Hi! I am an incoming high school senior, who is applying to some UCs and CSUs in about 4 months. From summer after tenth grade until today, I have been taking college courses at my local community college. I’ve been following the IGETC, which is the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum.
I am aware that as a transfer student (if i go to CC for 2 years, then transfer), I would have to complete around 60 units, I think. The number is around there and I’ve completed about ~30 so far. I am finishing my last class, English Critical Thinking, and I will be complete with the IGETC courses before applications are due. If I were to not take any major prerequisites during my senior year and just completed the IGETC only, what grade would I be in a UC/CSU and what courses would I start taking?
To be more specific… with my completion of the 11 courses on the IGETC, am I still considered a freshman? And will I be completed with all of my general education during the fall of 2017 or does that depend on the college/major? And say if I did complete majority of my major prereqs that the UCs have in common, since I know the classes aren’t all the same, would I still be considered as a freshman? I tried contacting some UCs, but no responses. I’ve tried visiting my college counselor as well, but the students in charge refuse to let me talk to her because I am not an official college student yet (which does not make any sense).
If all of your college courses are before high school graduation, then you will be a frosh applicant to UCs and CSUs.
The community college courses can still be transferred for credit units (up to 70 semester or 105 quarter units for lower division college courses including all community college courses) and subject credit (see http://www.assist.org for community college to UC and CSU equivalencies). You may have higher class standing than your class level, which may affect registration priority (often, but not always, favorably).
This means that you will enter as a frosh, but potentially have the option of graduating significantly earlier, or staying the full four years and having more schedule space for additional electives.
Note that some private or out-of-state schools may be much more restrictive in terms of transfer credit units or subject credit.
I really don’t know, but my best guess from admission info and general knowledge would be to compare it to other people who get SOME of their GE requirements out of the way, but not all. These students are still considered college freshman, they just already have some courses done and have more room in their schedules now. I believe that you will still be considered a freshman, but maybe you would instead finish college a LOT faster than most of your class- perhaps in two years insteas of four. I could be wrong since this is just my best guess. Maybe the schools will admit you as a freshman but give you sophomore or junior status??? I don’t know. Best bet is to schedule a session with a college consultant- not the ones in your community college, but an unaffiliated one in a private business. they ought to know a thing or two. If that doesnt work out, talk to your high school counselor, they might know, talk to your community college professors, and if all else fails, keep ringing the admissions offices of not just the UC’s but any college you can until you get an answer. best of luck!!
The UCs regularly hold college fairs so you could talk with an adcom at one of those. You can also call instead of email; for example http://admissions.berkeley.edu/ContactUs
I’m not an expert on this, but here is my understanding…
However once you show up on campus your standing is determined by the number of college units you have, so you may very well be a sophomore or junior.
Next, I doubt IGETC is going to work the way you seem to expect, satisfying breadth requirements at all CSU and UC.
My interpretation is that since you are not a transfer student the IGETC promise does not apply to you. Instead you are just a kid showing up with a lot of units that map to whatever ASSIST shows and if they happen to satisfy breadth requirements on a class-by-class basis wherever you enroll that is just good fortune. There is nobody to certify you as having completed IGETC which is the way it normally works for xfer students at their primary CC. Again, just my interpretation here, the final word is up to the CSU/UC systems.
Last, I am at least leery of claims you can spend 4 years at a UC if you so choose. The promise they make is for AP credit
You do not have AP credit, you have real college credits. You can’t ignore them since you are required to report all colleges attended, and even if you decide to try and hide them they will find out anyway. The only question remaining is whether the UC has a policy of treating college units taken while in HS as similar to AP with regards to unit caps; if they do then happy days, if not you fall under the unit cap of how long you are allowed to stay enrolled at a UC. IThey don’t seem to address this anywhere on their website that I have found.
Thanks for the fast responses, everyone!! This is helpful.
@mikemac Are you certain that my local community college wouldn’t be able to certify my IGETC courses b/c I am a high school student? I’m just scared that when the time comes that transferring the credits will not work out as well as I thought it would because you never know what might happen!! Of course I’ll be asking college advisors, but I want to have some sort of idea on what possible problems there are and how to ask it before I schedule calls and appointments.
