For our transfer students, here’s a guide to the Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) program that’s provided by the UC System for College Counselors. One of the best parts about it is that it provides contact information for the admissions representatives at each school that participates in the TAG program.

If you’re not familiar with the TAG program, it’s a mechanism where six of the UC schools have a defined pathway for Transfer Admission, presuming you’ve completed all pre-requisites. Notably, you need to have completed 30 semester credits at the time of TAG submission and must complete 60 semester credits by the end of the Spring before you’d matriculate. For example, for Fall 2025 admission, you’d have to have completed at least 30 semester credits by Summer 2024 and be on the path to completing 60 semester credits by Spring of 2025. That does mean that you can’t count on additional Summer courses without explicit permission from the university.

The six schools that participate are as follows:

• UC Davis
• UC Irvine
• UC Merced
• UC Riverside
• UC Santa Barbara
• UC Santa Cruz

Notably not included are UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UC San Diego.

There are various GPA criteria depending on the university and college, so please check out the linked matrix below.