A question from a future UCI freshman on transferring to UCSD

Hi Tritons!

I am a student who will be attending UC Irvine next year, and I’m going to be majoring in aerospace engineering.

Before I begin, I’ll bring in a little exposition — when I initially applied to the UC system as a freshman in November, I originally wanted to apply to UCI, UCLA, and UCSD (I can’t remember picking which college, but I think I wanted Warren? I don’t know LOL) for aerospace engineering, but my mother would not let me apply to UCSD because she felt that it would cost too much to apply to a third school. To her, another $75 wasn’t worth it.

I protested because I didn’t feel that the impact of the fee was as much as she made it out to be, but she wouldn’t have it — but I understood where she was coming from. I instead applied to UC Irvine and UCLA, and got admitted to the former.

Don’t get me wrong — I love UCI and the opportunities it has to offer as an engineering school (zot zot zot!), especially with its competitiveness in the national Design/Build/Fly aerospace engineering competition. But I also love UCSD, and I’m worried about missing out on the valuable internship and recruiting opportunities available at that university.

So I’m thinking of doing an intercampus transfer to UCSD — how difficult would it be to transfer from UCI to UCSD as an aerospace engineering major? I heard that it was incredibly difficult because UCSD, as all other UCs do, give preference to California community college transfer students, but I just wanted to know if I could and/or should pull it off.

If all goes well with AP examinations this year, I estimate that I will be entering UCI 40 units in.

(If such a transfer is impossible, I completely understand.)

Thank you, guys!

P. S.: If I don’t get into UCSD as a transfer student, I know there’s not too much to worry about — there’s always graduate school, and I’m considering UCI, UCSD, and several other institutions.