Transferring to UCI

So I will be attending biola university in the fall. However, I want to transfer to UCI after two years. My major is biological science and concentration is pre-med. should I transfer to uci after two years or stay at biola and work hard to get into good medical school? Also please do not tell me that I should go to cc for two years. I have no intention in doing that. Thanks

I wouldn’t even go to Biola. You have better chances at getting into UCI from a community college and it is mostly likely to be a lot cheaper too.

It is much more difficult to transfer from a university to a university. As noted in the first reply, you have a much better chance of getting into UCI through a CC. I don’t get why you wouldn’t want to go, its not a big deal. Most if not the people here are transfers through a CC.

I had to look Biola up, no offense. OK, it’s a CA private U. You can transfer to UCI. It is definitely lower on the totem pole than a CCC, but is doable (especially with a high GPA) and it is in CA, which helps. You could also stay and apply to med school from Biola and that would be fine, too. Assuming you want to think about UCI, go to assist.org, choose any CCC and UCI, look for the major requirements and attempt to match the coursework by name and description. I don’t know if you’re quarter or semester, but if you start a series finish it there, don’t split it up. Assuming that the coursework more or less matches UCI and your Biola major/graduation requirements, you could apply to UCI in fall 2016 and if you don’t get in, you haven’t lost anything. (BTW, the coursework doesn’t need to be completed until the following spring, even though you apply in fall 2016.)

I believe Biola would have most of the major requirements. Also, you need to fill a good portion of your GE requirements, which in this case is IGETC. You will need to look that up and try to match a fair amount of those general ed classes.

Here is a link from SMC to UCI, Bio Science:

http://web1.assist.org/web-assist/report.do?agreement=aa&reportPath=REPORT_2&reportScript=Rep2.pl&event=19&dir=1&sia=SMCC&ria=UCI&ia=SMCC&oia=UCI&aay=14-15&ay=15-16&dora=BIO.SCI

So biola is a semester system. I will be taking General chemistry 1and 2 with lab and general biology 1 and 2 with lab. I am also part of their honors program which basically covers for the general Ed. Next year I will be taking organic Chemistry and calculus 1. So I think I can satisfy all the requirements.

Another option for me is to go to cc for one year. I have 36 ap credits two of which are statistics and biology. I would only have to take organic Chem, general Chem, and calculus. Is this option better? If I have to do two years at cc I’m definitely not going. I’d rather focus on getting into a good medical school than transferring for undergrad.

You have to have 30 CCC units to apply for priority consideration as a transfer. You can do that in a year. However, you cannot TAG as you won’t have enough CCC units for that. If you are willing to go one year to a CCC, you will definitely improve your chances, and be pretty assured of getting in, assuming you maintain your strong GPA. Throwing in a volunteer or internship related to medical will be the icing on the cake.

Sounds good! But I still don’t know if I should stay at biola or not. At times I think biola is a bit pricey, but they do send kids to great medical schools such as ucla,but my parents just feel really shameful of me going to biola for four years. If I go to CCC, I don’t know how they’ll respond. I don’t have too much time left either… I’m going crazy now…At this point I really want a miracle acceptance from uci through appeal.

Oh I see, so you applied to UCI, waiting on appeal. Yeah, it’s getting late in the game, although I’m not sure when the UCI appeal end point is.

Since you have AP credits, many do it in one year but you already have one big point against you in that arena: you didn’t go to summer school this summer.

To apply as a one year transfer from a CCC in fall, you really need some letter grade classes to show. Hence two summer courses at a CCC. Then you apply with two completed courses, and say, 5 in progress that will be updated in the January update with grades. So UCI would see 7 CCC courses. As it doesn’t appear you went to summer school, you will be applying with no completed CCC courses (until January). Not sure how that would play out as the UCs always put more weight on actual classes over AP.

Also re AP, you will get credit for them unit-wise, but carefully check the college and department because you might not get specific requirements covered with them and may have more classes to take than you think.

→ Considering you will apply this November with zero CCC classes completed, I’m going to say I think it’s risky, but there may be others who have managed to do it successfully and can advise you. Since you, in theory, are ok with Biola and it has a great med school transfer rate, then I don’t know, maybe it’s better to just stay.
Go over to oneyeartransfer.com and ask them. They’re the experts.

Ok thanks! Yeah it’s been one week since cc started here and I haven’t taken the placement exams yet, so maybe it’s biola. But thanks for info.

Good luck! And I understand the parent issue surrounding CCC (and in your case Biola seems to also be an issue). School status is often a hard nut to crack even if it will result in a better outcome later. But it will all be water under the bridge when you get to UCLA med school! And keep in mind, you can still try for UCI or UCLA at the end of your second year at Biola.