• The reason for this is California's higher education plan, which prioritizes transfer pathways from the California community college system to the UCs and CSUs. California community college students who want to transfer to a UC or CSU are prime considerations from a system perspective, so California community colleges have many courses that are pre-approved to articulate to UCs and CSUs.

    UCLA does not have any pre-approved course articulation agreements outside of California community colleges, so all non-CCC transfer coursework needs to be evaluated and approved on a case-by-case basis.

  • UCLA does not pre-evaluate transcripts.

    UCLA Undergraduate Admission has a reference sheet for transfers who are not at California community colleges, so you can better understand the types of courses that are likely to be transferable and meet transfer admission requirements.

  • 1) A 3.0 GPA at the time of application.

    2) You need English Composition, English Critical Reading and Writing, and a Math class (prereq of intermediate algebra or higher).

    - These three classes need to be completed by Spring prior to your Fall start (ex. done by Spring 2025 if you are starting UCLA in Fall 2025).

    - You need a B average across the three classes.

  • In most cases, yes… but the arts majors are different!

    Generally, the University of California system prioritizes transfers from California Community Colleges to provide access to quality 4-year degrees. For example, if you are at another UC wanting to transfer to UCLA for Biology, when you already have access at your UC campus to a Biology major, then it stands to reason that a community college transfer student needs access to a 4-year Biology major more than you do.

    This is not the case for visual and performing arts majors, however, as that curriculum tends to be specialized. While the majority of our transfer applications are coming from California Community Colleges, we can consider UC-to-UC transfers. For example, there are distinct differences in culture and curriculum between the Dance majors at UC Santa Barbara and UCLA. Both are great programs, but they are incredibly different so if a student wanted to transfer between institutions, that would be meaningful.

  • We need to see letter grades in academic classes. This is sometimes a challenge for students who are in curriculums that require you to enroll in all studio classes in the first year (ex. foundational year where all classes are sequential and in arts studios with no flexibility to take academic coursework), or schools that grade Pass/No Pass or give written evaluations.

    If you are at a school where you can’t enroll in academic classes in your first year, you may want to look into taking English and Math over the summer, during winter inter-sessions, or through concurrent enrollment (ex. being a full time student at Cal Arts, while taking English and Math at College of the Canyons).

    If you are at a school that grades Pass/No Pass or does written evaluations, you can ask your instructors what grade they would give to you, if they were giving grades, and then keep that documentation.

    If you are uncomfortable asking for grades because you don’t want people to know that you are wanting to transfer, you can tell instructors that you are trying to keep your options open around grad school or continuing education, so you want to be proactive about asking for grading records just in case they are requested in the future.

    While the supplemental review of the portfolio/audition/written statements carries significant weight in the admission process, we do need to be able to articulate the English and Math for academic eligibility to campus. Please try and match the guidelines about English and Math classes listed on Page 2 of this UCLA transfer document, under the heading "ENGLISH AND MATHEMATICS COURSE GUIDELINES".