UC Excessive Units? UC TAG Questions

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

I am a Californian student (HS c/o 2015) who spend 3 semesters at a private university before realizing I wanted to switch my major and save money. As a result, I am planning to attend 3 semesters at community college before transferring to university once more. As of Spring 2017, I am currently enrolling at a CCC.

I wish to apply for a UC TAG for Davis for Fall 2018, which guarantees me admission if I do not exceed 80 semester units and have a minimum 3.40 GPA. After some calculating, I am expected to have ~100 semester units, with an expected GPA of 3.40+ (we’ll wait and see…). However, I have some concerns regarding admission because of my excessive amount of units.

I understand that the TAG’s “UC lower-division unit limitations and exclusions” policy makes it so that I won’t go over 70 units, therefore I do not need to worry about my coursework that are lower-division, as it’ll cap at 70.
However, I did take 3 classes that MIGHT be Upper-division (idk if they are b/c my counselors haven’t gotten to me yet), which will count over 70 units, and possibly exceed the max of 80 units, nullifying my eligibility for TAG.

I have 3 main questions:

  1. Given that I do, unfortunately, exceed 80 units, will I pass through general admission with the same Lower Division 70-unit cap?
  2. Because there’s a 70-unit cap, will that affect how my Transfer GPA will come out? (Let’s say I have 3.5 overall GPA for all 100 units; how will that be scaled when applying the 70-unit cap?)
  3. The upper-division classes I took were 4 semester units of Human Anatomy (BIOS 254), 3 semester units of Abnormal Psychology (PSYC 304), and 4 semester units of Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 311).
    -I am unsure as to BIOS 254 is lower-division or upper-division, which will ULTIMATELY decide whether my unit load is under or over 80 units. I do know 300+ classes are Upper Division, though. Also, Davis has all 3 courses as Upper-Division. How should I go about this?

Anything will help. Thank you.

2

Ok, first, somewhere on the transcript it should be noted (200 range is upper division or lower division, 300 range is whatever). Look and see. That will tell you something.

Organic Chem 1 is usually lower division, right? Which means UCD will likely designate it as LD even if it says UD on transcript. The UCs usually match an outside course to the same level as the UC course. Of course, I’'m only assuming.

The GPA that gets factored are all the UC-transferable no matter the total units, so your example of 3.5 would remain.

If you get rolled out of TAG, the 70-unit max rule still applies.

Your issue appears to be the organ chem course. I would contact UCD and ask how they will designate it. Other option is not to TAG Davis. Choose another UC.

3

@Ohm888
First off, thank you for your reply.

Thank you for answering the GPA question and the General Admission question. that should be cleared out.

I forgot to mention that I took those 3 classes at my Private University, which is not affiliated with the UCs at all. What I’m to understand is that once I get my university transcript evaluated by the CCC, they’ll pass it through the UCs in some scaled manner (I took classes that would be otherwise unrecognizable to the UCs). My CCC have classes that are considered lower division even though they are considered UD at my former uni.

As to the designation of Upper Div and Lower Div courses, this is what I came up with to see if your statement regarding “The UCs usually match an outside course to the same level as the UC course” is true.

Even if Organic Chem is counted as 4 units upper-div, I should be fine then cause I’ll be at 74 units, which is not over the 80-unit max. But after looking at the Davis catalogs…

Abnormal Psych: http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/PSC/PSCcourses.html
Human Anatomy: http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/Med/CHA.html
Organic Chem: http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/CHE/CHEcourses.html

which designate these classes to be Upper-Div at UC Davis, I would technically have all classes count as Upper Div, right? That would lead to a unit total of 81 semester units, which is over the max.

Overall, I’m confused because these classes were considered UD at my former uni, LD at my CCC, and UD at Davis…

I really want the TAG for Davis since it has a top program for my major, so I’m going all out for it haha

I’m waiting for a formal appointment with my CCC counselor, but they still haven’t evaluated my transcript which has given me anxiety as the semester rolls down…

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Yeah, I don’t know how to answer that. Worse comes to worse, if rejected and that’s the reason, it could be grounds for an appeal. I don’t recall what UCD’s high unit rule is. Some UCs will consider an applicant with some units over. Not sure if UCD is one. But you are only talking one unit, which isn’t gonna break the bank IMHO.

EDIT: Found this from a quick search. It gives hope that 81 would slide through, at least in terms of regular admission. Hard to imagine they’d flip out over 1 unit, but who knows.
https://www.ucdavis.edu/sites/default/files/upload/files/f17tip_unitlimits.pdf

Also, are you sure your unit count is correct? There could be a course that is not UC-transferable.

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@Ohm888
Thanks, I’ll definitely keep an appeal in mind if necessary.

and I think that link just answered my prayer…(given that it still applies since that was from 2014)
I calculated my unit count by having garnered 45 semester units from my former uni (including the assumed UDs), and am projected to finish 35 units at CCC, for a total of 80. However, I mistakenly added my High School AP credits, since I thought that would count as unit hours. But according to that link, it doesn’t. So I guess I’m exactly at the 80 unit mark, but then again I still don’t know if any of my courses aren’t UC-transferable, which would actually work in my favor. I’ll get it straightened out with my counselor once the time comes.

Here’s hoping!

6

AP does NOT count. And yeah that link is from 2014 but the numbers at the bottom are stll the same. Phew!