Is it easier to transfer from a Cal State to a UC, or from a community college to a UC?

Applying to College
1

Will be sophomore in the fall at CSUN, want to transfer to UCLA for junior year. Is it easier to transfer from a CSU or from a jc like SMC?

2

Way easier from a JC.

3

TAG makes going from a CC to most programs at most UCs a much easier to define path and performance threshold.

4

http://www.assist.org also shows California CC students what to take to fulfill major prerequisites, and what courses are consider equivalent. Also, use of IGETC to fulfill general education requirements is available to students transferring from California CC to UC/CSU, but not for student transferring from a school other than a California CC.

5

@NCalRent the OP wants to go to ucla which unfortunately does not take part in TAG. Ucla does have a TAP program which gives a preference (but not a guarantee) for many majors. Details at http://www.tap.ucla.edu/

6

The message header just says ‘transfer to a UC’ twice. which is why I made my comment more general and said at most UCs.

But, yeah @mikemac - LA, SD and B don’t play the TAG game - I know a student admitted to UCLA via TAP from a CC. She had very near a 4.0.

If you look at this tool, you will see none of the 37 people who applied to UCLA from CSUN were admitted in 15. None of the 46 UCLA transfer applicants from CSUN were admitted in 14. Whereas about 30% of applicants from SMC were admitted. There may be a multitude of reasons for this but, it is not unreasonable to conclude it is easier to transfer into UC from a CCC.

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-source-school

A word of advice to the OP, I hope your plan works but, don’t fixate on one school, particularly one like UCLA . Nobody wants to hear it but,transferring into UCLA from anywhere is is VERY competitive and highly unpredictable. Their admission thresholds vary widely from program to program and year to year. There are MANY good schools in SoCal.

Good luck.

7

I agree with all of @NCalRent’s advice. Here is a link for 2014 transfer GPA’s for UCLA, just to give an idea of target GPA’s for each major if you are considering transferring.

https://www.admission.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof14_mjr.htm#PW

8

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major is another set of useful data for transfer admissions to UCs by campus and major.