Application for Transfer Admission Guarantee to a UC opens Sept 1

September is fast approaching and for aficionados of the UC transfer system that means only one thing: Time to submit the TAG application to one of six UCs.

TAG is a University of California acronym that stands for Transfer Admission Guarantee and it allows transfer students that fulfill the TAG requirements for that UC guaranteed admission the following fall.

Six UCs offer TAG:
Davis
Irvine
Merced
Riverside
Santa Barbara
Santa Cruz

Each campus has its own TAG requirements, so it is important to check each TAG before committing.  TAG is only available for fall enrollment, with the exception of Merced, which also offers a spring TAG (application period for spring 2017 is May 1-31, 2016.)

General TAG rules include:

• A minimum of 30 semester units must be completed by the summer before the fall application, meaning that a student applying this September for Fall 2016 must have completed 30 semester units by end of this last summer. Some UCs allow AP credit to be added into the count, some don’t; some allow units from other colleges as part of the minimum 30; others insist at least 30 units are from a California community college.
• Each TAG has its own GPA minimum requirements, as well as possible additional GPA requirements by department.
• All of the TAG agreements require both the two required English courses and the required quantitative math course to be completed by fall 2015.
  
• UC Davis requires full-time CCC student status for the upcoming fall and spring unless you have a special circumstance.
• Certain majors/departments are excluded from TAG, depending on campus.  

The TAG application is a separate application, which is submitted online throughout the entire month of September, before the general UC application which opens in November.  (If you TAG, you must still submit a general application in November.) 

You can apply to as many campuses as you wish in November, but you may only TAG one campus. If you are accepted to a UC via TAG you are not required to attend that UC.  It may be your dream UC, it may simply be a fallback. You also do not have to TAG any campus; however, as TAG is a guarantee of admission, assuming you fulfill the requirements, it’s something you should consider

The best way to know exactly what is required for every TAG at each of the six UCs, is to read the UC TAG Matrix for 2016-2017. You should also check each campus that offers TAG for an additional information. (The links are above in the names.)

Before you apply, go over everything with your community college advisor. To start the TAG application process (filling in educational institutions and coursework), click here.