UC San Diego Raises TAG eligible GPA to 3.5

Published on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 by Edwina Category: College News UC and CSU

Beginning fall 2012, students who wish to submit a Transfer Agreement Guarantee (TAG) with UC San Diego must now have a minimum GPA of 3.5 in UC transferable courses. Students must also carry out at least a 3.5 GPA upon completing all coursework prior to transferring. In previous years, the minimum TAG eligible GPA was a 3.0.

UCSD TAG

UC San Diego received approximately 9,000 TAG applications for Fall 2011. Just as critical, more than 4,600 students completed an application for admission and checked off both UC San Diego TAG and IGETC. These numbers reflect an enormous interest in UC San Diego TAG!

Given the state of the budget and campus capacity, UC San Diego is unable to sustain a guarantee program at this level of participation.

Larger student enrollment have likely caused UC’s to adjust their Transfer Agreement Guarantees in response to the increase of competition. Additionally, the UC TAG application transitioned from paper applications to online applications this past school year.

In a recent email from the Admissions office to students that applied to the Fall 2011 TAG at UCSD, they provided next steps for these students:

Since you’re a student who filled out the UC Online Transfer Admission Guarantee form in September, you may be interested in some additional information. Please take a look at these updates about the TAG program, the UC application, and the UC San Diego campus specifically.

The UC Online TAG form is a way of self-reporting your classes as a preliminary look at TAG eligibility. Some campuses in the UC system are pre-qualifying TAG applicants by way of this form. However, UC San Diego is one campus that opted not to do that – if you plan to apply to UC San Diego, we will review your TAG status at the time the application for admission is read. I know this has been a point of confusion for some of you who have called to ask about it.

The important thing to remember is that you need to follow up your online TAG form with the actual University of California application for admission (deadline was November 30, 2010). On that application, you needed to check the 2 boxes you need to be considered as a TAG applicant:

1. UC San Diego TAG

2. IGETC

It’s important to check both boxes!

This applies to any applicant following the TAG program.

I want to encourage you to apply to UC San Diego – and apply as a TAG applicant. Even if the online form indicated that you may not have met the eligibility requirements, here at UC San Diego we believe it’s best if our experienced admissions officers thoroughly review your entire application to make the final determination. Then if the requirements are met, you are admitted as a TAG student; or, if ineligible under TAG, you are still considered for admission as a regular transfer student. Official decisions will be posted online starting in mid-March 2011 with postings continuing through April 30, 2011.