Should I continue to follow the IGETC plan with no prereqs done?

Basically, CC had me doing the IGETC as a Biology major transfer. I did not know of the prerequisites needed to transfer to 4 years such as UCI, UCSD, Poly SLO, and so forth; meaning I have done practically no prereqs aside from one course. Obviously, I need to finish the prereqs, but should I continue to be enrolled in courses that fulfill the IGETC? My CC also does not offer any biology or chemistry classes that correspond with Assist, so I have to transfer to a different CC anyways. So, at this point, I am in my last quarter at the current CC and am enrolled in another math class needed to take the calculus classes needed (college algebra, if anyone wants to know.) I do not think I will be able to complete the IGETC with the amount of classes I need to take all the prereqs still. I can still enroll in one more class, for a total of two. However, there are no classes that correspond with assist as fulfilling the prereqs I need, which is where my problem is. Should I stay in one class or add another that will add to the IGETC?

Which CC are you at that does not have the lower division courses for a biology major?

IGETC means that you will be considered to have fulfilled all or most general education requirements by the four year school; if you transfer without IGETC, then you will need to complete that four year school’s general education requirements.

Barstow Community College. The only courses they offer in biology that I thought I would need are intro to bio/chem labs, but per assist those are not applicable. At least as far as I remember. So should I try to squeeze in gen ed classes still? My goal was to have transferred within 2 years of attending, but right now that looks like it would be difficult to do. I believe I need 2 or 3 more classes to fulfill the IGETC. In all honesty, I would rather complete the gen ed requirements at a 4 year and focus on only the prepreqs at a CC, but I was not sure what to do. The counselors here are like talking to a rock, so most information I have has been gotten by my own research or look on the forums here.

Looks like Barstow is exceptionally poor at providing transfer-prep courses for a major as common as biology, based on http://www.assist.org listings.

Seems like your only real option is to transfer to another CC that does have the needed transfer-prep courses (most should have them for biology). However, it will probably take about two years to complete all of them, due to prerequisite sequencing (commonly general chemistry 1 → general chemistry 2 → organic chemistry 1 → organic chemistry 2 is the long sequence). But that may leave some schedule space for you to fit in the 2-3 more courses to complete IGETC as well.

Yes, I am transferring. Well, right now it is between Biochemistry and Microbiology, which shares the same prereqs as biology. I am transferring to Victor Valley college. It appears on the assist listings that the there are not as many prepreqs for biochemistry than microbiology, although I am not sure since biochemistry, according the UCSD’s stire requires physics and microbiology does not… Should I do that if so? And yes, the sequencing is the main issue for me. Also, how often does assist.org get updated?

ASSIST pages appear to be updated yearly (you can check past years’ pages).

However, you may want to check the major requirements at the four year schools’ web sites to make sure that there are no changes that have not yet been updated on ASSIST.

http://web2.assist.org/web-assist/report.do?agreement=aa&reportPath=REPORT_2&reportScript=Rep2.pl&event=19&dir=1&sia=VVCC&ria=UCSD&ia=VVCC&oia=UCSD&aay=16-17&ay=16-17&dora=MICROBIOLOGY and https://biology.ucsd.edu/education/undergrad/maj-min/majors/fall17/microbiology.html#Lower-Division-Requirements both list physics as required for UCSD microbiology.

It appears I was going off a different page, as the microbiology one you linked has more requirements than the other one. The assist list I had was using the info directly from the page you linked, not the one I was looking at. Thanks for the help!

I think you should definitely prioritize on getting the prereqs done first. But if those classes you’re talking about are the English/Math courses used to fulfill IGETC, then I’d stay. When do you plan on transferring?

I already have the Math/English done for IGETC. I wanted to transfer after my sophomore year, so the year after next. I believe that would be 2020.

You can do gen ed (breadth) courses as well that are less than IGETC. You just have to make sure the courses you took for IGETC fulfill the gen ed course plan. Then you have to see exactly what the breadth req are for each UC’s Biology department. They may vary slightly.

Go here:

http://web2.assist.org/web-assist/tcaAgreement.do?inst2=none&inst1=none&type=ucElig&ia=VVCC&ay=16-17

If it doesn’t go directly to the page, simply put in Victor Valley, then near bottom click on UC Eligibility courses. Those are the courses that fulfill breadth. All you have to do then is match with the breadth categories needed in each UCs bio dept. it’s always English and math and then usually just about 4 classes chosen in a few categories.

Doing breadth is just as good as IGETC when you have a lot of major courses - in fact, it’s even better.

Barstow CC has Eng 1A, 1B and 1C as fulfilling English breadth. Your math will easily be fulfilled with any number of math courses for your major.

It might be easiest to email each bio dept and ask what the breadth req are for Transfers. Get it straight from the horse’s mouth.

UC campus-specific breadth requirements should be findable on the campus web sites. UCSD is unusual in that breadth requirements depend on which of the residential colleges you are associated with, and these are not determined by major. See http://provost.ucsd.edu/colleges/compare.html for a comparison. For each of the colleges, click “full GE information” to see more information, including transferring with or without IGETC.