UC to CSU Transfer

Transfer Students
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Hello - this post might be a bit long because I’m in a very strange situation.

I will start by saying that I’m trying to transfer out of UCSD to CSULB for their bachelor’s of social work program (BSW).

Essentially - I was admitted to UCSD (class of 2025 so I’m currently a first year) as a biology major because at the time - I wasn’t sure what career I wanted but I knew I wanted to go into a field that could help people. However, after getting a research lab position and taking some STEM courses - I figured that it just wasnt for me (ended up with a 3.395 GPA for my first 2 quarters - currently in my third and I might end up somewhere near a 3.6?). Throughout my stay at UCSD (dorming) I unfortunately had a roommate from hell. She wouldn’t clean after herself, she would sleep all day and stay awake all night and consistently wake me up at 4/5am everyday. When my suitemates and I confronted her about it she blew up at us and even made jokes about killing me in my sleep, purposely intimidating me, and threatening to break our noses (while also bragging about how shes done it to another person before). I told everyone I could about this from RAs, professors, the dean of housing, and I even had to talk to the police one day because a wellness check was called on me after a massive break down. It got to the point where I really wanted to drop out and attend another school - it wasn’t worth paying for a school that didn’t respect me as a student who was trying so hard to get help. Push comes to shove, 3 weeks ago my roommate finally moved out (this whole situation happened in February so it took about 2ish months until they finally did something). I knew at this point I had wanted to change majors and so I did some research and discovered social work. It really called out to me because I was always more of a reader/writer than STEM student - and I also really enjoyed the idea of being in a field that could help people in their most vulnerable times. Therefore I switched to sociology (few weeks ago) and am planning to try and transfer ro CSULB for their BSW program. However, I’m a bit uneasy because I’m not 100% sure if I’m going to be able to get in. I have prior high school experience as a lifeguard, water safety instructor, sports team captain, volunteered with elementary schools/food drives/others, and have a lot of transferable skills but I’m not sure what else to do to make myself a competitive candidate. When i called the school of social work they told me that 100-125 people apply to the BSW and they offer 75 spots, and around 35 spots are for transfer students. I’m just afraid that coming from a UC will hurt me since I know they do prioritize CC students more. This program would be amazing since I would be eligible for the advanced standing masters of social work. Sorry for the rant - I have no one else to talk to about this and I’m a bit lost still as a first year. Any advice or insights would help, thank you for reading.

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CSU transfers are based on meeting the GE (Golden Four) requirements and major prep along with your Transfer GPA. They do not consider EC’s in their application evaluation.

Admission Priority
The CSU gives priority admission consideration to CCC students who meet the CSU upper-division transfer admission requirements and whom are in the local admission area. However, the highest admission priority is given to CCC students who have earned a CCC Associate Degree
for Transfer (ADT). CCC students will be considered as having achieved junior class level standing once they have completed the ADT or at least 60 semester (90 quarter) transferable-level units that meet their lower-division major requirements.

CSULB’s local admission area is based on HS location, so if you graduated from a local in-service area HS then you are given priority. Local Preference Admission Consideration | California State University Long Beach

An up-to-date list of associate degrees offered by CCC, and CSU campuses where degree majors are aligned with CCC, can be found at: https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/transfer/Pages/ccc- associate-degree-for-transfer.aspx or https://icangotocollege. com/associate-degree-for-transfer#programs.

The applicant must complete transferable courses (CSU GE category A) in written communication, oral communication and critical thinking with grades of C- or better.
• The applicant must complete one transferable course (CSU GE category B4) in mathematics or quantitative reasoning with a grade of C- or better.
• The applicant must have achieved a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 or better in all transferable college units attempted.
• The applicant is expected to be in good standing at the last college or university attended (i.e. eligible to re-enroll at that college or university).

Completion of the “Golden Four”
The following semester campuses require the “Golden Four” courses (Oral Communication, Written Communication, Critical Thinking, Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning) be completed the semester before the start of the upcoming term.

Please note that an Oral communication course is a requirement for the CSU’s but not the UC’s.

My advice is that you should consider starting a community college this summer and than complete the rest of the transfer requirements there so you might get a higher transfer priority. I would also not limit yourself to just CSULB but explore some of the CSU campuses for your major.

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