<p>The program that I am in (specifically University Link) does not say that I need to finish the preparatory courses for my specific major, but should I finish them all before I transfer? What if I finish all the preparatory courses for my specific major, would that mean less classes and less days to graduate? </p>
<p>I made out my plan of my classes and I'm only missing one more preparatory course that can be transferrable to UCSD, would that mean that that one class I'll have to do over at UCSD? </p>
<p>No, it won’t. Unless they specifically specified that you need all your prerequisites or that you need to take that class. I would take it just so you can move smoothly onto your upper-division courses once you transfer. If you have the chance to take it, then take it. If you don’t take it, you’ll have to take it at UCSD. Might as well get it out of the way now.</p>
<p>Mermaker already answered the question, but just a little clarification. When you graduate depends on how you plan your coursework. The more prerequisites you finish, the less you have to take to graduate within a certain amount of time. If you max out every quarter and take as many units as possible you may graduate in a year and half. If you take the minimum 12 units per quarter it may be 3 years; it’s entirely your choice. At a UC your schedule isn’t predetermined for you, you create it, just like in community college. If you transfer in missing one prerequisite you can compensate by taking more units that quarter to get back on the same pace as if you transferred with it. Vice versa, if you wanted to slow down that pace if you completed all your prerequisites right away.</p>
<p>@dilapidatedmind Is it true that UCs kick you out after a certain amount of time? Some people say after transferring and going to a UC for two years, you would have to petition for more quarters. I was wondering about UCLA.</p>
<p>@HopingtoXfer
As far as I know there’s no set time limit for staying at any of the UCs, but rather there’s a set unit limit that you can’t go over and continue to enroll in classes, at UCLA it’s 216 quarter units. Effectively, without some sort of approval, you’re forced to drop out (stop enrolling in classes) when you reach 216 or what ever the set max is for the other UCs. That combined with the fact that, unless you petition for part-time, you have to be enrolled full-time for the year (not per quarter just the year), which is considered 36 quarter units/year can somewhat roughly be considered a “time limit.” So from those two actual constraints your “time limit” assuming you never enroll part-time depends on how many units you transfer over with. </p>
<p>At UCLA, if you transfer over with the minimum 90 quarter units you’d have 3.5 years (10.5 quarters) enrolled at the minimum 36 units/year until you reach 216. If you transfer with the maximum 105 quarter units, you’d have 3.08 years (9.25 quarters) until you reach the 216 max. That being said you can’t really enroll in a “half quarter” or “eight-hundreths quarter” so that time limit isn’t wholly practical. That example was for UCLA, but most of the UC’s have that same or a very close max and as far as I know full-time status is 36 units/year at all the UCs on the quarter system. So it should be close to the same for all UCs. Bear in mind though, as long as you make what the UC’s determine as sufficient progress toward graduation most of the UC’s won’t force you to drop out and you can petition to stay longer. Berkeley may be an exception because I’ve heard that they’re pretty strict with maximum units designation, although there’s a very slight leniency for double majors.</p>
<p>The reason for these limits is that enrollment in UC is subsidized for most students (in-state tuition discount), so they do not want any given student to take up more space than needed (i.e. to ensure that there is space for other students to attend).</p>
<p>I know it’s not the UC system but it shows that schools, especially ones on a tight budget like those in California, do not like students staying longer than they have to.</p>