<p>I was wondering if the classes listed on assist.org are set in stone or if a counselor from UCLA/UCSD can determine whether a pre-requisite if fulfilled from another class.</p>
<p>I am a biochem/bio major and I took a physics series that is specific towards UCD pre-med transfers from my community college. It covers the same material, but emphasizes certain concepts more than others. I was wondering if counselors from UCLA/UCSD have the authority to make a decision on whether the physics courses I took would be accepted even though a different series is listed on assist.org...If so, any ideas on who I can contact to discuss this with?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>They’re not exactly set in stone, but bear in mind that the courses on ASSIST.org have already been pre-determined to be transferable based on a review of your CC’s course catalog. So they likely would’ve already reviewed the curriculum for your non-ASSIST physics course and determined that it didn’t meet their equivalency criteria. An exception might be if it’s a relatively new course that’s been added to your CC’s course catalog that hasn’t been reviewed yet then you may still receive credit for it when your application is being reviewed. </p>
<p>All that being said, if it’s not listed on ASSIST.org the likelihood is that you won’t get credit for having it complete during the review process. Regardless, I wouldn’t be too worried because physics is merely recommended for both UCLA and UCSD. Having been an MCDB major at UCLA and now Biochem / Cell Bio here at UCSD, I can tell you that a lot of transfers get admitted to the majors in the Life Science / Biology department missing physics. If your GPA is competitive (~3.5 for UCSD/3.7 for UCLA) and if you have the rest of your prereqs finished, I wouldn’t worry at all.</p>
<p>Lastly, if you’re admitted and don’t receive credit for a class in community college that you believe had satisfactory curriculum you can always attempt to petition for credit once you’re an enrolled student. Sometimes, certain departments are much easier to petition than others. For example, here at UCSD it’s practically impossible to petition for a biology requirement; however, I’ve had success with the chemistry department. For Physics, you’d obviously petition to the Physics department. Also, it’s fairly rare, but there can be credit by examination for some classes where you can test out of a prerequisite by taking an exam. So if you don’t receive credit for Physics the first time around, you aren’t necessarily out of options just yet.</p>
<p>Edit: As far as contacts, I would first try to get in touch with admissions at both schools and if that isn’t sufficient try calling or emailing a counselor in the department. Contact info here (word of advice: typically a phone call will get you a lot farther, quicker than an email):
Admissions
<a href=“https://www.admissions.ucla.edu/contactus.htm[/url]”>https://www.admissions.ucla.edu/contactus.htm</a>
<a href=“http://admissions.ucsd.edu/contact/index.html[/url]”>http://admissions.ucsd.edu/contact/index.html</a>
Counseling
<a href=“http://biology.ucsd.edu/education/undergrad/advising/index.html[/url]”>http://biology.ucsd.edu/education/undergrad/advising/index.html</a>
<a href=“https://www.lscore.ucla.edu/contactinfo.php[/url]”>https://www.lscore.ucla.edu/contactinfo.php</a>
At the UC’s everything is very procedural and there isn’t much room to deviate from certain established protocols by all but the highest of administrators. So as fair warning even if talk to someone that finds your argument compelling, they likely won’t have the authority to give you credit for a prereq that has already been determined non-transferable. As mentioned before though, there are means in place for you as a student to challenge prereqs after you’re enrolled.</p>
<p>Wow! thank you so much for the reply! It was very informative and exactly what I needed. Thanks for taking the time!</p>