I’m currently a junior in high school with a plan to transfer from a community college to UCLA as a Business Econ major. The reason why I’m deciding to go to a community college first is because I really want to save money and get college academic experience before going to a university. However, because I thought of this idea really early on, I realized I could potentially be able to transfer in one year instead of two if I take the AP exams and concurrent enrollment courses during my senior year. This way, I would be able to fulfill some IGETC requirements before my time at CC. I thought to myself, “If I could be able to transfer in one year, why would I stick around for another?”. This is just based on if everything goes according to plan though.
I’ve searched countless threads on transferring in one year and many say that not only was this exceptionally hard to do, but transferring in one year could lower my chances due to the fact that there isn’t much to say on my application. After all, I would most likely be grinding in my coursework instead of getting the experience that they would like me to get in two years. I also heard that they might even try to ask for my SAT scores and high school GPA’s because I’m trying to go the one-year transfer route. Majority of those who get accepted as one-year transfers into impacted majors also come from TAP colleges, which is far from where I live. I’m considering a a part-time job and an internship the summer after senior year, but I don’t know if this is even enough for such a impacted major as Business Econ. And finally to make matters worse, only 11% was admitted into the Business Econ major from Fall 2017 as transfers out of around 2,000 who applied. These are just several reasons I’m worried about during the time of my application.
So my questions are:
Is it a bad idea to try to transfer in one year instead of two?
Given my college is not TAP-certified, will this lower my chances in getting in despite the fact that I'm not really near any of them?
As much as I want to go to UCLA, I'm preparing myself to participate in the TAG program instead if I don't get in. Which school would be best if I'm not accepted?
It not about how long it takes for you to transfer but whether or not you fulfill pre reqs. Remember not all AP credits may count at UCLA like it will for CC when planning your program. A TAP program does not hold much weight in terms of getting into Ucla. It’s more of ensuring you meet pre reqs. If you don’t get into Ucla you should target schools your gpa matches. That along with overall fit is important.
Lacking TAP certification doesn’t put you in any disadvantage. It’s kinda murky as far as what advantages one actually receives from TAP certification. They say TAP students receive “priority” but it’s a rather broad term, and no one is exactly sure what it means in the admissions process. I feel like the biggest advantage to TAP is you get to pick an alternate major
Transferring in one-year is pretty difficult, esp. in Biz econ (it’s THE most applied to major at UCLA). How far are you on math? Biz econ majors have to complete Calc 2 as a prereq. As 10s4life said prereq completion is the most important part to your admission chances
As you have acknowledged the challenging part about transferring in one year is the lack of classes you have to show for it. While your competitors have 60+ units of college courses w/ letter grades, you might only have a couple courses. It’s all situational of course, I’ve heard of students overloading their first semester of CC and taking 20+ units w/ a 4.0. which is definitely impressive
But honestly, I wouldn’t put so much pressure on yourself to transfer in one year. The worst thing that you can do is overwhelm yourself and end up w/ a mediocre first semester. There’s no “next step” after this. Your letter grades will be permanent, and if you end up with a couple Cs and Bs that’ll be hard to recover from, esp. cuz Biz econ at UCLA has a ridiculously high average GPA for admitted students. Just see what situation you’re in after highschool. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Transferring in 2 years isn’t the end of the world. I’m glad I was methodical w/ my approach, Idk if I would’ve transferred to UCLA if I overwhelmed myself my 1st year of CC
hey, thank you for replying! I have a plan where if everything follows through, I should be able to get 24-27 AP/dual enrollment credits eligible for CC by the time I graduate high school. Some of the AP classes I took would also fulfill some of the prerequisites fortunately! Therefore, it would just leave me to decide if I want to take some classes during the summer so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed during the fall and spring semester. The only thing I’m worried about is I don’t know if completing the bare minimum to transfer in one year is seen as “not enough” and they think I should use that additional year to gain experience you know? I agree with how if I mess up with poor grades it would be seriously damaging to my application, but I think if I do pull it off I might be able to learn something from it. After all, if I do end up taking many units and do well in them, it’ll sort of “prove” to myself that I might be able to handle it. I just need to be very self-disciplined, of course