Application Updates from the University of California

Below are various deadlines and dates as you prepare for UC admission.

Fall 2025 UC application: Filing deadline reminder
The UC application for fall 2025 is now open! Students can begin submitting their UC applications on October 1. For fall 2025 applicants only, the filing deadline has been extended until December 2.

Transfer Students

Fall 2025 Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) application
The Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) program guarantees admission to a participating UC campus and major for students who meet TAG criteria. While a student may submit only one TAG, they are not obligated to attend if admitted and may apply to other campuses. Six UC campuses offer an admission guarantee for junior transfer applicants. These include UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz.

Students can apply for TAG via the UC Transfer Admission Planner (UC TAP). The TAG filing deadline for fall 2025 is September 30. Note, transfer applicants who submit a TAG application are still required to submit the UC application during the October 1–December 2 filing period.

New Transfer Pathways
Ten new UC Transfer Pathways — Aerospace Engineering, Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Data Science, Earth Science/Geology, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Science, Materials Science & Engineering and Statistics — have been approved, bringing UC’s total count of Transfer Pathways to 30.

Together, these ten new pathways provide preparation guidance for many of UC’s highly sought-after majors. These new Transfer Pathways will be available for students transferring to UC in fall 2026 and later.

Additionally, three current Transfer Pathways majors have revised their major preparation criteria as follows:

• Chemistry: Requires linear algebra (one course) pre-transfer. Differential equations (one course) is recommended pre-transfer for some campuses and majors, but transfer students will not be negatively affected in competitiveness for admission if completed post-transfer.
• Mathematics: Any one of the following sequences — calculus-based physics, (full sequence with labs), general chemistry, (full sequence with labs), general biology, (full sequence with labs), or economics, (full sequence) — is recommended pre-transfer for some campuses and majors, but transfer students will not be negatively affected in competitiveness for admission if completed post-transfer.
• Physics: No longer requires general chemistry (full sequence with labs).

High School

Area C Math updates: The UC requires three years of foundational math, including or integrating the topics found in elementary and advanced algebra as well as two- and three-dimensional geometry (typically Algebra I-Geometry-Algebra II or Math I-II-III) for first-year applicants. This requirement is not changing. A fourth year of math is recommended for all students, and our faculty advise students to select math coursework that aligns with their college and career goals or gives them the broadest range of options at UC.

Beginning with the 2025–26 academic year, which begins in fall 2025, the following changes to math disciplines and validation rules will be implemented:

• Math disciplines will be redefined to distinguish which courses can and cannot validate Algebra II/Math III. A new math discipline — Additional Math — will be introduced, and courses in that discipline will not validate Algebra II/Math III.
• Statistics and data science courses will no longer validate Algebra II/Math III.
• No course, regardless of its discipline, will validate deficient grades in or the omission of Geometry.