<p>I just applied for fall 2014 for UCD, UCSB, UCSC, UCSD, and UCR</p>
<p>My UC gpa is 3.59 (not great) but I'm more concerned that for some schools I will have a missing major pre-req like for UCR I don't have BUS 1. I will have IGETC complete and 95% of my major pre-reqs but I just don't have the room in my schedule to get all classes for all the campuses I applied to.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I’m missing a prereq for Davis, 2 for UCSC, and one for Berkeley. My GPA is likely to be a 3.43 by the end of Fall.</p>
<p>My counselor said that UCSD gives students 2 quarters to finish major prep. But then again she has been wrong with a lot of things. Take it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>I really thought that UCs gave u time to finish prereqs</p>
<p>They give you the spring semester and that’s it. I’m already taking 5 classes to even add more classes (units) I would need permission from my current school.</p>
<p>@Alkalinium
Do you mean after you’ve already enrolled? As if once you’re accepted and enrolled for Fall you have until the end of winter quarter to finish your prereqs and if you don’t you’ll face some sort of consequence?</p>
<p>If that’s what your counselor suggested to you, I can tell you that’s completely wrong. “If” you’re accepted with missing prereqs you can finish them whenever you want. You’re not required to finish your prereqs in any number of quarters at UCSD. The condition there is “if” you’re accepted with missing prereqs. For all the UC’s prereq completion is a factor in admission, including UCSD, and missing too many prereqs can be a major reason for rejection. As far as the two quarter suggestion, I personally know someone that left a lower division prereq until his last quarter his senior year because it wasn’t mandatory for enrollment in any of his upper division courses, so that two quarters time frame doesn’t exist. He enrolled and completed all of his upper division courses before going back to finish that last lower division prereq after five quarters.</p>
<p>@dilapidatedmind
But why is that?
I mean I understand if ur missing like most of ur major requirements but what about 2-3?</p>
<p>You have to be more specific with your question. Is your question, why don’t the UC’s allow you to finish your prereqs after you enroll? Or why don’t they have a policy that requires you to complete your lower division prereqs in a set amount of time after you’re enrolled?</p>
<p>@dilapidatedmind</p>
<p>Both</p>
<p>I figured that might be the case. Well the answer to the first question is that they actually do allow you to finish them after you enroll, but I think you were wondering more along the lines of “why are they so critical about finishing prereqs for acceptance?” And one answer to that is… because they can be. Since there’s much more demand for enrollment at the UC’s than there are spots available, they have the liberty to be more selective. Naturally, they want to take students that are the brightest and most likely to succeed so they value those with high GPAs and those that have the most major preparation completed. This goes twice fold for engineering majors because the engineering departments at almost all the UC’s are applied to at a rate much higher than they can accommodate. It also makes it really competitive between applicants. If you’re missing 2 or 3 prereqs, chances are there are multiple people with similar stats to you that have already finished everything. Chances are there are also multiple people with better stats than yours that have finished everything also. So who’s going to be admitted first? Then if you think about how few spots there are it becomes pretty obvious why they’re so picky about prereqs because they have more than enough qualified applicants especially for engineering. </p>
<p>I’ll give you an example using UCLA’s Chemical Engineering major because they’re the only ones that release detailed admissions stats. UCLA in 2013 had 239 people apply for Chemical Engineering, they admitted 9. Just 9 people! How many people out of those 239 do you think finished all of their prereqs? I’d guess at least half because it’s explicitly stated that they’re all required on the UCLA website. So that means roughly 110 people were rejected to UCLA with all of their prereqs completed for Chemical Engineering. So what are those 110 people’s back up schools going to be? UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD etc. Each may admit a few more applicants than UCLA say 30-40 applicants but there’s still more than enough ChemE applicants with all their completed prereqs to go around. </p>
<p>The second answer to the first question is because they need you to graduate on time. The more prereqs you have to complete, the higher likelihood you’ll take extra quarters to graduate. If you don’t graduate on time, contrary to what you might think, it’s actually more expensive for the UC and it affects their graduation rates. Typically, the prereqs are the equivalent of the lower division coursework you’d be expected to complete if you were in your first two years at a UC, so they want you to come in up to speed with those that were accepted as freshmen and not necessarily having to play catch up before you even start. Also, it’s not always feasible to just enroll and try to make up prereqs off sequence because some courses are only offered one quarter of the year. For example at UCSD, if you look at the 4-year course plan for a ChemE major here: [Undergraduate</a> CENG Curriculum | NanoEngineering](<a href=“http://ne.ucsd.edu/undergrad-programs/degree/bs-chemical-engineering/curriculum]Undergraduate”>Undergraduate CENG Curriculum | NanoEngineering)
You see that as a junior they’re expecting you to take CENG 101A and MAE 170 Fall quarter. Well CENG 101A requires Physics, Differential Equations, and Vector Calc to enroll in it. If you’re completing any of those courses in Fall then you can’t take CENG 101A and it isn’t offered again in Winter and Spring. That puts you a year behind for that class already for CENG 101A. Similar is MAE 170 which is offered more often, but it requires the whole physics series, which would set you back more if you don’t have Physics finished before Fall. Also there are other issues with graduation unit caps and financial aid that I won’t touch on because I’ve typed a lot already, but similarly they’re not good for the university or student that’s set back a year because of a few prereqs.</p>
<p>To answer the second question, they do a well enough job screening applicants that they’re only going to let you in if it’s feasible for you to actually make up your prereqs so it’s unnecessary to have to force you to make them up in a certain amount of time. For some majors that are less competitive and whose curriculum is more flexible they’ll admit quite a few people with missing prereqs. Engineering however tends to be extremely competitive and has an extremely rigid curriculum where all of the upper divisions courses build on lower division prereqs so their admissions tends to be less lenient. Also, in terms of having a time limit, it’s present way too much of an issue if they’re having to monitor students and possibly reprimand them after accepting them for not finishing prereqs in a certain amount of time. Say they accept someone and they a have a two quarter policy to finish all prereqs. What happens if that person doesn’t finish? Do they kick them out? Well at that point that person is already enrolled, they already received financial aid, they’ve taken up a spot in the major, they taken a spot in on-campus housing, etc. It’s a waste of resources and time and effort by the UC’s to monitor students with a policy like that. Instead it’s much more practical to address the issue during the admission process which is what they do, so they don’t have to worry about forcing current students to finishing prereqs in a set amount of time.</p>
<p>Wow that’s a ton of info!
Thanks!</p>