Through the Loops: Transfer to UC and between CA Colleges

Getting a Regents Scholarship from one campus is already a tremendous achievement. Congratulations!

Admissions doesn’t care about how many classes you take per term, only that you took the right classes (e.g. IGETC) and have enough units -- doesn’t matter if you take 1 year or 5.

UC Berkeley Admissions: Top Admissions Tips for Applicants

Each campus makes decisions on the Regents scholarship independently (and a few campuses do not even offer Regents to transfers). So, no. It’s also a popular misconception that an applicant can only receive a Regents scholarship from one campus; this is just very uncommon given the odds of receiving it from any one school.

Cheers!

Sorry to hear about that. Obviously retaking the class is your best bet. If you can’t do this, and there is some legitimate reason that you got the grade you did (e.g. mental health, personal or family emergency), you can add comments about the grade in the application. If this doesn’t seem like a possibility, consider taking an extra year -- you can just retake that one class (and perhaps one other course to meet unit minimums, maybe); there is no requirement that a student be enrolled in consecutive semesters, so it’s possible to not take classes the other semester. 

If high school wasn’t long ago for you, then it does not hurt to put down your high school activities on your application. In general, extracurricular activities are not as crucial for admission as they are for freshman applicants, but you should have at least something on there that reflects your interests and evidence of a social life beyond the classroom.

Generally, no, but it depends on the major a lot. First, there isn’t a rule that major preparation courses must be completed before time of application (e.g. Fall semester one year prior to anticipated matriculation). But there are times where schools may be slightly concerned -- say, if you are a math major and you can’t completed a core math sequence. If there are any classes that are probably best done prior to applying, it would be classes in core subjects -- math, English, and perhaps biology or chemistry if you are in life sciences -- and “important” major prep classes (somewhat subjective, but these are the classes that you can tell are obviously critical to the major and are likely offered at most CCs).

You must report all grades and send all official transcripts from all institutions you have attended. Not doing so is grounds for nonconsideration of the application or admissions rescinsion (if they find out after they admit you).

It’s usually applied to high-credit core classes, most often foundational math and English classes, generally. Those year-long math sequences can count for a lot of unit credits, so it’s a sort of weighing, in that sense. You don’t really have to worry much about it.

The business of receiving course credit for APs is entirely done through your CC; you send official scores (I think, it has been a while) or documentation, the CC officially acknowledges it with a transcript notation; the UC looks at the transcript and takes note of any AP credits you have and factors that in accordingly.

The admissions profile is really useful, and GPA matters a lot, but it shouldn’t be relied on too much to predict your admission odds are based on GPA. (FiveThirtyEight, the data journalism site, has written extensively on how to interpret these things correctly.) Not only is it the wrong way to look at it, but because it’s a range of percentiles, it means people are admitted with higher (and lower) GPAs. Thinking statistically, sample size matters: the data is less robust the fewer applicants (and admittees) there are for a specific major. Also consider trends: with few exceptions, GPA medians will increase as more (competitive) applicants apply to top UCs. The usual advice applies here: strive for the best GPA possible, drop or withdraw (Ws are not viewed negatively) classes if you are in a jam, especially look to maximize major GPA, and you will do well. Do extracurriculars that are interesting and relevant, not to check off boxes. (If you work, the admissions office will be more understanding of a scant extracurric section.)

“Pre-major” is a unique UCLA identifier that denotes that: a) a major is impacted -- admission to the major is competitive and b) some courses must be completed (and a certain grade received, usually a B or higher) before one can even submit their application for the major. Sometimes these classes need to be taken at UCLA; other times, they don’t. (Course selection at your CC, as well as the rarity/specificity of the course requirement, are two key factors). Check ASSIST’s transfer agreement between your CC and UCLA to see if you can take the class at your institution or if you need to take it post-transfer. If the class isn’t offered at your CC and you need to take it after transferring, that’s fine and not taking it won’t hurt your transfer admissions chances

Of course, but it’s more likely that AP classes satisfy GE/IGETC. Most APs are designed to be the equivalent of lower-division undergraduate courses. Check the list here.

Yes. Having a poor major-prep GPA, or one that is a fair bit lower than your overall, will not help you (and if it is higher, it will).

Don’t worry about it too much, it simply refers to the cap on the number of credits (that count toward the unit requirement) that you can get. Basically, you can’t take some crazy number of math classes and have them all count for 30 credits or something. Has no relation to your GPA -- as in, just treat it like a normal class, where your grade counts toward your GPA (even if you are an English major, unfortunately). 

Whoops, didn’t see this one! But for future reference, no, it isn’t. It’s a good way to know what the campus can offer you, but it’s a marketing event more than anything, and as we all know, we’d all prefer marketing to be optional.