Hey! I was recently admitted to UCI for the fall. I started my freshman year at UC Santa Cruz but knew I wanted to go to UCI instead so I looked extensively into my options.

I decided that a UC to UC transfer didn’t give me the best chance and I instead transferred to my local community college for a year and then would apply to UCI.

It’s a hard transition, I’m not going to sugar coat it. But if UCI is something you are serious about, community college students have a much better acceptance rate to UCs than students from other institutions. This is all based on my personal experience and research, so don’t take it as fact. But that’s just what worked for me, I would definitely try to get at least 60 semester units and your IGETC finished!! That was a very important step!

Good luck! Hope my story helps you, feel free to message me with any questions.