UC extends application deadline for California transfer students
University of California President Janet Napolitano, left, has launched plans to help more California students transfer to the system’s nine undergraduate campuses.
The University of California, aiming to boost the number of students transferring to the system’s nine undergraduate campuses, has extended the application deadline to next month.
Transfer students will now have until Jan. 4 to apply, a month-long extension that officials say will help UC’s efforts to increase the number of California undergraduates by 5,000 next year and 10,000 over three years.
“The University of California proudly enrolls more community college transfer students than any other university of its caliber,” UC President Janet Napolitano said in a statement. “Giving transfer students more time to file their applications will help hard-working, eligible students across the state make their way to a UC campus next fall.”
Under California’s master plan for higher education, UC aims to enroll one transfer student for every two freshmen. The deadline extension will help enlarge the pool of eligible transfer students needed to maintain the ratio as the system expands its California student enrollment, said UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein.
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“We’ve got 5,000 new students coming in, and we want to make sure all eligible transfer students know of the opportunity,” Klein said.
The number of transfer applicants to UC campuses slightly declined to 29,389 this fall from 29,740 two years ago.
The deadline extension is one of several recent initiative to help more students transfer from community colleges. In July, UC launched Transfer Pathways, a program to help simplify the transfer process for California community college students. Napolitano also created a “transfer action team” to recommend strategies to reach students at all 113 California community colleges.
Klein said UC officials hoped to broaden the geographical diversity of transfer students, who disproportionately come from such community colleges as Santa Monica College, El Camino College and Pasadena City College.
Brice W. Harris, California Community Colleges chancellor, hailed the deadline extension for expanding opportunities for his system’s students. “UC research shows that our transfers do as well as, or even better than, students who entered a UC campus as a freshman,” he said in a statement.
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