These tables are intended so that prospective transfer students can see the whole picture of what courses they need to be guaranteed admission or (for campuses without guarantees) be competitive for admission to multiple UC campuses. The required plus recommended courses are very uniform across the campuses. At the same time, it is possible to be guaranteed admission to some UC campuses with much less preparation than what is needed to be prepared for all UC campuses. All courses shown in the tables should be taken for a letter grade, and completed with a minimum grade of C.
Although I have done my best to avoid mistakes in the tables, they are created manually and mistakes may exist. Nevertheless, they can help a student draft a plan for UC transfer. For definitive information, consult assist.org.
Coming next year
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Biology
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Cell Biology
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Biochemistry
GPAs shown in the tables
GPA: The minimum GPA required in all UC-transferable courses to be eligible for transfer. This is only for CA residents. The GPA requirements for other students may be higher. Check the Admissions website for each campus.
(TAG GPA): The minimum GPA required in all UC-transferable courses for a student to be eligible for the Transfer Admission Guarantee. If a program does not participate in the Transfer Admission Guarantee system, this is denoted by “No TAG”.
GPA: In addition to the overall UC-transferable GPA, some programs require a minimum GPA in a set of specific courses. When such a requirement exists, the minimum GPA required in the courses is shown in this column, and the courses are highlighted. Some programs such as in the School of Engineering at UC Davis include a few general education courses in the set of specific courses; these are not shown in the tables.
General Education
The tables only show courses that are relevant for major preparation. The academic plan below each table assumes that Cal-GETC (IGETC for students entering community college before Fall 2025) is accepted by all schools and colleges, but this is not true. Students should go to ASSIST and look at the GE requirements for the program that they are applying to before finalizing an academic plan. Some examples:
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The College of Engineering and College of Business at UC Berkeley do not recognize IGETC. Students are required to complete the equivalents of ENGL R1A and R1B. It is not obvious how this requirement is related to two IGETC Area 1 courses or Cal-GETC Area 1A and 1B courses.
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The College of Chemistry and the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley accept full IGETC in lieu of the GE requirements at the time of admission.
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The College of Business at UC Riverside and the College of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA require full IGETC completion before transfer. (UCLA allows students to complete the college’s own GE requirements instead.) There does not seem to be any provision to defer any of these courses.
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The College of Letters and Science, the College of Computing, Data Science and Society, and the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley, the College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara and the College of Engineering at UCLA require full IGETC completion before transfer for it to count. Students who do not do this are not denied admission, but they have to complete the college’s own GE requirements before graduation.
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The College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UC Riverside does not accept IGETC. There are no GE requirements before admission, but IGETC (or Cal-GETC) courses may not count towards fulfillment of the college’s GE requirements.
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Most majors in the College of Engineering at UC Davis require English 3 or University Writing Program 1 to be completed before transfer, and the grade is included in the GPA requirement that applies to certain courses specific to each major. Biological Systems Engineering only allows UWP 1, not English 3. Computer Science does not specify any GE courses. Electrical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering recommend English 3 or UWP 1, but this is not part of the major-specific GPA.
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At a systemwide level, the University of California requires students to complete the “seven course pattern” by the end of the spring term prior to transfer for students entering UC in the fall. It is not clear how these requirements are related to IGETC/Cal-GETC, e.g. whether a student completing Cal-GETC Area 1A and Area 1B courses will have completed the two English composition courses (designated UC-E) required by the seven course pattern.
These are illustrative examples. There may be others. The point is to emphasize that GE completion is not covered in the tables provided here.