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Transfer Students with Foreign Records

All transfer applicants are considered using the same admission requirements and are included in the same selection process. If you have attended both foreign and U.S. colleges or universities, both your foreign and U.S. courses and grades will be considered. You may also be required to demonstrate English proficiency.

Foreign Academic Records

When you apply, you must report all foreign coursework as it would appear on your foreign academic records. Find out how to report foreign education in your application.

Meeting English Composition Coursework Requirements

One of the admission requirements for all transfer students is two transferable courses in English composition with grades of "C" or better. If you are applying to transfer directly from a foreign college or university where English is not the language of instruction, you are strongly encouraged to take as much English as your curriculum will allow. It is very unlikely that any of your English courses will transfer to UC Davis, but your English preparation will make your application more competitive. You will need to demonstrate your English proficiency with one of the approved examinations. Visit the Exams and Visas page for more information.

Determining Course Transferability

• Check to see if your school is recognized by your country's Ministry of Education (or the appropriate government agency) or a U.S. accrediting agency. The school must be well recognized in order for us to accept any credit.
• You must also be enrolled in a university level academic degree program comparable to a U.S. Associate's or Bachelor's degree. Terminal vocational or technical programs are often not transferable to UC Davis even if taken at recognized institutions.
• Get descriptions of all of your subjects and the UC Davis catalog, available online at registrar.ucdavis.edu.
• Determine if your subjects are similar to any subjects offered at UC Davis. We will only consider transfer credit for subjects that are similar to those offered in the UC system.
• If you cannot find a comparable course at UC Davis, then look in the catalogs of the other UC campuses. A course may also be transferable if it is offered somewhere in the UC system.
• Remedial academic subjects, such as English taught as a second language and high school level math, are not transferable. Although there are some remedial subjects offered at UC Davis, you will notice in our catalog that they are also worth no credit toward a degree.

Whether or not you believe your coursework will be transferable, you will be required to report ALL college and university coursework undertaken in your application. No final decisions on transfer credit will be made until you officially apply and enroll at UC Davis.

Transferable Secondary School Credit

Transfer credit is considered for students who have taken the GCE or Hong Kong Advanced Level Examinations and earned grades of “C” or higher. UC Davis does not routinely award transfer credit for the German Abitur, the Swiss Federal Maturity Certificate, the Italian Maturita, or the French Baccalaureate. If you completed GCE A-level or the HKALE, you must report your scores in your application. If you did not receive “C” grades please report your exam scores anyway. Poor A-level/HKALE scores will not be counted against you as a transfer student.

Foreign Junior Colleges and Diploma Programs

You are required to report your junior/community college or diploma program courses along with all other post secondary coursework in your application. However, UC Davis generally does not transfer credit from junior/community college programs that are technical or vocational in nature, or that do not lead on to further academic study at a university. Usually, coursework from Japanese and Malaysian junior colleges does not transfer. Limited transfer credit may be considered for Indian engineering diploma programs when students have continued their education in a bachelor’s degree program. Applicants usually are not able to transfer directly from Indian diploma programs to UC Davis.