<p>Hello, I'm an immigrant. Just arrived here in San Francisco last December. What should I do if I want to enter UC berkeley, davis, or santa cruz? I already finished my first year of college back home and I only finished 36 units. By the way my course/major was BS Biology. I really don't know what to do. Help.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure if you have any college coursework, you’ll need to apply as a junior transfer. Some UCs will rarely accept lower div transfers, but apps were due back in November so you’ll have to wait a year anyways. But to apply as a junior transfer means you’ll have to complete 60 credits before transferring. You’ll probably end up doing CC classes for a year or something. Remember that you apply November-ish before you want to transfer, so you should be applying at the start of your sophomore year.</p>
<p>Assuming you go the CCC route: To be accepted as a transfer student, obviously you need to keep your GPA up, but you also need the right coursework. Take a look at assist.org to find out your major’s pre-reqs. Some of the credits from your last school should count too, you’ll have to guess where those fit in though. Some schools might want you to complete IGETC, which basically clears general ed requirements after you transfer… the requirements for that come from your CCC’s website. If you can’t fit all the requirements from all the schools, don’t worry too much, but having all the right coursework definitely helps during admissions.</p>
<p>I was wondering, since it’s hard for my case to transfer- not sure if the units from my previous school will be credited and I have to study another year in a CC , is it ok if I applied in any UC as a freshman? </p>
<p>just wondering, are you mexican?</p>
<p>nope. I’m a filipino</p>
<p>oh, okay. it’s not mexican but it’ll do. san francisco will still accept you. im from that city btw, from san francisco, lived here all my life. im going to the california state university that’s here (the CSUs are the stupid cousins of the UCs) not the community college. well i was. but i flunked out. now i’m thinking about the community college. that’s what you’ll have to do in order to get to a UC. you’ll have to go to one of those. there might be sneakier ways but that’s the standard way.</p>
<p>If I do go to a community college, do i have to go there for a year or two before i can transfer to a uc? and will the units i took on my previous school be credited? Sorry for my ignorance. It’s really different here. haha. :P</p>
<p>Btw, thank you eveyone for answering my questions. :D</p>
<p>So, my situation was a bit different than yours, my coursework was OOS, not international, so it might not be exactly the same.</p>
<p>But in my experience, they accept the credits (the NUMBER of credits) however your first school described them. My OOS CC said I had 33 semester credits? I got 33 semester credits at Berkeley. If you were on quarters (90 units/year is average, so they multiply by 2/3), or some other system, there’ll be a conversion involved… but if you have a years worth of credit, they’ll probably give you a years worth of credit for it.</p>
<p>One thing that trips people up when they’re new to this is the idea of subject credit. A class can count towards overall credits (the number of credits) without actually articulating as a class. For example, I took circuits before I transferred, so the 5 credits from that transferred, and still counts in terms of how many credits I’ve completed. But the class didn’t actually turn into anything at UC, Berkeley decided that my CC’s circuits wasn’t as good as theirs. So, in that sense, the class didn’t articulate or give me subject credit for circuits, but it still transferred in the sense that I got the credits from it.</p>
<p>So, when it comes to how many credits you have, and meeting the 60 unit requirement, it’s pretty safe to assume you’ve got credit. In terms of subject credit, you’ll have to do some guessing… I don’t think UC will officially evaluate your coursework (for subject credit) until after you’re accepted and submit your SIR and all that fun stuff. So, that paperwork is quite a ways off. You’ll probably need copies of old syllabuses when you get things evaluated, btw.</p>
<p>At CC, if you go that route, it doesn’t really matter what your old coursework articulates as… the UC will do their own evaluations. If you’re using your old classes to satisfy IGETC, then you’ll need to go through the paperwork to get classes officially evaluated at the CCC, but otherwise it’s probably a waste of time to go through the formal process. What you will need is CC pre-reqs cleared though… depending on the CCC, the general advisers may be completely useless. If you’re having trouble getting them to say “yes, calc 1 will satisfy the calc 1 requirement to get into physics”, try going directly to the department/professor, bring a copy of your transcript/syllabus, and they’ll probably have a better handle on it. That might not work at every CC, but for the ones I’ve been to that was the easiest way.</p>
<p>Also, you’re not ignorant, UC is confusing and there’s a lot going on. Notice how UC is the <em>only</em> system with a special board dedicated to transfers on this forum. :P</p>
<p>Back to your original question, on years: You said you have a year’s worth of credits (30+), that means you’re considered a sophomore right now. So you would apply next fall, do a year at CC/CSU/whatever (60+ credits total) and after that you’d transfer to a UC for your last two years.</p>
<p>Doing a year at CCC has some other benefits too… you <em>might</em> be able to get instate tuition at your UC (one year of residency, financial independence or parents in california, intent to stay, etc), OOS tuition is expensive. You’ll get lower div (freshman/sophomore) courses out of the way, at a much cheaper price. And CCC students get priority in UC transfer admissions, which gives you much better chances.</p>
<p>You should also look into TAG (transfer admission guarantee). Each school has different rules, but I think you’d be able to TAG UCSC if you choose to attend a CCC for a year. TAG is due in September, btw, which is kinda super early, so don’t miss the deadline if it sounds like something you’d like to do.</p>
<p>First step would be to enroll at a community college and meet with a counselor ASAP, preferably someone who can evaluate your foreign coursework. You are a transfer student, so applying as a freshmen is not possible. Don’t try to hide your foreign work, you will only get in to trouble for this during the admission process. You will need to spend at least a year probably more at the CC to complete the 7 course pattern (particularly the two English comp courses may keep you an extra year because you may be placed into non transferable courses at first), remaining units, and any major requirements. This is a good place to start: <a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/transfer/requirements/”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/transfer/requirements/</a></p>
<p>Also, once you find a college to attend, take advantage of the admission reps from the various schools you are interested in. They generally visit the community college a few times a semester to meet with students for advising.</p>