Does transferring once diminish your chances of being accepted as a transfer into a UC?

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

Hi, I’m currently a freshman with a 4.0 standing and am involved in some quality extracurriculars. School is currently going well for me academically, but I am not happy at the school I am currently at due to its extremely small size and other factors.

I would like to transfer into a UC school, such as UC Santa Barbara. I noticed that most UC schools only allow those at junior-level standing to transfer into their school.

I do not think that continuing to attend the school I am at for another year will be mentally and individual positive/healthy for me. I would like to transfer to another school for the time being before transferring to a UC (most preferentially, Santa Barbara).

Let me know what you think, and what you think I should do. Thank you.

2

*I am a college freshman.

3

Consider going to a CA community college and TAGing into UCSB.

Here is some information regarding the TAG program: http://admissions.sa.ucsb.edu/docs/default-source/PDFs/ucsb-tag-fall-2018.pdf?sfvrsn=10

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/transfer/guarantee/index.html

4

The answer to your question (of whether transferring once diminishes your chances of being accepted as a transfer into a UC) is no.

You’ll have to complete the necessary requirements for your major, and you’ll want to finish your general education requirements (either by IGETC if you plan to go to a community college, or by 7-course breadth, which can be tricky if you’ll be at a university which isn’t a UC.) But transferring once will not hurt your chances. You may want to briefly explain why you decided to leave your current institution in your application, but it’s not that big of a deal.

5

the potential “gotcha” here is making sure you have enough units to be considered a junior. The UCs do not evaluate transfer credit prior to acceptance; they take it on faith you have the units you say you do and then check later. You can tell what CCC classes transfer from ASSIST, but its less obvious what gets credit from your current school. See http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/transfer/advising/transferring-credits/index.html

If you will be just over the border of 60 units it may be better to err on the side of caution and make sure you have enough total units.

6

UCs only accept junior transfers, with 60 transferable units or more. Do not worry about the Unit caps, those only apply when you have upper-division units.

I would take Gumbymom’s advice and go to a CCC and tag into UCSB.