Will finishing my prerequisites during my last semester put me at a disadvantage.

Hi, I’m transferring this year from a cc and am concerned that completing most of my prerequisites in the spring semester will hurt my chances.

I plan on transferring to all the UCs besides riverside and merced for econ/bus.

I am transferring in one year, as I have enough credits from AP tests and summer courses. Last semester, I finished the IGETC and two prerequisites courses, but I’ll need to finish the rest in the spring semester (macro/micro econ, stats, calc 2, and managerial acct). Of the prerequisites completed, I’ve only done calc 1 and financial acct.

I feel that finishing most of my prerequisite courses during my last semester will hurt my chances, as the admissions officers will not be able to see how well I’ve done in them until after they send out acceptance letters. I’ve spoken to a UCLA counselor about this, and she said that I would be fine.

Are my concerns warranted?

Hi, fellow Fall 2020 applicant here.

Yes, I believe your concerns are definitely warranted, IMHO. Because I’ve been pondering this exact same question two years ago when I just started on my transfer journey. But let me be flat out honest with you.

I am by no means an expert on this, but as a fellow transfer student who did a lot of “research” on the UC transfer application process, I definitely think it WILL hurt your chances a bit, potentially even a lot since it’s not just one or two, but five. I believe most UC’s want to see that you got solid grades taken in CCC for important, required prerequisites AT THE TIME they’re reviewing the application, and if they don’t have enough information to work with, well they would have to take a serious risk to believe that you will do well on all of those courses and accept you. From what I’ve seen online, a lot of first year transfers get rejected precisely because of this. I think you’re probably fine for low to mid-tier UC’s, but for UCB or UCLA, it MIGHT be a bit of a stretch at this point. But you completed IGETC, so that’s awesome since it’s extremely important for humanities/social science majors.

Hopefully that made sense. Best of luck to you.

Thanks for the reply, and I appreciate the honesty. I figure that, if all else fails, I’ll still be able to tag to ucd

Wait. The UCLA ao said you would be fine and it wouldn’t hurt your chances of admission? But then you went online and asked people who are not ao’s in the UC system what they think?

Do you have any reason to think the UCLA ao is not telling the truth? Or am I mis reading your post?

It was kind of a rusher situation. I was visiting the campus and had only a few minutes to ask her any questions, so I’m just verifying.

Did you tag UCD this past September?
I have a D22 who will be trying to transfer 1 year after high school (AP Euro Cultures and 1 ccc class after 10th grade, 3 APs 11th grade and 2 ccc classes in Summer, plus more in Senior year Summer to get to 10 by TAG submission in Sept 2022).
I think your worst case scenario will be a conditional acceptance with specific grades needed in your final semester.

@Tustlop: Did you already receive your TAG acceptance from UC Davis based on your other thread stating you applied for Fall 2020?

Why didn’t you take the two Econs in fall? IGETC is the part that should be saved for last. That was definitely a bad call. You didn’t mention the UCs but you are at a disadvantage (in theory).

If UCD accepted your TAG, would you mind telling me if you needed to do anything special due for their request (not required) that the student be enrolled full time in ccc during the Spring semester prior to TAG submission?
If you were a high school senior during that Spring semester, did you also enroll full time in a ccc, or did you have to explain why you were not enrolled full time in a ccc that first year spring semester?
Other UC TAG’s don’t have that request, only UCD.
I can’t tell if this request (full time ccc student in the spring semester prior to TAG submission) by UCD is meant to deter students from trying to TAG right after high school (if they have the 30 credits from AP classes and a few dual enrollments) or if it’s meant to encourage two-year transfers to experience a full time student course load for three semesters before matriculating to UCD?

@Ohm888 Not to steal OP’s spotlight, but I find myself in somewhat a similar situation.
I have finished most of the (4 to be exact) pre reqs available at my CC. For my majors, there are courses “not articulated”, so I plan to commute to another CC to finish two that aren’t offered at the moment. All the while finishing the last one offered at my original CC. Will admissions show mercy for the heavy load of pre reqs as fault due to my first CC not offering them or should i try to explain it in the TAU?

@dogsovercats yours is a different set of circumstances. You are going that extra mile to take two that aren’t articulated; in theory, you’re taking your last offered at your CCC and you completed four. I don’t know your major or GPA but I don’t think these circumstances will be a negative.

I would mention in additional comments in TAU that the two you are taking elsewhere are not offered at your CCC.

So i am a bio major, i applied in fall and i have one requirement to take in spring, one recommended, and a last pre req in spring. im taking a requirement right now in winter as well. not sure how much this will affect my admission. so far ive finished a year of general chemistry, semester of ochem, a semester of bio, a semester of calculus, and stats. im taking the second semester of calculus (requirement) right now in winter and im taking the second semester of bio in spring (requirement), another bio class (not a requirement, but need to finish ucla’s life science series), and ochem 2 (recommended) in spring. i will be done with everything by spring besides my physics. i will have a 4.0 gpa. dont know how much this will affect admissions