Hi I am a student who is trying to transfer from CSUF to UCI as a transfer senior student for software engineering. I was wondering what is needed for me to transfer from CSUF to UCI. My story was that I was accepted but my application was rescinded and had to attend CSUF. what could I do to increase my chances of getting into UCI. Should I do dual enrollment in community college? I need guidance on what to do?
UCI prioritizes transfers from community colleges over four year colleges. UCs in general prioritize junior level transfers, although UCI may admit “some” senior level transfers.
The admit 25th-75th percentile college GPA range for UCI software engineering was 3.72-3.93 for students admitted to start in fall 2022, but a senior transfer from a four year college would likely need higher than that, if it is even possible to get admitted. In addition, UCI has a lot of course work for CS/SE that is not well covered by courses from other colleges, so you may be missing a lot of requirement coverage despite senior level credit units.
Why not stay at your current school and graduate there?
Do you mean that you were accepted at UCI as a HS senior? Why was your application rescinded?
My guess is the answer to that question may impact your ability to transfer, no matter your credits/pre-reqs.
No I got rescinded as a Junior Transfer from CC, because I didn’t have calc II completed over spring (Did It over summer). So now I actually do have the reqs finished.
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The problem is my CSUF gpa is 3.7, I don’t know how I can get to the higher percentile than that. For me it’s okay that I maybe extended a year tbh (Because I already completed my first two years at CC, that where I got rescinded from). I don’t want to stay at CSUF and graduate, cuz I really don’t like it here and UCI has been my dream school always. I really want to attend it. I was thinking if there’s a way to simultaneously enroll in both CSUF and CC and UCI looks at the student from a CC perspective?
You can’t transfer in as a senior because your credits may be too many for UCI to really declare you as having taken the bulk of your junior and senior year classes at UCI. Did you contact UCI and ask?
No one cares where you graduate from. SE is impacted everywhere. There is no such thing as a dream college. As long as you have the degree in SE, you will be employable. My husband and daughter prefer to hire engineers from CSUs. My husband graduated from Stanford and his boss graduated from Fullerton. My daughter graduated from SUNY Buffalo and she supervises UCSD alumni. No one cares, as long as you can do the job.
Did you think about future employment?
The SE companies will review and screen your transcript thoroughly before HR offers you an interview. If you “deviate” from pushing forward to graduate, it may put a wrench in your internships and future employment. They’ll wonder why this SE person deviated from the path and chose to add blocks to graduate. These companies are businesses. They expect their employees to be efficient. They will see it in your transcript.
The current students at UCI have built relationships with their professors and staff; they would be the first in line for LOR’s and referrals. Trying to transfer there and attend for 1 year, (because UCI is your dream) wont help your place in line and it will add more schools to your transcript.
I’ve talk to UCI, and they said that I can transfer as a senior. I get what your saying but for me its just the aspect of the dream school and also like im just not fitting into CSUF. Every time I go to UCI, I just feel like I fit in
Okay, because you’ve already stated that UCI said you can transfer in as a senior, you need to be asking the UCI admissions staff for your chances and apply again to UCI. You’ve already made up your mind to do that. Just remember that the grass isn’t always greener. As long as you can pay the fees, then go for it.
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To be a bit more precise, what they’ve said is that you can apply as a senior transfer and they won’t reject your application out-of-hand the way some of the UCs would.
However you now fall into a different admissions bucket; previously you were a CC transfer, now you’re not. It makes a difference.
If you go to Undergraduate admissions summary | University of California and configure it to show “by source school type” for transfers and then select Irvine as the campus to report you can use the numbers to calculate that 44% of the CC applicants were admitted but just 12% of those from all other non-foreign colleges.
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Would maybe taking classes at community college simultaneously help me put myself in the other bracket as maybe a CC student? I don’t have any classes right now but, I am still a student of both my CSU and CC…
I don’t work for UC so to get accurate advice before you do anything you’d need to talk to UCI admissions, preferably by email so you have written responses. UC doesn’t have a lot of info online about who is considered a CC transfer; in the TAG matrix they say
A CCC transfer student is one who has completed at least 30 semester (45 quarter) UC-transferable units at one or more California community colleges. The last college the student attended in a regular session (fall/spring or fall/winter/spring) before admission to a UC campus must be a California community college
But that is a high level description and as always the devil is in the details. By “last college the student attended” do they mean taking one transferable unit at a CCC would be enough, or the last semester taking a full load? Are there other gotchas? You’d have to ask UCI admissions.
It isn’t clear from your posts whether you only took summer classes at CSUF and are now enrolled for the first time for the regular academic year, or if you’ve already completed a full year at CSUF and discovered you don’t like it.
In the latter case I’d say just finish at CSUF. If you’ve only taken summer classes then you might consider withdrawing, after confirming with UCI that if you withdraw you’ll then be considered a CCC transfer because of the “last regular session” clause and that withdrawal is sufficient to mean you didn’t “attend” CSUF in a regular session. Or perhaps you’d need to withdraw and then take more classes at your CC to regain that classification. I’m assuming you live in the Orange County area so there are plenty of tech employers around and if you’re only taking a few classes at the CCC perhaps you could find a job in software verification such as writing/running unit-tests. Or just any job to put away some money for your final two college years. Taking a year off or a light academic year at your CCC isn’t ideal but lots of students take 5 years to get a degree so it isn’t like you’ll be 30 when you finish.
That all said, I’m not sure why you expect UCI to be so much better than CSUF. Both are large publics and you likely have smaller classes at the CSU than you will at UC. With a regional draw I’d expect the demographics are going to be similar. As has been pointed out SE is in demand and employers are going to care a lot more about your grades and internships than the name on the diploma.
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I am already enrolled in classes for my regular academic year. and this would be my first year yes. It’s just that UCI has that name and that recognize, I love the campus, the vibe, just really everything about it. And I always wanted to go there since I was little. I’m just trying to find the best route to attend there
Please give the adcoms some credit. They are very savvy. If you’ve recently applied, they will have your transcripts.
Also please make sure that you list CSUF on your “recently attended schools” because you can’t just edit out that information. You will get caught.
When you sign the UC application online (or any university), it states that you are confirming, in good faith, that all of the provided information is honest, legitimate and truthful. When you agree to apply, you are legally signing to those facts.
If you don’t report a school, and they find out that you omitted that information, it will come back to you.
How?
The US universities use a National data-based Clearinghouse to find out about previous institutions tied to a student’s name, ID’s and FAFSA information.
They might not find out right away, but they do find it and when they do, they are not nice about it.
They rescind or expel you from the university. Then, they red flag your file at the National Clearinghouse, such that other universities can view why you were expelled. Other schools will have that information. If you receive a diploma, they rescind it and change the transcript.
I’m not saying that this is your case, but every school expects each applicant student to have integrity. That’s why they are so hard on classroom cheating and the Admissions Scandal. They want graduates with some semblance of integrity.
So, contact UCI to ask your questions because no one, on this site, will know what UCI will do with your admissions application. Then, apply.
If you only have a year left of coursework, you should bite the bullet and finish at CSUF. We get that you only want to see a UCI diploma, but what if, when you apply, that’s the year that they get 20K apps for software engineering?
They are obligated to freshman and CCC transfers, and since you were already provided with a transfer requirement for admission, and it wasn’t met by the deadline, you already received your chance.
Let me repeat: In the industry, no one cares where you receive your diploma for SE, CS, EE, ME or AE. If anything, a company that is pushing to meet contractual deadlines, may hire the "hands-on uni students first-the Cal Poly’s and other CSU’s graduates.
I see, ive also talk to a CC counselor recently and they say that I have to apply as junior transfer rather than senior transfer since I have 70 units from my CC but my junior coursework only upper divisions add up on the units?
Sorry for bringing this up again, just noticed it. But would a 3.7 gpa, or around there be a competitive gpa for the admission for the software engineering major for transfer from the stat that you listed here?
Has this CC counselor GUARANTEED that you will definitely be admitted? There is NO WAY that this CC counselor will guarantee a seat for you, at UCI, because this person is NOT on the admissions staff at UCI.
Why are you so insistent on not contacting UCI? They have a huge staff (including student trainees who answer the phones), and, since you are local, you can make an appointment to meet with a guidance counselor there. Explain your situation. They will look at your previous application and view your transcript and advise you on your current path and schedule.
FYI: The minute Nov. 1 arrives, they will be REALLY BUSY on the new incoming applications for next year’s class. They wont be available to meet with you because they will be swamped. The longer you wait, the less chance you will get to actually meet with someone, virtually or in person. So, again I ask, why are you avoiding your contact with them? Hate to be harsh and real, but if you can’t do this now, as a “senior” level college student, how will you even attempt to ask for LOR’s and internships at UCI, as well as applying for jobs, which all require being extremely proactive?
UCI is on the quarter system and classes are extremely rapid when compared to a semester system. Ten weeks goes by in a flash. Some engineering classes have only one test for the quarter*. How will you compete with those students who have had 4 years of quarters if you are not proactive and go in running?
(You may want to also work on your grammar. You tend to repeat a lot of the same grammatical errors. I get that its a web site and no one cares on here, but some admissions committees are sticklers for punctuation and grammar: “ive also talk to” should be: I’ve also talkED to"- this is past tense and requires the “ed” ending.)
*I have two SE children who report that the professors may only have 1 test per quarter for your quarter grade. Are you ready for that?
I understand and will do so! thanks for the input. I appreciate it a lot!