Hello. I have applied to transfer to all of the UC’s for chemical engineering from UCSC. my GPA is 3.96 and i plan to meet my major requirements by spring but i have will not have met my GE requirements. I am afraid that i have not met the minimum requirement of transfer also. specifically:
“Four transferable college courses (3 semester or 4-5 quarter units each) chosen from at least two of the following subject areas:
the arts and humanities
the social and behavioral sciences
the physical and biological sciences”
I have planned/taken by my spring quarter:
Math: precalc, calc 1/2, vector calc 1/2, lin alg, dif eq. (7 courses total)
Physics for engineers (3 courses with 3 labs)
Chem: Gen chem (3 courses), OCHEM (2 courses) (4 labs total)
2 writing courses
1 Oceanography course
1 Astro-biology course
110 Quarter units total
I do not know if i have met the minimum transfer requirements with my courses above. Should i take an extra class? i am considering “MUSC 80I-01 (42201)” at UCSC to satisfy this? I hope i have already satisfied the minimum requirements because taking an extra class is really pushing the limits on what i can handle for my course load, but if my application will be completely rejected i will of course take a stupid class. Thanks anyone!
It looks like you’re missing two courses from either arts/humanities or social/behavioral sciences. MUSC seems like it’ll satisfy arts so you’ll need one more.
@hiram1234 You need to get a Letter of Reciprocity from UCSC, meaning you need to complete UCSC’s GE path by spring in order to transfer. Forget the transfer path - it’s the UCSC path you need to follow. Were you working with an advisor during this? Go right away and see what can be done. Without the Letter, while I’m not a UC-UC expert, I think you will be denied most, if not all, UCs.
Last year, a student who SIR’d Berkeley ended up missing one course so could not get his Letter. Berkeley would not let him take it in summer and rescinded him. It’s a big deal.
@lindyk8 I appreciate your response. So i have based my planned classes off of information from certain counselors that i have communicated with from UC’s that i have applied to. What i got from them is that i should meet the major requirements by spring quarter because that will make me a more competitive applicant.
This makes sense to me because i figure the schools want to see if i am ready for upper division classes in my major.
This is why i have been cramming in all these hard science classes and working really hard to get good grades in them. If i was going to finish my 8 GE’s that i have not done instead, then my time at school would be a walk in the park and i feel like i would not be showing these schools that i am really ‘trying’.
Basically i have 8 GE’s (out of 10 i believe) that i need to complete. I read on this page (http://■■■■■■■■■■■■/home/uc-transfer-admission-update-2014/)
that “UC Reciprocity will make your life easier after you transfer, but it’s not required.” I also read somewhere that if i transfer having not met all of my GE requirments at my current school, then i will need to complete a whole new set of GE’s at my new school. (This would be fine with me since i have only done 2 at my current school).
So it looks like a reciprocity is not required but recommended for my benefit?
I am going to follow the classes that i have chosen and not complete my GE’s because i have already set my classes for winter quarter and i will need to finish the series of classes for spring. hopefully they will still consider my application as competitive.
So here is my new question(s):
- Do you know if i will be a more competitive applicant if i have finished my GE's or the major requirements?
- Back to the original question i had:
This is a requirement that the application said i need to have met by spring:
“Four transferable college courses (3 semester or 4-5 quarter units each) chosen from at least two of the following subject areas:
the arts and humanities
the social and behavioral sciences
the physical and biological sciences”
Does it look like i have satisfied this requirement? since i will have taken 3 classes in physics and 5 in chemistry by spring i will have satisfied at least 3 classes for the “physical and biological sciences” tier. so it looks like i should take 1 class to satisfy this minimum requirement? If i need one class, Do you think MUSC 80I-01 (42201) will satisfy this? I can probably just ask my counselor but let me know. THANKS!
I honestly cannot answer this because as far as I know your life will be way better with the letter. @fncrane can answer this.
Sorry for just now seeing this!!! Major prerequisites should be your first priority, then GE’s.
I don’t understand why UC Reciprocity is so difficult for everyone to understand lol
Umm hi. You do not need to fulfill UCSC’s GE in order to get into any UC, it is just recommended because fulfilling them would make your own life easier. As far as the 7 courses go, I can’t speak for other UCs but at UCSB specfically, as an inter campus UC applicant, you don’t need to fulfill them. UCSB, since you’re already at a UC, will assume the 7 course pattern is completed. That said, focus on your major prerequisites because all majors in Engineering WILL get screened for admission purposes. Also: UCs do not recommend the completion of GE/IGETC requirements for engineering majors. Once you transfer, if UC Reciprocity/GE/IGETC is not already completed, you will be expected to complete your new UC’s GE requirements. But to answer your question, if you take just one social science or humanities class, you will have fulfilled the whole “4 social science/science/humanities” courses requirement thing because you’ve taken 3+ science classes.
For reference:
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/quick-reference-2015.pdf