UC Transfer Enrollment Date

TLDR: Continuing students can enroll in 5/8 while transfer kids enroll 8/26, when most classes are full, so are the transfer students stuck with leftovers or are there some reserved for us?

I’m transferring to UCSD for Fall '19 as a junior in Gen Bio and enrollment for continuing students apparently began 5/8 and after submitting my SIR I have yet to receive any emails even remotely related to recognizing me as a student there, much less anything relevant to enrollment. Then I find out the enrollment date is 8/26 to 9/2 for transfer students and freshmen, which makes sense given such late deadlines for transcript approvals. However, my issue is that all of the (good) classes are pretty much full, with continuing students having over a three month head start on transfer students. This obviously isn’t an issue for the beloved freshmen who have a freshman schedule and don’t have to fight continuing students. But as is commonly the case, the oft neglected transfer student is once again left out in the cold. On Transfer day some dean was asked a question regarding enrollment dates, to which she answered “Everyone enrolls at the same time, we don’t even see the classes before they are posted,” which sounded very fishy to me, as I would format my lies very similarly when I worked in retail when a customer would inquire about Black Friday deals three days before. So pretty much my question is: Are transfer students really stuck with the leftover classes, and should I expect to graduate in 5 years or do we get some secret reserved transfer schedule? Also, any info on dates to expect counselor assignments, etc. would be appreciated.

at Berkeley, students register in 2 phases - they can register up to 13 units in Phase 1 which is in the spring, and then register for the remaining units in August (Phase 2). But Phase 2 is after the incoming freshmen and transfer students register. And yes, incoming freshmen can get stuck with leftovers as well. My kid temporarily got stuck (luckily extra labs were added) with a Friday 5-8pm lab when he first registered for an Engineering class as an incoming freshman. However, many lower division classes intentionally have a quota for incoming freshmen and some for incoming transfer students. Also, a lot of times classes will add extra seats to lectures, discussion and lab sections towards the end, if demand is too high. I see very few classes that are truly full, just basically a handful or upper division classes.

This info doesn’t necessarily transfer to UCSD, but might give you an idea of what to expect. A lot of pre-planning will help a lot. Very important to have alternatives written down so that you aren’t scrambling when your primary choices are not available. Hopefully there is a website out there that will tell you historical registration info. At Berkeley, berkeleytime.com will show you historical registration stats which helps enormously with determining which classes are popular and which you can hold off on.