Hi there! I am currently a freshman at UC Riverside and am looking to transfer to UCLA, UCI, or UCD; UCLA is my top choice, though. I chose UCR because it was the only UC that has my major, Creative Writing. But now I am absolutely certain that I want to go into Journalism. One problem: UCR does not offer Journalism as a major.
Would it be a waste of time/money to spend another year at a university that doesn’t even offer my major? Should I just transfer to a CC my second year and then transfer to a UC that I actually want to attend?
Also, what are the steps that I would have to take/what are the requirements in order to transfer? (such as credits, GPA, prereqs, letters of recs…)
Has anyone else done a UC-UC transfer?
UCLA gives almost equal priority to UC-UC transfers. Many up here can attest to switching to various UCs via another UC.
Go to assist, plug in any CCC, the UC you want to transfer to, and the major. Get those courses completed, as required. (Follow the major req for your intended UC, not UCR.)
Then get a letter of reciprocity from UCR. This means completing all the GE requirements for UCR. You need this completed. Talk to your UCR advisor about it.
One other thing. Don’t go overboard with classes as there are unit maximums: UCLA’s is 130 quarter units.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/uc-transfer-maximum-limitation-policy-chart.pdf
That’s it. And a strong GPA. You can see UCLA’s admitted GPA by major here:
https://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof14.htm
BTW, it notes somewhere on that UCLA page that the avg units transferred from another UC is about 117 (or similar).
And avoid upper division units at all costs.
In my opinion, because UCR does not have any classes for your major, you might as well attend a CCC that has the prerequisites that you would need and save your money.
Does any UC offer a journalism major anymore? At Berkeley, it’s via Media Studies, UCLA and Davis, I believe would be Communications (?). The major pre-reqs are basically social science, history courses, maybe a public speaking. Not too many requirements.
I see Irvine, which does not have Communications, has Literary Journalism, whatever that is. Pre-reqs mainly lit classes.
Also, Berkeley - I believe their journo classes via Media Studies are mainly history of, not so much writing. Their journalism dept is only for master’s, although I suppose one could get into them. Not sure.