I just graduated High School June 2015 so right now I am a first year in community college. I know that I can get into UC Irvine through the TAG system my school. My question is, upon transferring into Irvine after 2 years at my CC, is it possible for me to graduate in a year at UCI? After doing some research I saw that you need a total of 180 quarter units to graduate, and right now I currently have 30 semester units (45 quarter units). I figured it would be pretty easy for me to graduate within a year. However, I saw this on the transfer page at UCI.
"UC Irvine does not penalize students who transfer with more than 70 semester units of UC transferable coursework from any institution or combination of institutions. Although 70 UC transferable semester/105 quarter units is the maximum number of lower division college units that may be applied to graduation credit, students will receive subject credit for courses taken in excess of this maximum. "
So what I understood from this is after I pass the 70 semester unit mark, I cannot take anymore units at my CC that would count towards my graduation. Does this mean it is impossible for me to graduate within a year at UCI?
I wouldnt think it’d be possible personally. Most often, from what I’ve seen, is transfers graduating from UCs 2-2.5 years after transferring. From what your saying, if you were to transfer with 70 semester units, you would have 75 quarter units to complete at UCI. Considering the fact that full time is 12 units, that’s 6.25 quarters needed. Which can easily take the 2 years. Trying to finish in a year would require taking an average of 20-25 units a quarter. Or 23 units each quarter, and 12 units during the summer. And keep in mind these would be upper division college courses. You’ll literally be killing yourself.
Yeah that is what I figured. I took 22 semester units(33 quarter), which was 6 classes, during the Fall semester at my CC and got a 4.0 GPA. However this was lower division classwork. I understand it may vary between the classes, but do you know about how many classes are in 23 quarter units at a UC? Thank you for responding to my post.
Do you know if there is any way I could get upper division credit during my 2 years at CC? Sorry for being a bit persistent but I want to finish as soon as possible for financial purposes.
If you take upper-division coursework at a 4-year college, your units will be capped at 70 semester / 105 quarter units - and if you took any more than that (any more than 80 semester units total, I believe) you may not be able to transfer out at all.
I do know that UCI takes Spring transfers? If you can take 20+ units per semester, and possibly some summer courses, you could apply to UCI for enrollment of the Spring of 2017 term. I think 1.5 years might be doable, but even that’s a stretch, honestly.
Also, if you keep your GPA at a 4.0, you can probably get into schools better than UCI (UCB, UCLA, etc. - if you’d like, of course - most people who TAG somewhere do so to have that as a guarantee, trying to get into other schools as well).
I don’t think upper division courses are offered at cc. And even UC classes vary in the amount of units each class is. Some may be worth 2 units, while others 4. My husband took 19-21 quarter units at his cc consistently last year, and it amounted to about 4-5 classes. It was intense, and I wouldn’t normally recommend it. He was able to pull off a 4.0 as well, but he’s just different lol.
@HamburgerPaper what’s your intended major, out of curiousity?
Also I totally understand the financial aspects (We’re considered low-income and have 3 kids), but you’ve got to separate whether you want to succeed within your means (ie. the time frame) or over do it and potentially causing backlash. Even though I believe my husband could pull off his remaining education at a UC in 2 years (it’s 2.5 average because of his major) I would rather him not try to stress, and also take advantage of the internship opportunities rather than squeezing courses into the summer to graduate a little sooner.
Theoretically it can be done to graduate in one year academically, but it will be at the cost of other endeavors such as reduced research opportunities and internship experience.
If college is primarily a vehicle for increasing job opportunities for you…you should consider that most employers won’t risk hiring someone with no/minimal experience full time off the bat. Unless you are a real superstar or have work experience in your chosen field you’ll want the additional time of being labeled a “student” anyway because it’s (generally) much easier to find work as a student than as an unemployed graduate.
At Berkeley, the administration allows graduating seniors to waive the 13 unit minimum requirement so a lot of students purposely plan to have a single class in their last semester to make use of their “student” designation by getting the most work experience before they go to the “real” world. I’m fairly certain the other UCs have a similar policy in place.
Well my goal isn’t to try getting a job after I get my bachelors degree. After I graduate from a UC with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science, I plan on getting a scholarship to study abroad in Japan. The tuition for schooling there is extremely cheap and I know that studying abroad looks really good on a resume. I have visited Japan before and I am almost fluent in the language. My goal is to get my Masters degree in Computer Science at one of the top schools in Japan. I looked into Spring enrollment at UCI but after looking at the Spring Enrollment page at the UCI website:
http://www.admissions.uci.edu/applicants/transfer_spring2016app.html
My major is not available for spring enrollment. Thank you all who responded.