At the risk of sounding like I don’t know much about admissions, I have a question regarding transferring to the UC schools. I currently go to a California community college and am planning on applying next fall. I just learned that the UC definition of an impacted major is that there are more applicants than space available so they can’t accept every qualified candidate. However, does that mean that if you apply to an un-impacted major assuming you are a perfectly competitive applicant, your chances are getting in are quite high due to it being un-impacted? In other words, if an impacted major means there is less space than applicants, does un-impacted mean they have the space to accept every competitive applicant? Or am I missing something. Thanks for taking the time to read this and respond!
Look at this website https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major Choose the school you want to transfer to and the major you intend to declare. You will see specific GPA trends. I hope this helps.
First, welcome and don’t feel hesitant to post.
With very few exceptions, every major has more applicants than there is room for. The issue becomes how tight is it? Selective majors (or impacted) mean there’s a much higher volume of applicants so even less get admitted.
The key is to look at your chosen majors in the link above, specifically at the admitted GPA range and try to get in that range, ideally as high as possible. That makes you competitive. Then look at the admit rate. If a major has a 60% admit rate you’ll stand a much better shot than one with an 8% admit rate. That said, your GPA is king — that, and completing all the major requirements listed at assist.org. Don’t be skittish about an impacted major if you have a high GPA.
Technically, the term “impacted major” is used by the CSU system – not the UC system. In the CSU system, your chances of admission are indeed very good for non-impacted majors, since they should have room for all qualified applicants. As long as you meet the minimum criteria, admission to non-impacted CSU programs should be guaranteed.
The catch is that many of the popular majors at many of the popular CSU campuses are impacted. In that case, your qualifications will probably need to exceed the minimum criteria in order to get in. Summary of impacted CSU programs here:
https://www.calstate.edu/sas/documents/impactedprogramsmatrix.pdf
The UC system uses the terms “capped major” (UCB/UCSD) or “selective major” (other UC campuses) for the programs in highest demand. The link in Post #1 above will give you an idea as to the transfer acceptance rate for specific programs at specific UC campuses.
Technically, the UCs do still use the term impacted although intermittently. UCSD just recently switched out the term. I think we all understood what OP was asking and the minutiae (selective, capped, impacted) is not important. See point #5 in link where the UC uses the word impacted.
Just wanted to confirm that the OP isn’t confusing the CSU and UC systems here. Yes, it’s true that the UC system does sometimes use the term “impacted”, but this term is most commonly associated with the CSU system. Furthermore, the definition of “impacted” that the OP cited seems like the one that the CSU system uses:
CSU uses “impacted” both in the context of campuses and majors. Only for a non-impacted major at a non-impacted campus is CSU admission assured with baseline qualifications (in some cases, local area preference may also assure admission with baseline qualifications).
https://www2.calstate.edu/attend/degrees-certificates-credentials/Pages/impacted-degrees.aspx
Examples (as of this writing):
SFSU computer science: campus not impacted, major not impacted
SFSU nursing: campus not impacted, major impacted
CPP history: campus impacted, major not impacted
CPP computer science: campus impacted, major impacted
Very illuminating, @ucbalumnus, as I know very little about the CSU system.