Transfer admission guarantee requirements have been raised for UC campuses this semester, which could make transferring more difficult for Skyline College students.
For the first time in the UC system, the UC campuses have set a limit on the transfer admission guarantee (TAG) for all California community college students, effective this semester. Students may only apply for a TAG with one campus of their choice, rather than with as many schools as they wanted, which has been permitted in past years. Seven of the nine UC campuses are participating in TAG this year, including the UC’s at Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz.
For students to be eligible for a TAG, they must have a minimum of a 2.8 GPA and 60 UC transferable units by the end of the spring 2012 semester. The GPA requirements may vary by major and campus choice. Schools that never participate in the UC TAG program because of the high amount of applicants each year include California’s most popular UC campuses: UC Berkeley, which recruits students themselves rather than allowing students to apply for TAGs; and UCLA which has canceled their TAG program.
Skyline College Transfer Center Director Jacqueline Escobar sees this change as unfortunate for community college students planning to transfer to UC’s. Escobar explained that it is a result of what happened last year since the TAG application made its way to the internet.
“They allowed students to apply to all seven campuses, so students applied to all campuses whether they had serious interest or not,” Escobar said. “The UC end had to review it, as well as the Skyline faculty. UC decided that if they were going to continue with the tag program, they would set stronger limitations, so now it’s one TAG, one