Overview
Counselors can provide invaluable guidance
as students plan and prepare for their
University education, particularly in choosing
a campus and when their goal is acceptance to
highly competitive programs.
Students should begin early to research
their choice of undergraduate major and UC
campus. These choices will be among the most
important life decisions they will ever make.
Choice of Campus
All UC campuses have distinguished faculty, excellent libraries and research facilities, and high academic standards; all attract the most accomplished students in California. Each UC campus has its own distinctive character and atmosphere.
Most prospective students are familiar with only one or two UC campuses, usually those nearest home or mentioned most frequently in the news. They should be encouraged to explore the opportunities offered by all the UC campuses to ensure they don’t overlook the one that best suits their individual needs.
Students can begin their research by visiting
campus websites and ordering the General
Catalogs of the campuses they are interested
in. The websites and catalogs provide detailed
descriptions of undergraduate programs and
individual courses and contain a wealth of
information about student life.
If at all possible, students should arrange
to visit the campus and talk with the students
and faculty there.
Another source of information about any of the University’s campuses is the nearest Relations with Schools Office, which will welcome questions from prospective students. See the Campus Contacts page for contact information.
Choice of Major
Most University campuses offer a full range
of undergraduate majors in the humanities,
sciences, social sciences and engineering. Students need to select majors carefully,
keeping in mind that admission to programs
such as engineering, computer science and
business administration is very competitive
at some campuses.
Each UC campus’s General Catalog is
an excellent source of information about the
majors. Catalogs provide detailed descriptions
of lower-division prerequisites, required
courses and their content, and the emphasis
of each major (e.g., preparation for graduate
study or for entry into a career or profession).
High school students who have not yet
decided on a major should be advised that
they may apply to particular colleges at all
campuses with an undecided, undeclared or
exploratory major.
Transfer students also should consult the Transfer Preparation Paths at UCTransfer.org,
where they will find information on major preparation requirements for the most popular
UC majors. Transfer students should
check with specific campus admissions offices
about applying undeclared.
Eligibility and Selection
As a public institution, the University of
California is committed to providing a place
for all eligible applicants who are residents of
California, and to assembling, on each campus,
a student body that both meets UC’s
high academic standards and encompasses
and reflects our state’s cultural, racial, geographic,
economic and social diversity.
UC’s campuses make every effort to provide
a place for California residents who
meet the University’s minimum admission
requirements and who file their admissions
application on time. Often, the number of
qualified applicants exceeds the spaces available
for a particular campus ; in this case,
the campus uses criteria that exceed the
minimum requirements to select students.
Meeting the minimum requirements, therefore,
is
not enough to gain admission to many UC campuses
and programs.
UC reviews each application in two steps:
- Eligibility
First the University determines if the student has met the minimum requirements to be considered for admission. These requirements, which are different for freshman and transfer students, are designed to ensure that all eligible students are adequately prepared for University-level work.
- Selection
When campuses receive applications from more eligible students than they can admit — as is most often the case — they use comprehensive review, factors that go beyond the minimum admission requirements to select students. The University attempts to place all eligible California residents, although not all students can be admitted to a first-choice campus.
|
