<p>I was just speaking with a friend who was criticizing the number of units I was taking. I currently have 51 UC transferrable units and am taking 19 units this semester to transfer with the maximum allowed 70 units. I was under the impression that if I took more now it would be less I would have to take later. I was also under the impression that 120 semester (or 190 quarter units) were required for a BA degree. So if I had 70 from community college I would be able to take 12.5 for 3 quarters junior and senior year and be done. Does anyone know how this works once you get to UCLA (most importantly), UCB, or UCSD? My major is Political Science.</p>
<p>It's quite simple: UCs give you up to 70 transferrable units...for the rest you get subject credit.</p>
<p>That doesn't make sense to me because I dont know what subject credit is at a UC. Can you elaborate?</p>
<p>haha, everyone toses that phrase around.</p>
<p>from my understanding, it's a complicated scenario. Where if u exceed the max number of units, but have taken a class that meets one of the lower devision prereqs for ur major, like Political Philosophy, etc. U won't have to take at uc, however u will have to take something else in order to reach the correct amount of units that u need. SO it meets a req for ur major, but doesn't go into the necessary amount of units that u need to graduate.</p>
<p>thats my interpertation and my attempt to explain it. not saying it's right.</p>
<p>So where can I find the amount of units for a BA Political Science degree at UCLA?</p>
<p>well if u have a ucla catalog, u'll c it there. If not look at ucla's pol sci dept website. </p>
<p>here is a start
<a href="http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/</a></p>
<p>Here's what it says for Political Science:</p>
<p>Required: Ten upper division courses (40 units) selected from Political Science 104A through 199 taken for a letter grade. Students are also required to complete four upper division courses (16 units) in one or two of the following social sciences: anthropology, communication studies (only Communication Studies 160), economics, geography, history, management (only Management 150), psychology (except Psychology 115, 116), sociology. These courses must be taken for a letter grade. Students are required to maintain a 2.0 overall grade-point average in all upper division political science courses.</p>
<p>Upper division political science courses are organized into five fields: (I) political theory, (II) international relations, (III) American politics, (IV) comparative politics, and (V) methods and models.</p>
<p>In fulfilling the requirement of 10 upper division political science courses, students must satisfy the following:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A concentration in one field by completing the lower division course and at least four upper division courses in that field</p></li>
<li><p>A distribution of the lower division course and two upper division courses in each of two other fields (four upper division courses)</p></li>
<li><p>Two additional elective courses in political science to comprise the total of 10</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So am I understanding correctly.....56 quarter units? Is that all I would have to take for a BA degree?</p>
<p>That's all you need for major, but they're going to be electives and such. You need more units to graduate.</p>
<p>The idea of subject credit and graduation credit is not complex at all...</p>
<p>You need 120 units to graduate; units that are only awarded subject credit do not count towards that 120 goal. On the other hand, subject credit counts as prerequisites or major requirements.</p>
<p>So I transfer with 70 units. I need 120. (let's just use semester to keep it simple). 50 are left. I need 42 for my major. I guess what I can't find is what those other 8 units are supposed to be....</p>
<p>Bottom line question: Is it helpful to transfer with 70 units?</p>
<p>subject credits probably wont' count towards major classes. I don't know how UC spreads out the credits, but common sense says that you will get subject credit for Political Science rather than Calculus.</p>