Approaching the UC Transfer Application
Here's to hoping you aren't reading this on November 29th...
The UC transfer application opens on August 1st and is due on November 30th. In terms of difficulty, it falls in between the simple, straight-forward CSU application and the more complex private school applications. You won't need to submit test scores, nor will you have to send in recommendation letters. You will, however, need to write a few responses to Personal Insight Questions.
But don't worry... in this guide, we'll break down the various sections of the application, covering what you should expect, as well as best practices and tips from my personal experience as well as those of others who have approached me for support during the process.
The transfer application consists of 8 sections:
- About You
- Campuses & Majors
- Academic History
- Test Scores (not SAT/ACT, I promise!)
- Activities & Awards
- Scholarships & Programs
- Personal Insight
- Verified information
Thankfully, you only need to complete this one application, even if you want to apply to all nine UCs. You'll pick which schools you want to apply to within this application, and you won't need to write or submit anything extra based on that selection - phew. Now, let's break down what each of these will ask you for...
- About You
This section is going to show up on every college application. It's just your basic "about you" section. It'll ask for a bit of personal information concerning you and your family. This should feel pretty straightforward.
2. Campuses & Majors
Here's where you'll determine which schools you want to apply to. You can apply to all of them, just a few, or only one. You'll choose campuses first, then you'll pick the major you're applying for at each school.
If you've done some form of agreement (learn about UCLA TAP here, for instance), you'll be allowed to select an alternate major as well. Here's an example of applying to UC Berkeley and UCLA. You can see that Berkeley isn't allowing an alternate major, but UCLA is. This will be supported by your school's representative sending over the correct information to the UC as well.
If you're applying to more schools, you'll continue to pick the majors per school in this section until you've selected a major for each school.
3. Academic History
This section asks for:
a. Your most recent high school (just the dates you attended and some other basic info, not your classes or GPA)
b. ALL of the colleges you've attended. Yes ALL of them. ALL OF THEM. Sorry, that's just important. Even if you took only one or two somewhere, you should be including all of that. You will have space to both explain gaps and to indicate which college is your current college.
A pro tip for this section is that if you have used the Transfer Admission Planner (more info here) you can actually import that information over to your application. That's going to save you a lot of time, because you're technically manually inputting every single class you've taken. Here's what it asks you for:
You need to input everything as it shows up on your transcript(s). Another insider tip... you'll be letting them know what classes you're going to be taking in Spring semester (or winter + spring quarters). So don't worry if you haven't finished all of your required classes, but do make sure to indicate that you will be taking those courses. Again, this is why that planner referenced above is super helpful.
Bonus: what if you have gaps in the times you were studying?
Gaps are totally okay, and can happen for a variety of reasons. I personally took concurrent enrollment courses, so I had a gap between those and when I started full-time. Others start and stop community college for so many different reasons. You have the opportunity to explain these gaps. You don't need to go in massive depth on these if you don't need to, but do explain as needed. Here's my example:
You can see that I'm copy and pasting. I did this two more times, because it does ask. Not a huge deal, this is just to provide some context. Don't stress it.
The next sub-section here is called "Minimum requirements". It asks the following questions:
Prior to transfer, will you have satisfied the Entry-Level Writing Requirement?
and
Prior to transfer, will you be certified for completion of the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC)?
Please please note that these say prior to transfer! They don't need to be done while you're completing the application. I've known students to accidently take a third year because of this misinterpretation.
This part is also going to confirm that you have or will have completed the "Transferable college courses" which are College / University English composition and College / University mathematics.
(note: these can be satisfied with AP credits as well)
Lastly, this sub-section will ask:
"Prior to transfer, will you complete four transferable college courses in at least two of the following subject areas: arts and humanities, social and behavioral sciences, and physical and biological sciences?"
As long as you are following requirements on Assist.org + completing your IGETC, you should be able to answer these in an affirmative manner. They are incredibly important and are the baseline requirements for admission. If you don't have these, you won't be considered, so please make sure to have figured this out before applying. I'm happy to be a resource!
Okay, the very last sub-section here is one of my favorites. It's the "additional information" section.
Use this to talk about anything odd on your transcript. I used it to talk about the W's on my transcript. You can talk about lower grades or gaps, you can talk about what you were personally going through, etc. Whatever you think you need to add for the admissions readers to best understand your application.
4. Test Scores
I really promise they aren't asking for SAT or ACT if you're transferring. Yay!
You technically don't need to put anything in here unless you have these test scores. Here's what they are asking for:
- AP Exams (if you're using your APs as college credit, you'll add them in here)
- IB exams
- TOEFL or IELTS
- International exams
Unless you're an international student, the three exams besides AP exams probably aren't exams you have. In that case, you'll select:
You can select this for APs if you don't want/need to send them in. Just do what matches your situation, again, don't overthink this part.
5. Activities & Awards
Put plainly, this is the extracurriculars section. A few things right off the bat:
- You've been out of high school for at least two years at this point. Did you notice that you didn't need to send in anything about your high school besides the fact that you went there? I'd take this as a hint that the extracurriculars you did in high school, then didn't touch in the past two years, are no longer relevant. If its something you're still doing, that's different. But the one year you spent playing rugby sophomore year... please don't add that in there.
- You'll hear varying advice here, but I really don't see an issue with adding in a lot of extracurriculars. This is your time to brag, less is not more, but do realize there is a cap and pick what is most relevant and important to you. Be honest about what you've done and be proud of it!
- Lastly, this is really showing the application readers how you spent your time over the past two (+/-) years. Add in your part-time job. Add in your role as a care-giver. Talk about the church volunteer hours you have. Approaching it with this mentality allows even the most humble student to show their best selves. You got this.
Okay, now lets dive in. There are 5 categories to choose from:
a. Award or honor
This section asks you for the following:
Name of the award or honor, Level of recognition, Type of award, Grade level when awarded, Award requirements, and What you did to earn award.
b. Educational preparation programs
c. Extracurricular activity
This section asks you for the following: Activity name, Activity description, Grade participation, and Time commitment.
d. Volunteering/Community service
This section asks you for the following: Organization, group or program name, Organization, group or program description, Description of volunteer experience, Grade participation, and Time commitment.
e. Work Experience
This section asks you for the following: Company or organization name, Company or organization description, Job title, Job responsibilities, Grade participation and time commitment, and Currently working at this job.
If you had work experience, you will also be asked the following in a section called "Work earnings"
How have you used or will you use your earnings?
Use this space to explain what you do with your earnings. Do you pay rent? Support your family? If you've only worked a job, this is really the space to explain the reason for that.
6. Scholarships & Programs
This part is super simple. You’re just selecting what feels like its relevant to you to be considered for those scholarships. Do pay attention here and select what you think you should be considered for as they really can lead to scholarships!
7. Personal Insight
These are the essay questions. You’ll answer one required question and then get to choose the other three questions you answer. Since there’s a lot to explain in this section (approach, examples, etc.), I’ve written a separate post on these essays. You can check it out here. I’m also offering support in this area - feel free to take a look at the essay and mentorship offerings here.
8. Verified information