Hi! I did 2.5 years at a 4-year college and had to take a gap year for medical reasons. During the gap year, I took classes at a California community college and realized I wanted to pursue a different major that my 4-year college does not offer.
Right now, I am in the process of applying to UCs, but I have taken a few upper-division unit classes at my 4-year university for a different major than what I am applying for and realized that I will have taken exactly 89 units by the time of transferring. Should I explain the upper-level credits in my additional comments section?
How many units of upper division courses have you taken?
Page 34 indicates that transfer admission may be less likely with 80+, 86.5+, or 90+ units, depending on campus and division.
However, if you have fewer than 10 upper division units, you will be safe from those limits, since lower division units are capped at 70 for the purpose of this limit (and the number of units of transfer credit you will have if you are admitted and matriculate; all courses taken do count for subject credit).
I think I have taken 16-20 upper div credits (It’s a little hard to classify based on some weird courses I had to take). Again, none of the upper-div courses would count at all toward my transfer major and I’m not sure if they are classified as UC-transferable credit considering some of those courses don’t exist at the UCs.
You may be in a tricky situation regarding what category you fall into (ordinary transfer or high-unit junior) and likely only UC admissions can give a definitive answer; however they don’t do transfer credit evaluation in advance so all you perhaps can really do is apply and see what happens.
That the courses you took don’t exist at UC may not prevent them from counting since UC says
Courses that further the student’s knowledge and understanding in fundamental liberal arts disciplines such as mathematics, natural science, literature, social sciences, fine arts and philosophy, are acceptable for transfer if comparable in scope and depth to those offered at UC.
From: Transfer credit practices
So a class that potentially could be taught at a UC, even if it isn’t actually offered, may receive transfer credit.
Given that you don’t need those upper-division units one longshot idea you can look into is contacting your 4-year college and ask if there is any procedure that would let you retroactively withdraw from one or more of them and have a W instead of a grade show up on your official transcript. This itself may have repercussions if you received any FA grants that were contingent on you being a full-time student.
Are they designated as junior or senior level courses at the college you took them at?
Are they in typical liberal arts subjects or other subjects offered at UCs, or are they in subjects UCs would not offer (e.g. devotional religion courses)?
Thank you so much, this was really helpful! I’ll definitely reach out to my 4-year college to see if I can retroactively withdraw from some of those courses.
My college doesn’t distinguish between the course levels very well. 2-3 of the upper-div courses are counted as lower-division requirements for my previous major at the 4-year college but their course codes indicate that they are counted as upper-division courses in the general scope of the 4-year college. Basically, liberal arts colleges are really confusing lmao.
I was a neuroscience major- the major had really specific/random course topics at the 4-year college that aren’t offered/covered at other UCs, which is why it’s hard to gauge what would transfer.
In some majors at some UCs, students are expected to take some upper division courses before declaring the major. So it is likely that the courses in question are considered upper division courses, even though you may have taken them before reaching junior standing or level.
Neuroscience is typically a combination of psychology and biology, so it is likely that any course taken for such a major would be within the realm of liberal arts that would be a course that a UC could possibly teach, even if no UC actually teaches that specific course.
How many lower division credits do you have, and what is your new intended major?