I am currently a freshman at a CSU and I am miserable. I knew i hated this school after the first month but i decided to finish my first year. The location is awful,the environment is making me depressed, and I go to bed in tears. I would like to transfer to a UC, however to increase my chances of getting accepted I would need to apply as a community college transfer, hence my decision to go back to Community college? Has anyone gone through the reverse transfer process? What steps did you take?
SOS
I am confident in my decision but am unaware of how to proceed. Do my units from this CSU transfer to my CC? I Know ill need to ask my CC about this, but I am just curious if that is what happens. Thank you!!
You do not really “transfer” to a community college. You withdraw from your current CSU and apply to attend the community college. Your CSU credits will transfer to the CC but what is more important is how many of the CSU credits/courses are UC transferable.
It is best to sit down with a CC transfer advisor and map out your course plan. Most of the GE courses should be UC transferable so you can use assist.org to try and Match your CSU courses to the assist.org courses at your CC and then match them to the UC transferable courses.
Going from a CSU to CC to UC is common so the advisor should have some experience in this area.
I did this. Your units will transfer most likely (well, most). It’s a fairly simple process. A lot of people do it. I strongly recommend it.
Basically what I did was withdraw from my CSU (well, technically I’m on a leave of absence til I have a UC acceptance but that’s cause I’m lazy), talk with a counselor at a CC so I can have all my units square away, and then sign up for my classes. I’m much happier at my CC, and doing much better academically. It’s not a hard process by any means and you have tons of support. You can apply as you would to UCs this coming fall if you’ll have 60+ units or have completed IGETC (UC transfer requirements) by then. Good luck!
Thank you so much! I really needed some reassurance from someone who has been through the process.
Why do our CSU credits transfer to CC? Don’t you mean to UC? Or does the credit from CSU transfer to CC and than those are transfered to uc?
People can and do transfer from CSUs directly to UCs
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-source-school
you can use the Transfer by Yr and Transfer GPA tabs - select the CSU radio button and you’ll find that (for example) applicants from CPP have a UC system-wide acceptance rate a little less than 50% - better than Pasadena City but, worse than Santa Monica College. I would suggest you meet face to face with an admissions advisor at your target UC and discuss how you get there from where you are. Ask what GPA and courses they are looking for before you withdraw from your current CSU. My understand is - if you need/want to retake a class to replace a D or F - you need to do that at the same school or your grade isn’t replaced - which will tube your chances of a transfer.
I’d also caution you to be sure your transfer target is realistic. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major
Use that tool to see the admit rate and transfer GPA for each major at each UC. If you sit at the end of freshman year with a 2.1 GPA and want to study Biz at UCB, It is mathematically impossible to get your GPA to a 3.9 so you are a competitive applicant so, do the math now - can you make it into your target school with something less than perfect grades? If not, you should pick a different target or find a way to have a different experience at your current CSU next year.
The units/coureses may not all transfer to the UC because they simply aren’t mapped. It is not a normal pathway so, they don’t take the time to say Math 103 at CSUX = Math 119b at UCX. The courses that aren’t a clear match are tossed. you can appeal with a syllabus but, it is time consuming.
Good luck