I have read in some threads that people are planning to finish all their remaining coursework within one year of transferring and I was wondering how you would go about doing this? I have been at my cc for three years now and have about 80 transferrable units. Does this sound like something that’s do-able? Would I need to take on a larger course load?
I think it depends on what major you have, and the upper division requirements you have to meet.
@2016Candles did her UD requirements in about a year, I think, with maybe some summer classes.
@fullload was considering doing it in one year, but I think he has decided to space it out into two years now.
Hopefully they can give you some insight.
I will be finishing UCLA in one year after transferring. That is in large part to the fact that I completed 18 semester units of upper division classes at a Cal State before transferring to UCLA. By doing that, I was able to transfer 86 semester units rather than the normal 70 if they are only lower division. I did one semester at a CSU in the winter 2014, and also two classes summer 2014 at the CSU as well. Then I transferred to UCLA fall of 2014. I have taken 4 courses in the fall, winter, and in the spring. I will have one class left to take the summer. If I remember correctly I had 16 quarter units in the fall, 17 in the winter, and 18 now in the spring.
If you were only transferring in lower division units (Max 70), I’m not sure how quickly you’ll be able to finish. I’m sure if you maxed out units you could finish in less than two years, but I don’t know if you could do it in just one.
@luckie1367 Well my major is Sociology and I was thinking since I have the extra units from my CC to use towards elective requirements I wouldn’t need to waste time on those and just take my core upper div. classes and save some money as well by only moving out for a year.
Have you looked at the requirements for graduation? Which UC will you be attending?
I’m not a sociollogy major, but as a psych major we have to take some UD psych classes as electives before we can graduate. I’m not sure CC units/classes will cover that requirement.
@boredandconfused you don’t have “extra units” from your CC. you may have 80 units but you will only be transferring with 70. they will not be giving you credit for those other 10 units.
not to mention you WILL need electives / general ed when you get there. your major only requires about 50 units of upper division work. 50 + 105 (your transfer courses) = 155, which means you still need another 25 units to reach your graduation limit.
@2016Candles I originally planned to start cal state in the spring but I was not able to get any classes and my financial aid didn’t take effect so I ended up at my CC for another semester, luckily I had applied to UCs for the hell of it and it actually worked out. I’m transferring 80 lower division units so I was hoping I could use the extra ten towards elective classes (if thats possible?) I’m just confused on if its the units that count towards graduation or the actual classes you take. And congrats on finishing UCLA in a year, thats amazing 
i’m a sociology major as well. I don’t know which you see your transferring to but at UCLA very specific courses we have to take, and groups of courses we have to take. Most of those courses must be taken at UCLA. We have 5 sociology electives which could potentially be transferred from another university if they are upper division units. I was able to transfer three sociology electives from my CSU.
Lucky is correct, even though you have 80 units at your CC, only 70 of those units will transfer. There is a 70 unit cap on lower division courses.
@LuckyName I was told by my counselor I could only use 70 units toward my lower division requirements and the rest could be counted towards electives. I’m not really sure if thats true or not given there has been discrepancies between info from my UCs and CC counselors
@boredandconfused nope, you were misinformed. your lower division cannot replace upper division. that does not even make sense. you will only receive credit for 70 units and those other 10 units will not be counted.
If UCLA is your school, http://www.soc.ucla.edu/undergraduate/requirements-for-the-major
Perhaps you misunderstood, or perhaps they got it wrong. In any event, there are 2 different requirements to graduate from a UC. One is a plain unit count; total units you need (usually 180). Another set is what classes you need; breadth requirements (usually lower-division classes), classes required by your major, etc.
You get a max of 70 units from your lower-division classes not taken at a UC towards the 180 requirement, and they will add on upper-division transferable classes to that 70. If you have 80 transferable units from your CC, the excess 10 can be applied to checking off required classes that they match up with if there are any required classes left after the 70 units are applied, even though the units from those classes won’t count towards the 180 total.
@mikemac ahhh that makes more sense! I looked at my required classes and I probably won’t be able to finish within a year anyways, possibly a quarter or two early
Be careful about semester versus quarter units. 1 semester unit = 1.5 quarter units.
At most 70 semester or 105 quarter units of non-UC lower division transfer credit can count toward the 120 semester or 180 quarter unit minimum for graduation. UC and upper division transfer credit can allow transfer credit to exceed those limits, but note that this also puts you closer to any applicable unit ceilings that the UC campuses may have.