but will mark them as “late”, whatever that means. I don’t know if WUE is still in play but it may be worth it to enquire directly.

[Aym]

The UCs send denials from the waitlist?