In California, the public higher education system is composed of three parts: The University of California System (UC), the California State Universities (CSU), and the California Community Colleges (CCC). These three sub-systems each play a different role, but together they ensure that residents of California enjoy some of the finest educational opportunities in the nation. For you, the most important feature of the system is that there are guaranteed paths to enter the UC system, whose campuses are among the top institutions in America.
The University of California (UC) system is the primary academic research institution and provides undergraduate, graduate and professional education. UC offers doctoral degrees and also graduate level instruction in law, medicine, dentistry, and veterinary medicine. The nine universities that offer undergraduate degrees are Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz.
The California State University (CSU) system’s primary mission is undergraduate education and graduate education through the master’s degree. There are 23 CSU universities, shown on the map on the page opposite.
The California Community Colleges provide instruction through the first two years of undergraduate education. The Community Colleges specialize in teaching and preparing students to transfer to the UC or CSU system. There are 21 such institutions in California, and we have selected as partners those with the highest rate of success in placing their students in the top UC schools.
The California Education Act stipulates that any student who completes the required courses at a CCC with a sufficiently high GPA is guaranteed admission to the UC or CSU system, where they will be able to complete their degree in another two years.
Transfer
The system is designed specifically to give a second chance to students whose high school results were not good enough to gain admission to a prestigious school by transferring from a community college to UC or CSU. Transferring is the process by which our students apply to a university to complete their degree with all of their previously earned credits recognized.
Special arrangements called articulation agreements ensure that all academic courses students take in their first two years at our partner institutions fully transfer to the UC or CSU system with 100% credit. (The only exceptions are ESL classes that some students need to take to prepare for transfer.
In order for their transfer applications to be reviewed, prospective transfer students must meet Eligibility Requirements: They simply need to maintain their GPA (2.4 minimum, and 3.0 for UC Berkeley), they must have taken certain specific classes and meet certain other conditions that are much less complicated than high school direct admits. Our advising ensures that these additional requirements are met.
Most universities in America accept transfers, but some even provide guaranteed transfer admission. This is why transfer students might have a 95% admission rate to a selective university while the high school direct admission rate hovers at 30%, even for applicants who have met the university’s minimum admission criteria.
The UC schools offering guaranteed admission are: Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles and UC San Diego do not yet offer a guaranteed transfer admission, but they still admit twice as many transfer students than international students directly from high school.
Important Facts about Transfer Admission
- UC does not consider the nationalities of transfer students in making admission decisions.
- No examination of any kind is currently required for admission as a transfer student. Instead, students take the relevant courses in our program. In particular, SAT and TOEFL scores are not required for transfer students.
- Transfer students do not need a high school diploma if they are over the age of 18. Their success in studying for two years in another academic institution substitutes for the high school diploma.
Transfer To
Other Universities
Many other top US universities also welcome transfer students. The admissions requirements vary considerably from school to school, but our advisors have expert knowledge of these rules and regulations, and can place students in many different institutions across the country if they do not enroll in one of California’s public universities.
California and the San Francisco Bay Area
California is one of the major economic engines of the United States. With a population of more than 39 million people, the Golden State has the most people of any US state, and drives many of the nation's cultural trends. The state has an incredibly diverse economy, with Hollywood, Silicon Valley, manufacturing, and agriculture all making significant contributions.
While California would be an economic force as its own nation, so too would the Bay Area alone. With a GDP of $535 billion, the San Francisco Bay Area would rank 19th in the world when ranked against national economies. The Bay Area is home to 7 million people in nine counties and 101 cities, including San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. The $74,815 GDP per capita is more than London and Singapore.
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Why Choose San Francisco?
Technology, commerce, the arts, and nature come together in Northern California’s San Francisco Bay Area (also known as “The Bay Area”). San Francisco is a hub of commerce and culture, with nearby Silicon Valley the center of the technology industry. The Bay Area has 26 Fortune 500 companies (including Apple, Facebook, Google, Intel, Oracle, Chevron, Visa, and Tesla), more than any other region in the U.S. other than New York City.
The Bay Area is home to a surprising number of wildlife preserves and natural habitats. Residents are known as being health-conscious people who regularly exercise and eat well. Many take advantage of the region’s natural spaces and go hiking, kayaking, surfing, skateboarding, running, or biking in their free time. In the city of San Francisco alone, there are more than 200 miles of paths for recreational use. Lake Tahoe, home to many major ski resorts, is just a three-hour drive away.
The Bay Area is also home to many professional sports teams, including the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s baseball teams, the San Francisco 49ers football team, and the Golden State Warriors basketball team. Additionally, the city of San Francisco and its surrounding areas have impressive art museums, theaters, and public gardens.
Bay Area residents are diverse: roughly 32% were born in a country other than the U.S., and several Bay Area cities are some of the most ethnically diverse in the nation.
The SF Bay Area is home to some of the world’s best universities, including Stanford University and UC Berkeley, the number one ranked public university in America. Berkeley also ranks first for natural sciences, mathematics, chemistry, environmental ecology, and business, and has 7 Nobel Prize winners on its faculty.
Torus Education promotes collaboration between universities around the world and helps students who wish to study outside their home country.
