I am now a CS student at De Anza College. I’ve done the math that if I take all the GE classes and major courses, I will go over 120 quarter units. My friend told me that I couldn’t transfer if I have that much units. So, I looked up the UC website; there is a 7-course pattern for GE for STEM students. I am a little bit confused, should I finish my GE classes?
@Ohm888 Any thoughts on this?
Students will be granted up to 70 sem/105 qtr units of credit for lower division coursework completed at any institution or any combination of institutions. For units beyond the maximum, subject credit for appropriate coursework taken in excess of this unit limitation will be granted and may be used to satisfy requirements.
So yes it sounds like you should continue any GE classes - you would be maxed out at 105 quarter units you could bring over to be applied towards graduation, but you would still get subject credit.
Yes continue. You can take as many units as you like at a CCC or elsewhere, as long as they are lower division. CCCs are all lower division. You will get 70 semester/105 qtr units transferred and subject credit for the rest. Keep in mind some of your prep courses in math, Int Alg for instance, might not be UC-transferable, so won’t count.
If all of your college credit is lower division non-UC courses (all community college courses are lower division), then it will be capped at 70 semester or 105 quarter units, and will not put you at risk of having too much college credit to transfer to a UC. Even if you go over that unit limit, all courses taken will count as subject credit to fulfill specific course requirements. See also http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/2081175-uc-transfer-faqs-part-2.html .
Yes, you should complete as many major and general education requirements as you can before transfer. CS is a major where many UCs have specific courses that are not covered by most community colleges, so that you will have to “catch up” after transfer. Having completed everything possible before transfer reduces how crowded your schedule after transfer will be, allowing you to take more electives later.
Okay, I see. Any ideas what’s the deal about 7-course pattern?
Which 7 course pattern?
Note that UC campuses’ GE requirements can vary considerably, so you need to look up each campus’ GE requirements and try to cover all of them, if you are not doing IGETC. CSU GE requirements are more uniform across campuses, and are very similar to IGETC.
this is the 7 course pattern I think the OP is referring to: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/glossary/seven-course%20pattern.html
The OP should be working with the xfer center at DeAnza and also meeting with the UC reps that come to each CC campus instead of getting xfer advice from friends. It may not make sense to try to finish all the GE’s, just a core set that applies at most/all UC’s and then you might have just a few classes left at the UC you end up attending.
The 7-course pattern in http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/glossary/seven-course%20pattern.html is just the minimum eligibility requirement for transfer admission to UC; it does not necessarily fulfill general education requirements at any particular UC.
Actually the 7-course path is the GE breadth path for a lot of STEM majors. OP needs to look at each college and major. Berkeley’s L&S has more GE, but he should be able to apply with this if he’s swamped (and forego IGTEC), although he may have a course or two to take later.
That 7-course UC transfer eligibility pattern may not necessarily cover that much of UC GE requirements. For example, a STEM student could take two English courses, one other humanities or social studies course, and four or more math and science courses. But if s/he transfers to UCB L&S, s/he will probably need at least four more humanities or social science courses, and at least three more if s/he transfers to UCB CoE (although two of these need to be upper division, so UCB CoE transfers from CCs need a minimum of two after transfer).
Students who are not doing IGETC should check the GE requirements of the UCs that they are targeting in order to pick out-of-major courses that give the greatest possible GE coverage. For CSU, the GEs and IGETC closely resemble each other, so filling in IGETC categories will help for CSU GE.
@Ohm888 but all of my units are transferable, and I still will meet the unit cap if I take all the GE class and major required classes. any thoughts about that？
@ucbalumnus lower division classes, you mean non-transferable classes？
So, in a word, I need to finish IGETC if I want to transfer to the UCs and it would not be a problem if I go over the unit cap?
Lower division courses are frosh/soph level courses (all transferable courses at community colleges are lower division). Upper division courses are junior/senior level courses at four year schools.
If all of your pre-transfer course work is non-UC lower division courses (e.g. if all of your courses are from community colleges), then you are not in danger of going over the unit cap.
The unit cap limitation doesn’t apply if they’re lower division. No matter how many LD you take it will cap at 70 semester, and you will get subject credit for the remaining. As UCbalumnus mentioned earlier, the more pre-reqs and GE you complete at the CCC, the less you have to make up at the UC, which can result in extra tuition.
With respect to doing IGETC or not:
A. If you are also considering CSUs, you probably want to do IGETC. Note that IGETC for CSU also requires oral communication but does not require foreign language that IGETC for UC does.
B. If you are only applying to UCs, you may want to look at the lower division GE requirements of each and see if you can build a selection of GE courses before transfer that require fewer courses than IGETC but satisfy all or most of the UCs’ lower division GEs.
C. Some ways of fulfilling English composition (e.g. AP English score of 3) or foreign language (e.g. high school language to a certain level) that may be accepted by your community college’s IGETC may not be sufficient to satisfy those requirements at UCs if you transfer without IGETC.
D. Note that UCB College of Engineering does not accept IGETC. For that, be sure to take at least two humanities and/or social studies courses beyond English composition while at community college, so that you only need the two upper division humanities and/or social studies courses after transfer.
^^^ to build on that, Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science will not accept AP for any general breadth. It will accept AP for IGETC, however. CS is in L&S at Berkeley.
It’s a jungle out there.
Ok, I see! Thank you for you guys’ help! Really appreciate it!