UC San Diego Raises Threshold for Transfer Admission Guarantee Program

Christine Clark | April 25, 2011

Record applications from thousands of well-qualified students and deep budget cuts have forced UC San Diego to make tough admissions decisions. UC San Diego’s transfer admissions data is not available until May, but based upon preliminary numbers, UC San Diego received nearly 9,000 Transfer Admissions Guarantee (TAG) requests from students across the state of California for Fall 2011. This number is up significantly from the 3,427 received for Fall 2010.

Given the budget cuts and campus capacity realities, UC San Diego is unable to sustain a guarantee program at this level of participation. Therefore, after careful review of the campus’ TAG data for the past four years and extensive consideration of the pressures caused by the dramatic increases in TAG and continued funding reductions, on Feb. 2, 2011, the faculty Committee on Admissions (COA)  changed the minimum grade point average requirement from 3.0 to 3.5 effective Fall 2012. 

More than 17,000 transfer students, applied for Fall 2011, up 19 percent from Fall 2010. “UC San Diego is a highly desirable university, with excellent faculty, students, academic programs, national reputation and an incredible location,” said Mae Brown assistant vice chancellor for Admissions and Enrollment Services. “The university is dedicated to remaining accessible to transfer students from California Community Colleges throughout the state. Students from these Community Colleges make up more than 90 percent of our applicants, admit, and enrolled class.” 

The impressive growth among transfer applicants is a reflection of UC San Diego’s diligent work to recruit students from California’s community colleges.

The TAG program, not offered at UCLA or UC Berkeley, represents only one pathway to UC San Diego. For fall, 2010, 34 percent of all transfers admitted from California Community Colleges were TAG students.

There are numerous avenues for students to transfer to UC San Diego, including TAG, the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC), UniversityLink and meeting rigorous selection criteria.

For the Fall 2010 admitted class, the mean GPA for transfer students was a 3.55.  “We continue to attract, admit and enroll well-qualified transfer students who graduate from UC San Diego with impressive records,” Brown added. UC San Diego will continue to admit high numbers of community college transfers through TAG and the non-guaranteed transfer process. Because community college students come from all backgrounds, the university will continually increase diversity.

Monday, UC San Diego admitted 18,234 freshmen for Fall 2011, selected from a record 53,455 applications. UC San Diego admitted 3,512 underrepresented students, up 15.4 percent from Fall 2010. Of the 18,234 admitted freshmen, the average GPA is 4.09.

“This is an exciting time for these students as they will have the opportunity to get a world-class educational experience at UC San Diego,” said Brown.

The University of California campuses have received a $500 million cut for next year. UC San Diego is looking at a reduction of at least $60 million, on top of previous cuts and those numbers could double if a California revenue measure is not put before voters.

For the first time in UC history, the collective tuition payments made by University of California students will exceed what the state contributes to the system’s general fund. The persistent lack of state funding has been detrimental to UC San Diego’s enrollment capacity. Enrollment targets for in-state students are based on how much state funding UC San Diego receives per student.

Last year, UC San Diego enrolled more than 1,200 students for whom it received no state funding. UC San Diego will continue to bring California resident enrollment closer in line with the actual funding levels provided by the state, levels that have not kept pace with enrollment.

Brown, added, “Despite the difficult economy, UC San Diego will remain dedicated to educating California’s diverse populace.”

For more information on UC San Diego admissions, go to: http://www.ucsd.edu/prospective-students/undergrad.html