Do you want to transfer to the University of California, but do not have the money to fund all four years or do not have the scores and GPA to be admitted your freshman year? If your answer is yes, this article is for you! We will be looking at how to transfer to UCLA and UC Berkeley.

Students who attend California community colleges have an opportunity to transfer to a University of California after their second year at a California community college. They will finish their junior and senior year at UC and will receive a diploma from UC.

UC website states, “Six UC campuses [Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz] offer the Transfer Admission Guarantee [TAG] program for California community college students who meet specific requirements.” UCLA, Berkeley, and San Diego do not practice transfer admission guarantee.

Few Guidelines regarding Transfer Admission Guarantee

  1. You may apply to only one campus through a Transfer Admission Guarantee, but you can apply to other universities through regular transfer applications.
  2. Each campuses have various transfer admission guarantee and also different requirements for different majors.
  3. Although UCLA, Berkeley, and San Diego do not guarantee transfer admission, 80%-95% of TAP students from California community colleges have successfully transferred to UCLA and Berkeley.

 

General Requirements for Transfer Admission Guarantee

Remember that every campus differ in their requirements for the guaranteed transfer, but the general requirements for Transfer Admission Guarantee are the followings:

  1. Certain number of transferable credits
  2. GPA of 3.0 to 3.4 or higher depending on the college and major
  3. Minimum prerequisite courses for the intended major (e.g. prerequisite courses for a biology major is different from prerequisite courses for humanities major)

A table about specific requirement for each campuses is listed in this site.

 

UC Berkeley Transfer Alliance Project (TAP) and UCLA Transfer Alliance Program (TAP)

UC Berkeley’s website states “Since its founding in 1999, TAP has served over 7,000 students, and more than 80% of TAP participants who applied to UC Berkeley were admitted.” Although UCLA does not state on its website, its TAP program also admits over 80% of students who participate in TAP programs according to community colleges’ TAP coordinators.

TAP is similar to honors college in state universities. It offers academic advising, helps you with your course selections, and also helps with your transfer application. Because of the excellence of the TAP program, 80%-95% of the TAP participants succeed at transferring to UCLA and Berkeley with different admission rates for different community colleges.

While Berkeley and UCLA do not offer guaranteed transfer admission, they do offer priority consideration for students transferring from California community colleges and even higher consideration for TAP participants. If you were denied the first time, you can reapply to UCLA and Berkeley the next year or attend one of the TAG campuses to which you are automatically admitted.

Check Also: Available Programs for International Students

Information about different California Community Colleges

There are hundreds of community colleges in California, and each community college offers different opportunities for students. You should contact community colleges that you are interested in for more information.

The biggest community college in California is Santa Monica community college which sends thousands of transfer students to different UC campuses. Their expertise in transfer admission is unparalleled because of numerous years of counseling thousands of transfer students. If you want to receive excellent counseling for transferring, Santa Monica is an excellent option.

As I said earlier, there are advantages and disadvantages of each community college. While in bigger community colleges like Santa Monica offer great counseling, you will have more leadership positions available in smaller community colleges. There are advantages and disadvantages of attending each community college, and you need to research your options thoroughly.

 

Things to ask different Community Colleges

  1. Availability of on-campus housing
  2. Transfer statistics (number of students applied and number accepted for UC campus you are interested in)
  3. TAP Program availability and requirements
  4. If applicable, English as Second Language courses
  5. Tuition and fees

For more information about community colleges, please visit this article.

 

Financial Aid Information

There is limited financial aid available for international students from UC campuses. However, there are many external scholarships available to fund your studies at the United States!

 

We hope that this article on transferring to UCLA and UC Berkeley was helpful. To know more information on studying abroad, check out the Available Programs for International Students.

About the Author: Hyun Lee

Hyun is the founder at Global Scholarships. He has received a full-tuition scholarship at Birmingham-Southern College as well as $1,000 Burger King Scholarship for his undergraduate degree and has been offered a fully funded scholarship consisting of tuition, living stipend, and health insurance for computer science Ph.D. program at North Carolina State University. Read more about his scholarship journey here.

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