Questions regarding transferring to engineering major, IGETC, etc.

Hi CC!

Sorry for such a long post I need some serious help and my thoughts need to be straightened with a dose of reality.

I’m aiming to get into UC Berkeley and UCLA as an ChemE major. I’ve come across a bit of confusion regarding the completion of IGETC among other things (apologies if these types of inquiries have been over asked)…

1) UCLA’s HSSEAS Admissions FAQ page reads the following:

It says that HSSEAS does not accept the “full IGETC certification”, but it also says that fulfilling IGETC would mean that I have completed my GE requirements. Which one is it? WILL or WILL NOT UCLA accept IGETC?

2) If HSSEAS does not accept IGETC (or whatever they mean…), should I aim to complete IGETC anyways? Berkeley and Irvine accept IGETC and LA might still accept some classes for credits…

3) Regarding ASSIST, the UCs list the courses that are needed for my major. For UCLA especially, there’s an awful lot for only ~four semesters. In the very bottom of each page, it says “END OF MAJOR”. Are all the courses listed for transfer or for the completed undergrad program for the major?

4) I really (REALLY) want to transfer as a junior after only one year of community of college. By the end of this spring, I’ll already have finished 12 community college credits that can go towards both IGETC and my major. I plan on taking a load of summer school and winter intersession courses. Do you think that this is really, truly possible?

I was looking at Berkeley’s requirements, and it seemed doable (even with the completion of IGETC), but UCLA’s requirements seem so much more than Irvine and Cal’s….

I’d appreciate any guidance. Infinite thanks in advance!

UCLA is on the quarter system; it may be that the number of courses seems larger because you may need to take a semester course at a CC (most of which are on the semester system) to cover a quarter course at UCLA.

UCLA does not say it won’t accept IGETC. It just needs to be full IGETC, meaning you can’t be missing 1-2 courses.

I got the information directly from HSSEAS by email. I just post what i got below and hope it can help you.

You do not need to complete it, but if you complete the FULL IGETC, then you will get credit for all of the UCLA GE requirements. But if you only complete some of it, you will only get credit for the courses that your community college courses are equivalent to at UCLA. For example, taking Psychology at your college might satisfy the social science category for IGETC. But at UCLA, psychology is not a GE. So if you do not finish IGETC, then that psychology course will not fulfill any requirement here.
If you want to finish it, then finish it. But you need to prioritize completing the major prep. Finishing IGETC will not give you any advantage for admission. Too many students prioritize finishing IGETC and they don’t complete the major prep, which we consider to be the most important thing.
If you do not finish the full IGETC, you will just have to finish GEs at UCLA. There are only 5 of them, so it’s not a big deal if you don’t have them done. You just need one GE to be eligible for admission.
Erkki

Well that sucks…even if UCLA is on the quarter system, the amount of work should about match the workload of that of a semester based school. I mean, I’m required to take OChem and my CCC’s entire physics series. Cal, on the other hand, does not require any OChem and only requires a year’s worth of physics before transferring.

@ljhywq Thank you!! That clears up a lot! Did you ask about a specific major? Or is that five course GE requirement standard for all students?

So what I gather is that it’s probably not worth completing IGETC. Instead, I could focus on completing my major prereqs. And, if I have some space in my schedule, I could maybe take a couple of classes that I know will specifically go towards the UCs’ GE requirements?

**Also, I know that the UCs don’t allow the completion of major prereqs during the summer before transfer. However, are we allowed to take GE requirements during the summer?

@al1ryt I ask about my major, aerospace engineering. I think all majors in HSSEAS have the same GE requirement.
It seems that you can take some GE in UCLA in the summer after you are admitted.