Feeling a bit discouraged

State Forums
1

I am currently at a community college, and I was really hoping to be able to transfer by Fall 2018. I am wanting to major in Biochemistry/molecular biology. There are two physics series, one with two classes and one with three classes that is more calculus based. Some of the UCs i am looking at want either or series (according to assist) and some of them only want the calculus based physics series.

To finish all the needed classes I will most likely have to look at enrolling in Fall 2019, which means 3 years of community college. I am currently enrolled in physics 1a for next fall, (the calculus based series) but I’m trying to get into 2a which is two class physics series, and i could finish it by next spring, but it is waitlisted so I might not even get in that class…

I just read on Santa Cruz UC’s website that for transfers they want us to only do 7 semesters at their school or 2 years or we cannot graduate. I’m wondering if that’s the case with other UCs, if anyone knows… I was maybe hoping i could do some of my pre-major stuff there if I needed, or at a different UC, after all they all have simply different requirements. I don’t know. This is really stressing me out and making me second-guess college. It seems that if you are going into community college and want to transfer, you have to know right away which major you want and where you exactly want to go so you can plan specifically to meet requirements as soon as possible. Which seems a bit ridiculous to me so correct me if I’m wrong. Also I read that you can only have so many credits while transferring, and if you have taken too many classes at community college they might not accept you

Does this even make sense? What I’m saying is that I would really want to have my degree in 4 years, but I don’t know if that is possible with the classes that are open to me now.

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different people bring very different backgrounds to CCs. There are people who’ve known since they were 7 that they want to study molecular bio at UCSC, they have plenty of time to take many of the math and science pre-reqs in high school and graduate in 4 years. Most, however, have foundational work to do in English, Math and Science so, it takes longer to transfer, and to graduate. Crowds plus semesters and class sequences of math and science make that extra tough at most CC’s in Ca. Deciding you want to pursue a hard science at a UC as you enter your second year is going to compound the problem.

Fortunately TAG makes it pretty easy to know what to take once you make up your mind.
https://admissions.ucsc.edu/apply/transfer-students/tag.html#bio2

Check it out at that link.
I’d make an appointment with an admissions counselor at UCSC ASAP - while you have time to adjust your Fall semester courses.

As to semesters in residence - basically, they want someone with a UCSC diploma to have spent more than ten minutes on campus… It is a pretty common requirement.

https://advising.ucsc.edu/transfer-guide/grad_reqs.html

This says it is just 3 semesters.

3

Both the UC’s and CSU’s accept a maximum of 70 transferable semester (105 quarter) units from community college. That means those units will be counted toward completion of your degree. Courses in excess of 70 semester/105 quarter units will not receive unit credit but will receive subject credit and may be used to satisfy subject requirements. The colleges will not reject you because you’ve taken too many community college classes!