UCLA's Stance on Transfer Credit

<p>Well, I was looking into transferring there, so I figured that I’d email them to see what their official policy about credit caps for transfers was (I am afraid of going over – eep).</p>

<p>Here’s what I sent:

</p>

<p>Here’s what they said:

</p></li>
</ol>

<p>AP UNITS COUNT? Jeeze, that puts me in major danger of having too many credits. I guess it’s good because almost all of my IGETC is covered, save like one or two classes, so I won’t have to worry so much about going over… but jeeze.</p>

<p>(For the record: I currently have 31.33 repeating semester units (47 quarter units) in course work, plus credit that UCLA recognizes from AP Bio (4) - 8 quarter units, AP Lit/Comp (4) - 8 quarter units - and AP Lang/Comp (3) - no units, AP Psych (3) - 4 quarter units - and AP US History (3) - 8 quarter units. Total semester units from AP: 18.67 units. Current units: ~50 semester units.)</p>

<p>That leaves me about enough space for one semester of CC work. :O</p>

<p>Man. Being rendered entirely ineligible for taking too many classes? How awful!</p>

<p>I'm so glad you brought this up.....in other threads, it seems that no one really believed me when I spoke about excess units and unit caps for admission.</p>

<p>So, bascially what they're saying is....that you have to complete 30 units at a CC with a cap limit of 70, but if you were to go over 89, you're automatically disqualified? Gotcha.....</p>

<p>I just remembered something...When I was going for a double major in Econ and Bio, I would've have ended up having over 100 semester units. When I went to talk to my couselor about it, he told me that if those units came from a community college it was not a problem. You can take as many units as you want at a community college, but <em>ONLY 70</em> will be counted once you get to a UC.</p>

<p>Yes, that's true, but for some UC's anything over 80 units is an automatic disqualification and besides, you can't get Financial Aid for anything over 70ish units if you declare a goal of transfer.</p>

<p>Yes, the "disqualification" answer was what I was going for. I'd heard all the "don't worry about it! they'll only <em>count</em> <x> units, but you can have as many as you want!" answers, but I was pretty sure I'd heard a "NO! any units over <x> will render you ineligible for transfer" answer somewhere. So I asked.</x></x></p>

<p>And they told me. Though I am a little confused at where the "ineligible" part comes in. I don't know what in the world she was saying about the "last 30 units" and the "if you cannot complete the last 30 units, it'll be capped at 89 units" thing. BruinMichelle, your interpretation seems right, but I still don't quite get it. Are they saying I need to complete AT LEAST 30 semester units at a CC to be considered a CC student, and that if I don't, if I go over 89 units total I'll be disqualified until I finish 30 at a CC, or... what? O_o</p>

<p>UCLA admissions probably assumed that you wanted to sign a TAA agreement with your CC for which the "last 30 units" would give you residency status there, thus making you a CC to UC applicant.</p>

<p>UCSB told me this:</p>

<p>"Students who have only attended the CA community college system may only transfer in with a total of 70 semester units of credit which will be applied towards the degree at UCSB. Any additional units after the 70, we will give you the subject credit if it is appropriate for an GE requirement or major requirement. Having more than 70 units will not be a disadvantage for you at all in the admissions process."</p>

<p>so i guess it does vary among the UCs. worries me too, i wanted to take another film class, now i think i'll take something else non-transferable like yoga.</p>

<p>Picturesque....UCLA doesn't offer a TAA (however, TAP completion gives you some priority). The 30 units were probably a residency requirement since he had some time at another UC, in an effort to establish himself as a CC applicant and not a UC-UC transfer, which as they seem to point out is more difficult to come by.</p>

<p>In my honest assessment (a humble one as that), I think what they are saying is: to apply as a CC transfer, you need to complete the last 30 units at a CC, only one CC that is to establish a residency status at that CC. And yes, if completing 30 units makes you go over 89 units than you will be disqualified as a CC transfer applicant from the "git-go".</p>

<p>Ok, I read your e-mail/correspondence and their reply again. They don't seem to mix words. They concur with you and assume that your intentions of leaving UCSC for a while and attending CC means that you'd like to apply to them as a CC applicant. Under those circumstances, they seem to be saying that an 89-unit cap is the absolute limit.</p>

<p>Anyone else say it a different way?</p>

<p>If you were to take less than 30 units, it appears that they would consider you a UC applicant.</p>

<p>oh, okay.</p>

<p>hey undecided, how did you change your D in one of your classes to a B? (you mentioned it in another thread).</p>

<p>UCLA offers TAP, not TAA, but it's not available at Riverside Community College anyway (though they do have CCTR, which is just a recruitment office from UCLA on campus). </p>

<p>UC-to-UC transfer is not as hard as they paint it out to be; it's a small percantage points fewer than CC-to-UC transfer. </p>

<p>Also, I am a she. ^^</p>

<p>My best guess is what BruinMichelle suggested, that there's some sort of "you're considered a CC student if" checklist on which exists a point for students who previously enrolled at some 4-year (like me!). It's the "if you cannot complete the last 30 transferrable units, you will be capped at 89 units" thing that gets me. So I'll call tomorrow and double-check because I'm paranoid and would rather not be rendered ineligible for transfer. O_O;;</p>

<p>Sounds great.....hope it all works out! Perhaps UC-UC transfer is not as hard, but it seems that UCLA acceptance is getting harder for everyone concerned. lol</p>

<p>picturesque: Sorry, missed your post! My D in my 2-credit lab got changed to an A. </p>

<p>1) Extenuating circumstances prevented me from completing my major lab reports on time. However, I always attended every class, completed all the in-class quizzes, and turned in the smaller pre-lab reports, and on time. [ETA: I averaged an A to A- on all of this.]</p>

<p>2) I contacted the professor about an Incomplete prior to the end of the quarter I got the D in.</p>

<p>3) I contacted the head of the department when the previous professor forgot to put in that "I" for me.</p>

<p>4) I submitted copies of all of my graded work (not the lab reports that were missing) to the department chair. </p>

<p>5) Grade was changed without any notification to me -- it was just suddenly there one day, and I check quite often to make sure that they didn't realize they made a mistake and revoke it. ^^;</p>

<p>"it was just suddenly there one day"</p>

<p>haha.</p>

<p>i wish that would happen to me.</p>

<p>I was incredibly surprised. I found it because I had been checking over my "degree in progress" link to see what GEs I still needed to fill. I noticed that my TGPA for all courses taken was 3.2 and I went O_o because it had been around 2.9/2.8 before -- sure enough, the A in the 2-credit that I hadn't been expecting (I'd hoped for a B at best!) was there.</p>

<p>Like I said, I'm so afraid they'll realize they made a mistake and take it away, so I keep checking. ;)</p>

<p>ETA: The bad part is that the evaluation, which was what I initially contacted the professor about, was not changed, and still reflects a generic D-level performance. :O</p>

<p>still cool.</p>

<p>Well, here's ANOTHER opinion, this time mine. :D</p>

<p>There are two parts to what the counselor has written:</p>

<p>
[quote]
If you complete the last 30 transferable units from a California
Community College, then you will be capped at 70 semester units and will never be in danger of exceeding the maximum amount of units to be
considered.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I read this to mean: IF you complete 30 units from a California Community College, you qualify as a CC transfer. They will simply ignore any units over 70 total. If you completed exactly 30 units at the CC, you'd have 77 units, but they'd throw 7 away, as though they never happened for either eligibility or transfer credit. You could take 200 units at the CC and they'd throw away 172 of them so that you'd only be able to transfer 70 units worth of credit in, and you'd still be eligible.</p>

<p>
[quote]
If you cannot complete the last 30 transferable units, then
you will be ineligible if you exceed 89 units. This cannot be rectified,
and AP units do count.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This is a very different statement: if you cannot complete 30 transferable units, then you are not a CC transfer and as a four-year-college transfer your 89 units will be too many.</p>

<p>-- Mark</p>

<p>Thanks, azotic; that's kinda how I was reading it, too.</p>

<p>But then, logically, that makes <em>very</em> little sense to me. If that was the case, wouldn't that mean... lo and behold... you take 30 CC units and everything's hunky-dory again? Except that doesn't seem to be the case. They <em>have</em> rejected people with over 90 units. </p>

<p>So what's the story?</p>

<p>hmm. Have they rejected applicants with 30 units at one community college because (and only because) they have over 90 units? If so, you might relate that you've heard that to the counselor and ask for clarification.</p>

<p>Okay, I called and asked what their policy was. The lady on the phone told me:</p>

<p>They accept ONLY juniors because of their residency requirement which requires that you take X units (apparently ~90 quarter units) at UCLA. The junior range in credits is between 90 and 134 quarter units (or 60 to ~90 semester units), completed by "the time you walk in in the fall." If you have attended a 4-year institution, you WILL be ineligible if you have over this because you cannot ignore any credits you've earned but still have to meet the residency at UCLA for your degree (or, as she explained it, you can't hang around CSULA and do your courses and then take the last three at UCLA for a UCLA degree). </p>

<p>If you have any credit from a 4-year, do everything in your power to stay within that credit limit! If the school ever determines that you were trying to "cheat" by not reporting credit, they will ban you from the University of California and revoke your degree (if you've earned one) -- yes, they will ban you from the WHOLE system. </p>

<p>She was less clear about the 2-year requirements, probably because I had already asked about my specific case (4-year to 2-year to UCLA), but it seems like you've got quite a bit of leeway -- go to CC for 10 years if you want, but you'll have to pick 70-90 credits that will be going to UCLA. No limit there, it seems, except that you still have to fulfill residency at UCLA.</p>

<p>Hope this helps! It helps me a lot. :)</p>

<p>That's great. That's what I thought as well, however....tell that to a few so-and-so's on CC who thought otherwise? ;)</p>