UCLA (fall transfer) or UC Berkeley (spring transfer)

I recently got admitted as a junior transfer for psychology to UCLA (fall 2020) and UC Berkeley (spring 2021).

I am conflicted and am unsure if being admitted to Berkeley as a spring admit is a large disadvantage since I am a CCC transfer. I worry that this will put me behind in my classes. Also with COVID-19 potentially affecting the fall semester, perhaps starting in the spring won’t be as bad?

I believe I would be happy at UCLA as well but if anyone has experience being a spring transfer to Berkeley please share your experience!

honestly, like you said, spring admission may not be a bad thing especially since fall may be online. If I were you, I would pick the school I want to go to the most. You can not go wrong with either for psychology. Berkeley has its own Spring commencement ceremony when you graduate, and you will most definitely find a lot of SPring transfers there. I have had Spring Admit friends at Cal who love it and had no problem fitting in. In the fall before they enrolled, most of them just stayed at home and spent time with their families, although traveling is not a bad idea either if you have the means to it. If I were in your spot, I would pick the school I want to go to the most (LA for me), but you are your own person! Good luck on your journey!!!

1 Like

I don’t know what your major is but in engineering at least, it is very hard to finish at UC Berkeley in two years after transferring. Many people need to take summer classes or an extra quarter there. That said, if you start in spring, you can plan ahead to use that as your ‘extra’ quarter, leaving summers open for internships. Or you could enroll in both summer sessions and try to finish in 2022 like you would’ve as a fall admit (but it will be exhausting to have no breaks).

Anyways, I would also recommend going to UC Berkeley because I think it is a much better school AND because this fall will likely be a Zoom semester anyways. Nobody wants to pay that tuition just to be online, right? At least I don’t. But also, I agree with the person above. If you really prefer UCLA, then go there! Choose whichever one you like better in the end.

Can you provide tips I am a high school student who is planning on going to a 4-year college majoring in history and political science but then transferring to UCLA but I am out of state and heard that would decrease your chances but at the same time humanities is a higher chance of admission for transfer

I recommend you to go to a community college in California. All UCs accept most of the transfer students from community colleges in California. It will be difficult to transfer from other states’ colleges even it is not impossible. It also might be difficult to transfer credits you take to the UCs from another state’s colleges. Also, if you attend community college in California, you might be eligible to use TAG which is a guarantee to transfer to UCs (beside Berkely, UCLA, UCSD.)