EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

(Don’t Take Anything You Don’t Need)

Part VI: Transferring to a Bachelor’s Degree Program:

UC or CSU (Public California Universities)

Be sure to read Mini-Lecture V: Interesting Transfer Options to Consider before reading this mini-lecture.

IMPORTANT! You will be filling out Part I of the Ed Plan Form while you read this mini-lecture.

There are two versions of the form in a link in this unit, “Ed Plan Forms (Fill-In & PDF). Select ONE to complete.

Transferring to a UC or CSU

To transfer to a UC or CSU campus, you are taking major, GE and elective courses at SMC that are equivalent to or will be accepted by the UC or CSU school.

You will be keeping in mind:

  • Units
  • Major
  • General Education
  • Electives
  • And GPA, even though we won’t be talking about this. In short, get the best grades you can to keep the most options open. See a counselor for details.

Units

To transfer to a UC or CSU, you need at least 60 UC or CSU transferable semester units. Our SMC Schedule of Classes and SMC Course Catalog note which courses are transferrable to the UC and CSU.

If you have units from a 4-year school, the UC has a policy about transferring with upper-division (junior and senior-level) units--see a counselor (me or another counselor) for details.

Also, quarter units count a little differently--ask your instructor or acounselor about this, too.

Fill Out Your Form

On the front top of your Education Plan, enter:

  • Your name
  • The name of the ONE school for which you’ll create this Ed Plan.
  • The number of units for your goal: 60 units

Major

The UC and CSU have a great website that makes it easy to find out the major courses needed to transfer.

  • Go to
  • View this YouTube to see how to use the website. You will see the steps spelled out below in this video that I created:
  • Note: For students who plan to transfer to UCLA, be sure to select "University of California, Los Angeles"
  • Do NOT select "California StateUniversity, Los Angeles"

Find YOUR major courses needed

  • In the drop-down list where it says, "Click here to select an institution," select Santa Monica College.
  • In the second drop-down list where it says, "Click here to select a campus," select the UC or CSU of your choice.
  • In the drop-down list where it says, "Select a major," select your major of choice.
  • On the next screen, you will see the transfer campus' major courses on the left, and the equivalent SMC course on the right.
  • These SMC courses in the right column are you MAJOR COURSES--the courses you will use for this assignment.

Fill Out Your Form

  1. List the MAJOR courses required for your SMC goal. Use the information found above.

•List EVERY course required for your major (ex.: “Psych 1”)

•To find the number of units and prerequisites/advisories, look up the courses by going to one of the following links:

  • SMC Catalog:
  • SMC Schedule of Classes:

•List the number of units for each course using either the resource above

•List each course's prerequisite(s) and/or advisories using either resource

  • Enter "None" if none
  • Abbreviate if needed, Ex., "Advis: Elig for Engl 1"

•Enter each course EVEN IF YOU'VE ALREADY COMPLETED IT

General Education

Find Your General Education Requirements

  1. For transfer to a CSU, you can follow EITHER the IGETC OR the CSU General Education Pattern

•The CSU does NOT care which you use

•IGETC link:

•CSU GE link:

  1. For transfer to a UC, follow IGETC
  • See the link above under #1
  • Some majors do NOT want you to follow IGETC. See the first page of the IGETC sheet for exceptions, and/or the ASSIST sheet for the major (from Step 2A)
  1. IMPORTANT! FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS COMPLETELY! For either pattern, view:
  2. The categories:
  3. Ex.: On IGETC: #1: English Communication; #2: Math; #3: Arts & Humanities
  4. Ex.: On CSU GE: #A: English Language & Critical Thinking; #B: Scientific Inquiry & Quantitative Reasoning; #C: Arts & Humanities

•How many courses you need to take in each category

  • Ex.: On IGETC: #1: CSU Gps ABC, UC Gps AB; #2: 1 course; #3: 3 courses, at least one from Arts, and one from Humanities
  • Ex.: On CSU GE: #A: 9 units, one from each group; #B: 1 course from B1,B2,B4; one from B1 or B2 must have a lab
  1. Select the course or courses you'll take for each category, depending on how many you need.
  1. For the IGETC, NOTE these differences:

•For the IGETC-CSU, take:

  • THREE courses in Area 1 (1A, 1B and 1C)
  • You are NOT required to fulfill Area 6A.

•For the IGETC-UC, take:

  • TWO courses in Area 1 (1A and 1B)
  • Area 6A, Foreign Language (can use 2 years of Foreign Language in high school--see details on the sheet)
  • You are NOT required to fulfill Area 1C.
  1. For CSU transfers NOT considering a UC:

•The CSU GE has an advantage because it gives a bit more choice of courses. Also, since you're taking Counseling 20, the number of courses for the IGETC and CSU GE can be exactly the same.

Fill Out Your Form

  1. InPart II of your Ed Plan,check“IGETC” or “CSU”
  1. Then, enterevery course from #3 ABOVE.

•For EACH course, list:

  • GE Area
  • Ex.: “A” for CSU GE English Language and Critical Thinking;
  • Ex.: “3A” for IGETC Arts and Humanities Arts.
  • Course (ex.: "Psych 1")
  • Prerequisite/Advisory (write "None" if none)
  • Number of units.
  • To look up units and prerequisites/advisories, go to one of the following:
  • SMC Catalog:
  • SMC Schedule of Classes:
  1. Enter each course,whether or not you've already completed it.
  1. If you areusing the SAME course for a major requirement AND a GE, put a dash “---” in the units column for the GE Section.
  1. At the bottom, total your major units, general education units (don't count the units in parentheses), then total the units.

PHEW! You’re half-way there.

Next, go to Mini-Lecture VIII: The All Important Prerequisites and Advisories.