2/2021 update - The UCs did a webinar for transfer counselors on how to advise “reverse transfers” that covered some specific issues and noteworthy problem areas for former UC students and students with four-year college credits. Access a recording of the webinar and the presentation slides (including presentation notes) at ucop.box.com/s/c5xjgx1h0yxudcyqg8les1vm4ftxa0a3
Hi Ms.Sun, I am a currently CCC student planning to take 75 semester units in CCC. However, I was a four-year university student out of California, attended three semesters, and got 40 lower-class semester units. So my total semester units are 115, but I am not sure which previous college classes are UC translatable courses. I wanted to go to UC, so I transferred to CCC. I am taking classes again from scratch to transfer to UC and will meet my transfer requirement with only CCC classes at the end of Spring 2025. Do I meet the credit requirements to transfer to UC? Also, do I have to fill in my previous college classes on the application and, or just send a transcript to UC? Thank you so much!
You should be fine meeting minimum unit requirement. If all of your four-year college credits are from lower-division courses, you should not hit the maximum unit limit. If there is course (content) duplication between courses you took between the four-year college and CCC, you will only receive credit for a single course (for example, if you took a microeconomics class at the four-year college and took another microeconomics class at CCC, you will only receive credit for ONE microeconomics class, not both). You need to report all college courses you completed on the UC Application.
@@askmssun Thank you so much, I have one more question. If so, what will my GPA be? Will it be calculated by summing the two colleges? Or will only my GPA at CCC be considered? Thank you.
@@efm5882 All courses the UCs consider to be transferable, excluding duplicated courses (only the first course will count), will be calculated into the GPA used for transfer admission evaluation.
If you are a student at a UC planning to transfer, does community college coursework you take over summer or during High School count for the Maximum Transfer Credit Limit?
Short answer is yes. Long answer (because it is SO complicated) is at admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/_files/documents/quick-reference.pdf on page 35 (gives you examples of how community college courses have a different set of rules than UC courses). One piece of advice for everyone applying for UC admission: you will NEVER get a Yes or No answer for ANY question you ask about admissions (because, like the tax code, there are always a minimum three caveats/exceptions for every Yes or No answer).
Hi Ms.Sun, Thank you for all the information as I was confused because I met with the counselor at my community college yesterday and she told me I am ineligible to transfer to a UC since I’m over 80 semester units by the time I complete my major course preparation. So just to clarify if for the first year and half I wasn’t sure what to pursue as my degree and I took random classes leading me to now have 57 credits and I now want to pursue a biochemistry degree after completing my major preparation courses that puts me roughly at 95 units since I attend a California community college (Long Beach city college) I can still apply to a uc as long as I have my major preparation complete and have a gpa that is competitive for the uc I apply too?
You are still eligible for UC transfer admission as long as ALL of your units are from community college and you don't have any UC or four-year college upper-division units. Keep in mind you will only be allowed to apply a maximum of 70 semester toward your UC graduation unit requirement (but you will receive subject credit for all of the courses you completed).
Are you familiar with transferring to out of state schools like Columbia MIT and UPENN? I know I’ll get into UCLA and Berkeley, but my 4.0 isn’t so special when compared to my competition at MIT. Also when are UCLA and Berkeley decisions coming up I heard UCLA was on April 16?
I only work with students on UC undergraduate admissions. There was a possibility that UCLA may release decisions today, but it doesn't look like it will happen.
I am a CCC student applying to a UC this fall with 95 semester credits of UC transferable coursework, all of which were taken at the community college I am attending. With this being said, I think I am considered at senior standing (over 90 units). Taking into consideration the new updates that you have linked below in the comments of this video. Am I considered a "High-Unit Junior or Senior"? Or do those titles not apply to me at all since all of my coursework is from a community college? Please let me know if I am interpreting this new information correctly. I hope this made sense as well. Thank you Ms. Sun!
You cannot reach senior standing if all you have completed is lower-division coursework (California community colleges generally do NOT offer any upper-division coursework).
Hello Ms. Sun. I have taken 32 semester units at my current (non state) liberal arts school. Some of the courses I've taken here might not be transferable for credit to the UCs. If these courses I've taken are not transferable for any credit, do they count towards the 80-90 unit admission eligibility cap? Thanks
Units that are determined to not be UC-transferable would not count toward the limit. You can find UC guideline on what courses would be considered UC-transferable at admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/preparing-transfer-students/transfer-credit-practice.html
Hi Ms. Sun, I did two semesters at a CSU and accumulated 27 units. I enrolled full-time at a community college this summer and will have over 75 units in total (CSU + CC excluding AP credits) by the time I apply. All of them were from lower division classes. Is there a risk of me being in senior standing if I take a full course load in the spring after application and go over the 90 semester unit cap? Thank you
As long as your CSU units are lower-division, you will NOT reach senior standing. Keep in mind that you are still subjected to the "transfer credit limitation" of 70 semester units (you can only apply a maximum of 70 semester units toward your UC graduation unit requirement but you will retain subject credit for all transferable courses you completed).
Thanks for the info! I will be transferring from a CC to a UC and have already met all requirements and completed all prerequisites to declare myself an English major. But I will be transferring for spring instead of fall, so does this mean I can spend fall semester taking extra CC classes just for fun since the UC transfer credit limit wouldn't apply to me?
If you have already been admitted for Spring and all of your credits are from CC (no UC or 4-year upper-division units), you may take additional courses during the Fall. However, you need to inform the campus of your intention to take CC classes during the Fall AND you are required to earn passing/decent grades in any UC-transferable courses you take (you can't go around failing/not passing UC-transferable courses because the campus may consider that to be unacceptable performance and cancel your admission offer).
8/2022 update - The UCs have renamed the “Maximum Transfer Credit Limitation Policy” to “High-Unit Limits and Admission Policy” and moved the explanation into the Quick Reference Guide for UC Admissions. The short link in the video ( askmssun.com/unit-cap ) now directs you to the Quick Reference. You can find a campus-by-campus unit limit chart on page 34 of the PDF file and some additional information regarding the policy on pages 33 of the same PDF file under “Limits on Transfer Credit.” Examples of how to calculate the unit limit are provided on page 35 of the PDF file.
Hi! Are you familiar with International Transfer Applicants? I'm currently a 2nd yr student in the Philippines. I'm planning to transfer to a Community College to fulfill the units that I'm missing, but I'm afraid that I'll be taking too many credits then. Is there any way that I may know what units are UC school's willing to credit from my university in the PH?
There isn't an official way to figure out which units the UCs will accept. You can review the guideline published by the UCs at admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/Transfer_Credit_Practice.pdf to make an educated guess. In terms of whether you will exceed the maximum cap, as long as your credits are NOT "upper level" (third or fourth year college courses), you should be ok.
Thank you for your video. I was a Berkeley student for two years and I withdrew 5 years ago. Now I want to transfer to UCLA to study ethnomusicology. Im trying to take music courses at CC right now (since I didn’t take music courses at Berkeley). Im worried because I have 60 units (not including transferred units from hs), 32 of which are upper division and only 28 that are lower division. Im wondering whether I’m eligible to transfer? And also what my unit cap is for CC units right now since I am going to be taking classes at CC for a year to try and be considered for admission for that major. Thank you!
The part that really confuses me is why If you have only CC credits you can have as many as you want but if you have any upper div. credits those get added to all of the CC credits you have. So if I have 32 upper div credits my cap for all lower div and CC units would be lower than 48 units. Is that correct? Thank you so much for your help.
UC units all count toward the cap and you most likely have already exceeded the ceiling. The UCLA Music School may not use the cap, you will need to contact the school directly to inquire.
Hi Ms. Sun! I currently attend a UC school but am planning on attending community college next year. By the end of this year, I will have 56.5 quarter units excluding AP units. So if I am understanding this correctly, does that mean I can only take 48.5 units next year at my CC to be eligible to transfer? Thank you!
I constantly see students screw up the unit calculation because they forget to convert quarter to semester units or vice versa. If you have 56.5 UC quarter units (37.67 UC semester units), you can only take up to 63 quarter units (42 semester units) at community college before you exceed the unit cap for Berkeley, Davis, Merced, and Riverside. You can take up to 73 quarter units (48 semester units) for UCLA, and up to 78 quarter units (52 semester units) for Irvine, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz.
@@askmssun I see, thanks! I would imagine exceeding 63 quarter units is pretty unlikely within 1 year at community college. So as long as I stay below that I should be fine to apply to all campuses correct?
@@sanjaynaidu4961 "Normal load" for an an academic year, as well as the minimum number of units you need to complete to qualify as a CCC transfer, is 30 semester units. If you add a class or two over the summer (such as making sure you will complete the English requirement for UCI TAG), it's not that difficult to get to or exceed 42 semester units (you may also have lots of major prerequisite and IGETC requirements you need to complete). I've definitely seen students who have/would become ineligible to transfer due to the unit limitation (this is especially a problem for STEM majors).
2/2021 update - The UCs did a webinar for transfer counselors on how to advise “reverse transfers” that covered some specific issues and noteworthy problem areas for former UC students and students with four-year college credits. Access a recording of the webinar and the presentation slides (including presentation notes) at ucop.box.com/s/c5xjgx1h0yxudcyqg8les1vm4ftxa0a3
Hi Ms.Sun,
I am a currently CCC student planning to take 75 semester units in CCC. However, I was a four-year university student out of California, attended three semesters, and got 40 lower-class semester units. So my total semester units are 115, but I am not sure which previous college classes are UC translatable courses. I wanted to go to UC, so I transferred to CCC. I am taking classes again from scratch to transfer to UC and will meet my transfer requirement with only CCC classes at the end of Spring 2025.
Do I meet the credit requirements to transfer to UC? Also, do I have to fill in my previous college classes on the application and, or just send a transcript to UC? Thank you so much!
You should be fine meeting minimum unit requirement. If all of your four-year college credits are from lower-division courses, you should not hit the maximum unit limit. If there is course (content) duplication between courses you took between the four-year college and CCC, you will only receive credit for a single course (for example, if you took a microeconomics class at the four-year college and took another microeconomics class at CCC, you will only receive credit for ONE microeconomics class, not both). You need to report all college courses you completed on the UC Application.
@@askmssun Thank you so much!
@@efm5882 I'm happy to help. My best wishes to you and good luck!
@@askmssun Thank you so much, I have one more question. If so, what will my GPA be? Will it be calculated by summing the two colleges? Or will only my GPA at CCC be considered? Thank you.
@@efm5882 All courses the UCs consider to be transferable, excluding duplicated courses (only the first course will count), will be calculated into the GPA used for transfer admission evaluation.
If you are a student at a UC planning to transfer, does community college coursework you take over summer or during High School count for the Maximum Transfer Credit Limit?
Short answer is yes. Long answer (because it is SO complicated) is at admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/_files/documents/quick-reference.pdf on page 35 (gives you examples of how community college courses have a different set of rules than UC courses).
One piece of advice for everyone applying for UC admission: you will NEVER get a Yes or No answer for ANY question you ask about admissions (because, like the tax code, there are always a minimum three caveats/exceptions for every Yes or No answer).
Hi Ms.Sun,
Thank you for all the information as I was confused because I met with the counselor at my community college yesterday and she told me I am ineligible to transfer to a UC since I’m over 80 semester units by the time I complete my major course preparation. So just to clarify if for the first year and half I wasn’t sure what to pursue as my degree and I took random classes leading me to now have 57 credits and I now want to pursue a biochemistry degree after completing my major preparation courses that puts me roughly at 95 units since I attend a California community college (Long Beach city college) I can still apply to a uc as long as I have my major preparation complete and have a gpa that is competitive for the uc I apply too?
You are still eligible for UC transfer admission as long as ALL of your units are from community college and you don't have any UC or four-year college upper-division units. Keep in mind you will only be allowed to apply a maximum of 70 semester toward your UC graduation unit requirement (but you will receive subject credit for all of the courses you completed).
Are you familiar with transferring to out of state schools like Columbia MIT and UPENN? I know I’ll get into UCLA and Berkeley, but my 4.0 isn’t so special when compared to my competition at MIT. Also when are UCLA and Berkeley decisions coming up I heard UCLA was on April 16?
I only work with students on UC undergraduate admissions. There was a possibility that UCLA may release decisions today, but it doesn't look like it will happen.
I am a CCC student applying to a UC this fall with 95 semester credits of UC transferable coursework, all of which were taken at the community college I am attending. With this being said, I think I am considered at senior standing (over 90 units). Taking into consideration the new updates that you have linked below in the comments of this video. Am I considered a "High-Unit Junior or Senior"? Or do those titles not apply to me at all since all of my coursework is from a community college? Please let me know if I am interpreting this new information correctly. I hope this made sense as well. Thank you Ms. Sun!
You cannot reach senior standing if all you have completed is lower-division coursework (California community colleges generally do NOT offer any upper-division coursework).
Hello Ms. Sun. I have taken 32 semester units at my current (non state) liberal arts school. Some of the courses I've taken here might not be transferable for credit to the UCs. If these courses I've taken are not transferable for any credit, do they count towards the 80-90 unit admission eligibility cap? Thanks
Units that are determined to not be UC-transferable would not count toward the limit. You can find UC guideline on what courses would be considered UC-transferable at admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/preparing-transfer-students/transfer-credit-practice.html
Hi Ms. Sun, I did two semesters at a CSU and accumulated 27 units. I enrolled full-time at a community college this summer and will have over 75 units in total (CSU + CC excluding AP credits) by the time I apply. All of them were from lower division classes. Is there a risk of me being in senior standing if I take a full course load in the spring after application and go over the 90 semester unit cap? Thank you
As long as your CSU units are lower-division, you will NOT reach senior standing. Keep in mind that you are still subjected to the "transfer credit limitation" of 70 semester units (you can only apply a maximum of 70 semester units toward your UC graduation unit requirement but you will retain subject credit for all transferable courses you completed).
@@askmssun awesome, thank you for confirming!
Thanks for the info! I will be transferring from a CC to a UC and have already met all requirements and completed all prerequisites to declare myself an English major. But I will be transferring for spring instead of fall, so does this mean I can spend fall semester taking extra CC classes just for fun since the UC transfer credit limit wouldn't apply to me?
If you have already been admitted for Spring and all of your credits are from CC (no UC or 4-year upper-division units), you may take additional courses during the Fall. However, you need to inform the campus of your intention to take CC classes during the Fall AND you are required to earn passing/decent grades in any UC-transferable courses you take (you can't go around failing/not passing UC-transferable courses because the campus may consider that to be unacceptable performance and cancel your admission offer).
8/2022 update - The UCs have renamed the “Maximum Transfer Credit Limitation Policy” to “High-Unit Limits and Admission Policy” and moved the explanation into the Quick Reference Guide for UC Admissions. The short link in the video ( askmssun.com/unit-cap ) now directs you to the Quick Reference. You can find a campus-by-campus unit limit chart on page 34 of the PDF file and some additional information regarding the policy on pages 33 of the same PDF file under “Limits on Transfer Credit.” Examples of how to calculate the unit limit are provided on page 35 of the PDF file.
Hi! Are you familiar with International Transfer Applicants? I'm currently a 2nd yr student in the Philippines. I'm planning to transfer to a Community College to fulfill the units that I'm missing, but I'm afraid that I'll be taking too many credits then. Is there any way that I may know what units are UC school's willing to credit from my university in the PH?
There isn't an official way to figure out which units the UCs will accept. You can review the guideline published by the UCs at admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/Transfer_Credit_Practice.pdf to make an educated guess. In terms of whether you will exceed the maximum cap, as long as your credits are NOT "upper level" (third or fourth year college courses), you should be ok.
Thank you for your video. I was a Berkeley student for two years and I withdrew 5 years ago. Now I want to transfer to UCLA to study ethnomusicology. Im trying to take music courses at CC right now (since I didn’t take music courses at Berkeley). Im worried because I have 60 units (not including transferred units from hs), 32 of which are upper division and only 28 that are lower division. Im wondering whether I’m eligible to transfer? And also what my unit cap is for CC units right now since I am going to be taking classes at CC for a year to try and be considered for admission for that major. Thank you!
The part that really confuses me is why If you have only CC credits you can have as many as you want but if you have any upper div. credits those get added to all of the CC credits you have.
So if I have 32 upper div credits my cap for all lower div and CC units would be lower than 48 units. Is that correct?
Thank you so much for your help.
UC units all count toward the cap and you most likely have already exceeded the ceiling. The UCLA Music School may not use the cap, you will need to contact the school directly to inquire.
@@daisyfaragher Correct.
@@daisyfaragher See my previous answer.
@@askmssun Ok. Thank you for your response!
Hi Ms. Sun! I currently attend a UC school but am planning on attending community college next year. By the end of this year, I will have 56.5 quarter units excluding AP units. So if I am understanding this correctly, does that mean I can only take 48.5 units next year at my CC to be eligible to transfer? Thank you!
I constantly see students screw up the unit calculation because they forget to convert quarter to semester units or vice versa. If you have 56.5 UC quarter units (37.67 UC semester units), you can only take up to 63 quarter units (42 semester units) at community college before you exceed the unit cap for Berkeley, Davis, Merced, and Riverside. You can take up to 73 quarter units (48 semester units) for UCLA, and up to 78 quarter units (52 semester units) for Irvine, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz.
@@askmssun I see, thanks! I would imagine exceeding 63 quarter units is pretty unlikely within 1 year at community college. So as long as I stay below that I should be fine to apply to all campuses correct?
@@sanjaynaidu4961 "Normal load" for an an academic year, as well as the minimum number of units you need to complete to qualify as a CCC transfer, is 30 semester units. If you add a class or two over the summer (such as making sure you will complete the English requirement for UCI TAG), it's not that difficult to get to or exceed 42 semester units (you may also have lots of major prerequisite and IGETC requirements you need to complete). I've definitely seen students who have/would become ineligible to transfer due to the unit limitation (this is especially a problem for STEM majors).