Maximizing Your UC Transfer Potential: A Guide to Choosing the Right Major for Freshmen and Sophomores

Introduction: 

It’s expected that in your freshman and sophomore years, you may not yet have an idea as for what your career options are, and that’s okay! Even if you are pre-med, pre-law, or undecided, you can opt to pursue any career regardless of your major. However, in the context of transferring, the best thing that you should do is select a major that best suits your odds of fulfilling transfer major requirements. This applies to both your major at your current UC, and the major that you wish to transfer into at your prospective UCs. 

Guide: 

Freshmen: 

If you are a current freshman reading this guide, I would guess that you are likely in your second quarter/semester in college, or have yet to attend your current UC and have made plans to transfer. Nonetheless, you still have plenty of time before the UC application opens next fall, and you still have a lot of courses to plan for. 

My first recommendation is to take a look at your current major sheet (if you are undeclared, this doesn’t apply to you!). Make sure that you know which college your major is in (College of Letters and Science, College of Arts, College of Engineering, etc.), as it will determine your flexibility in switching to a different major. For instance, at most UCs, you will be hard pressed in switching from a major in Letters and Science (umbrella for all things science and humanities) to a major in the College of Engineering. 

Note: As a transfer student, you will have very stringent restrictions placed on you when it comes to switching majors; therefore, I would recommend switching majors now (especially if you want to change colleges). The courses that you’ve taken thus far will determine whether switching majors is feasible and/or advantageous. 

After taking a look at your major sheet and the college that you are in, you should note what courses that your current major requires you to do, and how many courses you’ve taken in that major so far. My next recommendation would be to do a little research about a major that is either very similar or identical at the UC that you desire to transfer into; info about its transfer requirements can be found at their website. 

Now, align both your current major’s requirements and the transfer requirements that are listed for the other UC’s major. If they align, then great! This may be a decent major for you to stay with, especially if you’ve already started classes. If they are way off the mark, I would suggest looking for other majors at the other UC. If you can’t find anything that aligns with your current major, then start looking into other majors within the same college at your current UC. 

The whole point of this is to mix and match until you find a combination of majors that is most feasible for you to transfer. The overlap of requirements will ensure that you have what you need to transfer, and it will prevent you from taking too many courses and ultimately overloading yourself. On the other hand, it allows you to stay on track with your current major and opens up room for you to finish IGETC, the completion of which is required for most humanities majors and some STEM majors. 

Having the most overlapping current major will also prevent course restrictions and unit caps from being your enemy. As an example, when I was a biology major at my former UC, I needed a 4-unit organic chemistry lab that was restricted to only chemistry majors in the first pass. I also needed a 4-unit physics class and a 4 unit biology class; however, my first registration pass only allowed me to select up to 10 units, and these classes were subject to high demand. 

If I had known this earlier, I would have switched majors to chemistry and gotten that class out of the way first. Although I did end up switching majors, I still ended up having to take that course during the summer, which was extra time and money that I’d preferred to have spent elsewhere. Therefore, I highly recommend researching your transfer major requirements and finding the most feasible current major to ensure that you don’t end up struggling like I did to get the proper classes. 

Sophomores: 

Unfortunately, this guide has minimal relevance at this point in the transfer process for you. If you are currently starting your first quarter/semester, there may be some things that you can still do with regards to your current major. 

Having completed your first year already, you have very limited time at this point to fulfill any outstanding transfer major requirements. Nonetheless, the first recommendation that I have for you is to look at the transfer major requirements that you have left. Look for the equivalent courses at your current UC, and check to see whether or not your major has priority registration for those classes. 

If priority registration (i.e. only your major has access to that class in the first pass) exists for those courses, make sure that your major is included. If your major isn’t included, change your major to that specific major ASAP. This will ensure that you fulfill your transfer major requirements, given that your second quarter + third quarter / second semester are NOT guaranteed. (When you put your future courses down for the UC app, and they are transfer major requirements, those must be completed and will be included in the conditional acceptance that you receive. Therefore if you cannot get those classes, you will be rescinded.)

At this point in time, usually the best course of action is to stay put with your major, besides a temporary major switch that would provide you access to restricted courses. You would have already completed a lot of the requirements for both your major and a similar/identical transfer major at a different UC. If you haven’t, chances are, you will not be accepted as a transfer student, and the best choice for you would be to remain on track at your current UC. 

Conclusion: 

Making a calculated decision on which major to take at your current UC has its merits: improved access to restricted courses that are required for transfer, less coursework overall, and increasing the odds of you fulfilling any requirements that you put down as future coursework on the UC application.