<p>I'm currently at IVC, first year, 2nd semester. I would love nothing more than to be able to transfer to UCI as a biological sciences major within only 2 years (pre-med too btw). I've been combing through the forums and UCI's transfer page and also assist.org's page, but I'm so confused now because I keep collecting conflicting information. Here's a link to the page that I have been obsessively referring to for the past 8 months: <a href="http://web1.assist.org/web-assist/report.do?agreement=aa&reportPath=REPORT_2&reportScript=Rep2.pl&event=19&dir=1&sia=IRVINE&ria=UCI&ia=IRVINE&oia=UCI&aay=13-14&ay=13-14&dora=BIO.SCI">http://web1.assist.org/web-assist/report.do?agreement=aa&reportPath=REPORT_2&reportScript=Rep2.pl&event=19&dir=1&sia=IRVINE&ria=UCI&ia=IRVINE&oia=UCI&aay=13-14&ay=13-14&dora=BIO.SCI</a></p>
<p>THIS IS THE PROBLEM:
My academic counselor has told me that I MUST take 3 years at IVC to finish all of my prerequisites for transferring to UCI, and that I have to take the full year courses for physics and calculus and o-chem. However, I think that she's interpreting the info on assist incorrectly.... UCI's transfer page for bio doesn't say anywhere that I have to take physics or a full year of calc before I'm allowed to transfer. I've also seen a bunch of people who have gotten into UC's without completing all of their pre-req's. If I want to transfer in only 2 years, I won't be able to complete the chemistry sequence (specifically, Chem 12B which is the 2nd semester of organic chem.) I also won't be able to complete a full year of calculus like she's saying I must do...</p>
<p>*these are all of the required classes for transfer to UCI from IVC, according to assist.org:
- Bio 93 & Bio 94 (fulfills the 1 year of general bio w/ lab requirement)
- Chem 1A & Chem 1B (fulfills the 1 year of general chem w/ lab requirement)
- Chem 12A & Chem 12B (fulfills the 1 year of organic chem w/ lab requirement)</p>
<p>this is where things get a little confusing though, on assist, it says "additional approved courses for the major" and it lists Bio 97, Bio 99, Physics 4A & Physics 4B. I'm also very confused about the math requirement. Am I supposed to complete a year of calculus or a semester of calc and stats BEFORE I'm eligible for transfer?</p>
<p>So anyway, these are my questions:
- Can I still be accepted into UCI without completing the last course for the chemistry series?
- Do I have to complete physics before I transfer?
- Do I have to complete a year of calc before I transfer? Or can I just take a semester of pre-calc and calc and finish the 2nd part of calc or stats at UCI?
- If I have most of my major pre-req's completed, will I be able to transfer within 2 years if I'm missing one or two classes?</p>
<p>Btw, I’m behind by exactly one semester of science classes because all the classes I needed last semester were already full by the time my registration date came around. I was able to get a 4.0 GPA with the classes I did end up taking, however, they were basically all elective (but still transferable unit) classes.
My grades this semester:</p>
<p>-Trig (3 units): was an A, but most likely failed my last test, so now probably around a low B (this doesn’t transfer to UC’s though)
- Chem 1A (5 units): A
- Bio 93 (4 units): B-, might be able to get it up to a B+/A- with an extra credit project and by acing the next test and final
- Writing 1 (4 units): A</p>
<p>Looking at the assist page, it’s very clear that only Bio. 93 and Bio., one year of General Chemistry, and one year of Organic Chemistry are required to transfer to UCI. Physics is not a transfer requirement, as most UCI Biological Sciences majors take Physics in their third year. I don’t know anything about other related majors (such as Neuroscience, Biochemistry, ect.) but I’d assume that it’s the same way. In general, anything that comes after the “ADDITIONAL APPROVED COURSES FOR THE MAJOR” line is not required for your eligibility to transfer, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take at least some of them as well (more on this later). So your academic counselor is correct that you would have to stay three years, but only if it is assumed that you will not take a summer session. Because you are behind by one semester, you will not be able to complete the O-chem requirement by the spring semester of your second year, without taking a summer session.</p>
<p>If you have the option, you should enroll in a summer session, finishing off the General Chemistry requirement as a bare minimum. You should also consider taking the equivalent to UCI’s Bio 94 (the required one), 97, or 98 during this time. These courses have a reputation of being weed-out classes at UCI (although personally I found 94 to be easy, 97 to be challenging, and 98 to be ridiculously irrelevant) and it’s best to knock some of them out early. Additionally, You might want to consider starting on Calculus, although you could technically wait to complete it at UCI (where Calculus is a 2-quarter course versus a year long course). Just keep in mind that Calculus is a requirement for Physics, which means if you chose to do Calculus at UCI, you will likely have to finish your Physics in your 4th year, assuming no summer sessions (which I believe will prevent you from applying to medical school). Although not having these courses does not automatically eliminate your application, it will be in your favor to complete as many as you can, both for admission and to alleviate your workload later down the road. I understand that there is an alleged “stigma” against courses taken at a CCC versus those taken at 4-year institutions when it comes to medical school admissions. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I wouldn’t stress over it too much. If it does concern you, try enrolling at UCI for the summer and complete the major requirements there. It will be quite costly, but only a drop in the bucket if you are absolutely set on a career in medicine later on. </p>
<p>All that being said, the best thing you can do is to contact UCI directly to get everything sorted out. They have the most up-to-date knowledge and based on my personal experience, the academic advisors with the Biological Sciences department at UCI are incredibly caring and helpful. Do drop by if you can in person, as IVC is so close (you might have to make an appointment before hand though, as I’m not sure if they take drop-ins for non-students). Good luck with everything and hope that helped.</p>
<p>Yes, you do NOT need physics but you MUST take Ochem trust me. I got into UCSD and UCD without Ochem but I got rejected from UCI. I have a 4.0 GPA.</p>
<p>Also, finish the math requirements. I took stats and Calc 1-3. (I took 3 because UCSD required it)</p>
<p>@oceanpartier thank you so much for the insightful clarifications! I knew my academic counselor was giving me misinformation and she didn’t seem to understand that those classes weren’t required before transfer. Also, I think my best option is to stay at IVC for an additional year after seeing @enferrari’s reply… my main obstacle was that last o chem class. unfortunately UCI doesn’t take spring transfers… so I could probably get at least a year of calculus 1 out of the way. I’ve also heard from friends who are currently at UCI that the class is nearly impossible to pass if you’ve never been introduced to calc before (which is my situation). I plan on taking as many of the bio sequences classes too… probably not going to take physics at IVC; I can leave that for UCI. I also plan on taking summer session classes for other general ed courses since I know the workload for any of the chem or bio classes is overwhelming and that getting an A is extremely difficult in an 8 week summer school time-span. I plan on taking all my science classes during the fall and spring semesters.</p>
<p>Anyway, thank you both so much for the information! If you have any other suggestions for being admitted to UCi, aside from maintaining at least a 3.6 GPA, I would greatly appreciate it!</p>
<p>@ntweeter Definitely apply since it doesn’t hurt even if you don’t have ochem. UCI is weird with admissions. And for the record, UCLA only needs one semester of ochem but you need Calc 3 so that might be an option to you. Since you’re a Bio major I’m pretty sure your calculus would be different from the one at UCI if your friends are engineers. Calculus isn’t that bad - people made this class sound impossible and it really isn’t bad if you keep up. As long as you don’t cram all 8 or so sections that will be tested on an exam till the night before, you will be fine. </p>
<p>@enferrari all the friends I have at UCI are bio majors haha. They were just telling me last night that Calc is the most failed class at UCI because it’s like the big time weeder class, especially for pre-med and engineers (UI’m assuming engineering majors have to take the same calc class?) And I don’t plan on applying to UCLA because of the crazy tuition and crazy admissions rates and it just doesn’t really interest me all that much. Just curious, how much would it cost to apply to UCI for Fall 2015? I have no idea. I didn’t bother with college apps in high school since I knew I would be going to a community college to save on tuition (since I knew I wanted to attend grad school or a professional school with anything I studied… I thought 4 years at a 4-year would be a waste of money, especially for general ed classes). </p>
<p>What do you mean by “UCI’s weird with their admissions,” aside from them possibly letting me in without O chem?</p>
<p>@ntweeter, same here…saving money was all it came out to. It’s weird that I got into UCI as a freshman but not as a transfer. Maybe they got mad when I SIRed and then cancelled my SIR lol. Anyways I meant that anything can happen since UCI is unpredictable. Biology was impacted this year at UCI but not at UCSD so maybe that explains why I got rejected from UCI missing a few prereqs but accepted into UCSD and UCD. What I meant though was that you shouldn’t give up and not apply if you’re missing a prereq. Since you are set on UCI, you can TAG there to guarantee you a spot as long as you have 60 units. And I think its like $70 a campus.</p>
<p>@ntweeter it’s the common final that does people in. I took calc at UCI and most people do ok until the final. The math department writes the final which means that while your professor will teach you all the concepts, there is a very real possibility that you will see things on the final that weren’t really </p>
<p>I’ve HATED math all my life, but the UCI Calculus professors are amazing and super caring. They made Calculus almost, dare I say, fun for me. Yes, the final is challenging, but even as a C to B math student all through middle/highschool, I earned 2 A-'s in Calculus at UCI. It’s definitely reasonable, and didn’t suck as much as I thought it would. The only real insult is that the finals are on Saturday which is, IMO, a true showing of evil -_-</p>
<p>Just as a side note, UCLA and UCI have the same tuition. </p>
<p>@oceanpartier oh weird… For some reason I thought UCLA had a higher tuition rate :-? and your math experience is similar to mine… Mostly Bs or low As throughout high school. I haven’t taken pre-calc or calc yet so I’m just like absolutely dreading math come this fall semester. My friends were all shocked when I told them I hadn’t even been exposed to pre-calc hahaha (I guess we’ll see what happens).
@CalBruin well that’s just downright discouraging… :-< </p>
<p>@enferrari I’m not familiar with what SIR means… I only know what TAG and TAP and IGETC are. And yeah, i was planning on doing TAG for UCI. What sucks though is that once you transfer, your GPA doesn’t actually transfer. You basically start all over and I think that’s just kinda bleh 8-| </p>
<p>@ntweeter nah, you’ll be fine. A lot of people don’t do well because they don’t do the optional homework. The math department gives you a list of suggested problems; they usually draw inspiration from that problem set</p>
<p>@CalBruin thanks for the heads up 
is the homework really tedious for calc? Like are there only a few assigned problems, but are they typically multiple steps? And does it take an hour or so to complete?</p>
<p>@ntweeter well, all the homework in calc is optional so you only do as much as you need for your own practice. That being said, if you choose to do it all, it usually takes about an hour per homework set </p>
<p>@CalBruin ok that’s what I thought. Seems pretty reasonable to me. Thanks again so much for all of the info!!</p>
<p>@ntweeter you’re welcome! I hope you enjoy UCI, I’re really loved my time here; the people are super nice, the faculty are approachable, and the whole campus is rather pleasant. People call it a commuter school but I think it adds to UCI’s character. It’s quiet enough that you can find a study space whenever but there’s always something fun going on somewhere on campus whenever you need a study break. </p>
<p>@CalBruin haha good to hear I actually have two more questions, one for you in particular. Your username is CalBruin, so I’m assuming your transferred from UCLA? Why?
And are you familiar with any of the sororities on campus? I plan on rushing after I transfer, and I just want to know if it’s particularly difficult to pledge for any sororities as a transfer, since I’ll be in my third year of college (but I’ll technically still be a junior I think)? Do you know which houses are like a hybrid between academic-orientation and social organization orientation? </p>
<p>@ntweeter actually I’m in the process of transferring from UCI. I’m picking between Berkley (Cal) and UCLA (Bruin) haha, not a very creative username I know. UCI has been good to me these past two years but I want to get out there and try something new. I’m not leaving UCI because I don’t like the campus; I really do, I’ve had so many opportunities and I’ve taken so many awesome classes with great professors. I’m just leaving for the chance to get the most out of my undergrad experience.</p>
<p>As for your second question, I’m a guy so I don’t have any personal experience with sororities but a few girls from my freshman dorm joined sororities. One of my friends is in Pi Beta Phi and she says that they strike a pretty good balance between academia, socializing, and philanthropy. As for it being difficult to pledge you shouldn’t worry. I don’t know about other campuses but UCI greek life is super open to students of all class levels; some people even join in their fourth year. </p>