Oakes Guide: Taking Courses at California Community Colleges
Important Notices:
📄 ‣ If you intend on taking any courses to fulfill lower-division requirements for your MAJOR, please consult your Major Advisor as not all courses taken at your local community college (CC) will count towards qualifying for their majors and they may need to approve them to post to your academic record.
📄 ‣ If you intend on taking any courses to fulfill Writing Requirements, please consult the Writing Program and your College Advisor. Taking WRIT 2 (C2/C) before passing the Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR) will prevent that course from satisfying your WRIT 2 requirement at UC Santa Cruz as you need to pass ELWR first before moving on in your writing.
📄 ‣ Please be aware that it can take the UC Santa Cruz Office of Admissions 6-8 weeks to post your transfer credit to your account from the time they receive your official transcript. This means that you may NOT be able to immediately enroll in any courses that require the courses you took at your local community college as prerequisites. This also means that you may not be able to immediately Apply to Graduate if you took courses to fulfill Your Final Credits for your degree. This will depend on when the quarter at UCSC ends and when your last day of classes at the community college is.
📄 ‣ If you intend to take your final credits at a community college, please be aware of UCSC's Senior Residency Policy. You can no longer waive this requirement, so if you have questions, speak to a college advisor.
⦿ Moreover, in order to ensure the course will count, avoid taking courses at the community college in departments/subjects where you have taken upper-division coursework at UC Santa Cruz.
⦿ Lastly, you should avoid taking any courses at community college that are equivalent to courses you have already taken at UC Santa Cruz or received AP/IBH Exam credit.
📄 ‣ You can only transfer a MAXIMUM of 105 credits. While you will not receive credit above 105, you may still satisfy general education and lower-division major requirements. For every 15 credits you transfer in you lose one quarter of eligibility.
⦿ Students from High School: Have a total of 15 full-time quarters (5 Years) of eligibility to complete their degree at UC Santa Cruz.
⦿ Transfer Students: Have a total of 9 full-time quarters (3 Years) of eligibility to complete their degree at UC Santa Cruz.
📄 ‣ For the most up-to-date information about Transfer Credit and things to know, please take a look here. You can also find more information here on the Navigator.
Step 1: Use assist.org
ASSIST is a database of Articulation Agreements between Community Colleges and California 4-Year Universities. ASSIST will help you find classes at your community college that can help you complete your general education and/or major requirements at UC Santa Cruz.
Open ASSIST website, and select your local Community College (CC) under the Institution drop-down menu and allow time to load.
From the Agreements with Other Insitutions drop-down menu, Select University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and allow time to load.
(a) To look up General Education Requirements:
⚠ Note: For GEs, you will choose the Academic Year to 2022 - 2023.
⦿ Select View Agreements 
⦿ On the next page, from View Agreement by: drop-down menu, you will select General Education / Breadth Agreement.
⦿ Make sure to select General Education Requirements to see all the courses at your selected Community College that will satisfy your GE requirements at UCSC.
⦿ You can either View Agreement or Download Agreement, based on your needs.
(b) To look up Major Requirements:
⦿ Select View Agreements
⦿ On the next page, from View Agreement by: drop-down menu, you will select Major.
⦿ you can search by Major or select All Majorsto see all the courses at your selected Community College that will satisfy your major requirements at UCSC.
⦿ You can either View Agreement or Download Agreement, based on your needs.
(c) To look up UC Transferable Courses:
⦿ Under the Transferable Courses at ______ section, select UC Transferable Courses from the drop-down menu.
⦿ Click View Transferability Lists.
⦿ On the next page, you can search by Department or select All Departments to see all the UC transferable courses at your selected Community College.
⦿ You can either View Course List or Download Course List, based on your needs.
Step 2: Complete Registration at Local Community College (CC)
You will navigate to your local community college’s website and register for whatever quarter/semester you intend to attend to complete these requirements. Many colleges allow you to register via Online or In-Person.
Note: Keep an eye out for any communication from your local CC as they may have requirements you must fulfill before being able to enroll. These may include; online orientations, documentation like transcripts, test scores, etc.
Step 3: Make Corrections to FAFSA or CA Dream Act Application
If you have not already done so, and if you would like to be eligible for Financial Aid at your local CC, you will need to update your current and future FAFSA or CA Dream Act to make sure that your local CC is listed under schools you will attend in that academic year.
Step 4: Transferring Credits
After completing your courses at your local CC, you will need to order Official Transcripts from your CC and send them over to the Office of the Registrar/Office of Admissions. Most CCs allow you to order transcripts online.
Optional Step: Use California Virtual Campus (CVC) to Locate Online Community College Courses
If you are interested in taking online courses at a community college you can use CVC to look up online courses being offered all over California. Please be aware that this include CSUs and other UCs, so make sure you are looking at community colleges ONLY. If you find a course you want to enroll in, make sure to use ASSIST.org from Step 1 to ensure it will meet the needs of the course you are trying to fulfill at UC Santa Cruz.
Optional Step: Consortium Agreement with Financial Aid
Important Notes:
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- This can be a timely process, so please do your best to get this started as soon as possible. Financial Aid would like this form completed by the Add/Drop/Swap deadline.
- According to UC Santa Cruz's Financial Aid and Scholaroship Office, you only need to be enrolled in 1 credit at UC Santa Cruz to qualify for this program and recognize that you are using up your financial aid credits of eligibility.
If you plan to take community college course(s) at one of the following community colleges: De Anza College; Monterey Peninsula College (MPC); OR Cabrillo College during the regular academic year (Fall, Winter, Spring), you are able to consolidate your credits to meet Financial Aid's minimum credit requirement for receiving aid as a Full-Time (12 minimum) or Official Part-Time (6 minimum) student.
You will need to fill out the Consortium Agreement Form and complete the top section that reads "Must be completed by student." Make sure to use the steps above to ceritify that the course(s) you plan to take are UC Transferable (see Step 1c). From there you can email your form to your College advisors to have them review your request.
Please pay close attention to the fact that once the form has been signed by your college, you still have two additional sections to fill out and complete.
- More information on Consortium Agreement available in the slides below:
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✆ REMEMBER that this is only a tutorial and we encourage you to be in touch with your College advisors about any specific questions that may arise. Please reach out to us at oakesadvising@ucsc.edu if any updates are needed to this page.
