UCLA Transfer Acceptance Rate and Requirements — 2025

January 21, 2025

UCLA is a school with a single-digit acceptance rate for freshman applicants. However, unlike at other elite universities like Stanford or Harvard, transferring into UCLA is a proposition with fairly reasonable odds. In fact, UCLA admits 5,000-6,000 applicants every year. In further good news, acceptance rates for transfers at UCLA are actually higher than for first-years. The following blog will reveal the UCLA transfer acceptance rates as well as other crucial items like the UCLA transfer deadline, the UCLA transfer requirements, the UCLA transfer GPA, and much more.

UCLA Transfer Acceptance Rate

Below we present the most current available UCLA transfer acceptance rate as well as historical data.

For entry in the fall of 2024, 6,070 students were accepted, and 27,167 applied. This means that the UCLA transfer acceptance rate is 22.3%.

When trying to get the complete picture of how difficult it is to transfer into any given institution, it is important to look at historical data. While many schools have wild fluctuations in acceptance rates from cycle to cycle, you can see that UCLA’s have remained stable in recent years.

Historical UCLA transfer rates are as follows:

Year	Acceptance Rate
2023	25.8%
2022	23.9%
2021	19.6%
2020	24%

UCLA Transfer Acceptance Rate (Continued)

Also, at a school of UCLA’s size, it’s essential to look at the —and even of . For example, the College of Letters and Science admitted 28% of Fall 2024 transfer applicants while the School of Engineering admitted 10%. Meanwhile, the School of Theater, Film & Television admitted just 2.6%. If we look at these numbers even more closely, we find that majors within the College of Letters and Science varied from an acceptance rate of 57% (Applied Linguistics) to 10% (Marine Biology). The School of Engineering had a similar spread.

UCLA Transfer Acceptance Rate by College

College/School	Acceptance Rate
The College	28%
Samueli School of Engineering	10%
School of Theater, Film, & Television	2.6%
School of the Arts & Architecture	8.2%
School of Music	15%
School of Nursing	6.8%

UCLA Transfer Deadline

For every academic program, the UCLA transfer deadline is December 2.

The application window opens on August 1, so you can begin completing all materials at that time.

The FAFSA deadline is March 2.

You will also have to submit :

School of the Arts and Architecture
Herb Alpert School of Music
School of Nursing
School of Theater, Film and Television

UCLA Transfer Requirements

All students must submit the following items as part of their UCLA application:

A
Personal insight questions
Supplemental materials (for some majors)

Official transcripts and letters of recommendation are not part of the UCLA transfer requirements. In fact, they are not even accepted during the admissions process. That said, by January 31, all applicants will need to complete a Transfer Academic Update (TAU) that provides their fall grades and planned spring coursework. If accepted, you will then need to provide final, official transcripts.

In addition to completing the aforementioned items, you’ll need to have achieved/earned the following:

Junior-level standing (60 semester or 90 quarter transferable units completed) by the end of the spring term before you transfer.
GPA of 3.2 or higher earned in transferable courses.
Two transferable courses in English composition or critical thinking and writing.
One transferable math course that has a prerequisite of intermediate algebra or higher.
Four transferable college courses in at least two of the following subject areas: arts and humanities, social and behavioral sciences, physical and biological sciences.

We recommend thoroughly reviewing the for all UCLA transfer requirements.

Additionally, UCLA has , which are official guarantees of course transfer between institutions (upon acceptance).

UCLA Transfer GPA

Students admitted as transfers to UCLA in 2024 had a mid-50th percentile GPA range of 3.77-4.0. The median GPA for a successful transfer applicant was 3.9.

Community Colleges that Send the Most Transfer Students to UCLA

The community colleges that saw the greatest number of 2024 applicants to UCLA were:

Santa Monica College (1,715) – 32% accepted
Pasadena City College (1,226) – 32% accepted
Deanza College (1,136) – 21% accepted
Irvine Valley College (868) – 27% accepted
Diablo Valley College (737) – 23% accepted

UCLA Transfer Acceptance Rate (Continued)

UCLA Transfer Application Essays

Required UCLA Essay

Please describe how you have prepared for your intended major, including your readiness to succeed in your upper-division courses once you enroll at the university.

Choose 3 of the following 7 questions (in addition to the mandatory prompt above):

Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?

All essays have a 350-word maximum, and applicants are encouraged to answer the three that align most closely with their individual experiences and circumstances.

When Do UCLA Transfer Decisions Come Out?

UCLA transfer decisions come out in late April.

Final Thoughts – UCLA Transfer Acceptance Rate

UCLA plucks 93% of their transfer students from California community colleges. An additional 5% come from current University of California students. Only 3% come from non-CA schools. A sizable 35% of entering transfers are from underrepresented backgrounds and 41% are first-generation students.

If you are looking for information on how to apply to UCLA as a first-year student, you may find the following blogs to be of interest:

Looking for additional transfer resources? You may wish to check out the following:

bookmark

Transfer Admissions

Dave Bergman

Dave has over a decade of professional experience that includes work as a teacher, high school administrator, college professor, and independent educational consultant. He is a co-author of the books The Enlightened College Applicant (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) and Colleges Worth Your Money (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).

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