Major Preparation

UC Berkeley

Architecture
Landscape Architecture
Urban Studies

Submit a portfolio that demonstrates your architectural design experience and request a specific studio course on their study plan. Applicants portfolio and additional application materials will be used to determine whether they are approved or denied for the studio course requested on their study plan. Applicants are responsible for requesting the appropriate studio course for their home university. 

Portfolio format: Electronic PDF copy only (no hard copy)

Enrollment in ARCH 11A Introduction to Visual Representation and Drawing, and ARCH 11B Introduction to Design is limited. Be prepared to take alternative courses.

Courses offered fall only:

• 11A Introduction to Visual Representation and Drawing
• 100A Fundamentals of Architectural Design
• 100C Architectural Design III

Course offered spring only:

• 11B Introduction to Design
• 100B Fundamentals of Architectural Design
• 100D Architectural Design IV

UC Davis

Landscape Architecture

Access to studio space may be limited. 

Prior to enrolling in advanced design studio courses, students must submit up to 5 samples of previous design work which will be evaluated by faculty. Statement of Purpose (500 Words Max). 

See application requirements in the Undergraduate Admissions Bulletin and LDA's Application Process

Sustainable Environmental Design (SED)

As a student in SED, you will gain background in urban and environmental design, sustainable development theory and practice, local government planning, community dynamics and organizations, green building, and selection and presentation of sustainable strategies. Prior to enrolling in advanced design studio courses, students must submit up to 5 samples of previous design work which will be evaluated by faculty.

UC Irvine

Urban Studies

UC Los Angeles

Architectural Studies

Undergraduates applying for undergraduate courses only (numbered 1-199): Submit images of creative work.
Submission format: Digital, three to six-page PDF files of creative work.

Advanced undergraduate applicants (with significant studio experience) applying for enrollment in a limited number of graduate courses: Submit a portfolio representing your previous experience and creative abilities. 

Portfolio format: Digital, PDF file. Image size must be at least 150 DPI but no more than 300 DPI of print. The compressed file size must be no greater than 15 MB.

UC San Diego

Urban Studies​ and Planning

Courses not open to reciprocity students:

• 185A Real Estate Finance and Development Studio I
• 185B Real Estate Finance and Development Studio II
• 186 Senior Sequence Research Proposal
• 187 Urban Studies Internship
• 190 Senior Honors Seminar

UC Berkeley

Enrollment is studio art courses is limited. Plan to enroll in only one or two studio courses each term. Be prepared to take courses in other departments to maintain full time enrollment.
Art courses not open to reciprocity students:

• 8 Introduction to Visual Thinking
• 119 Global Perspectives in Contemporary Art
• 185 Senior Projects/Professional Practices 

UC Los Angeles

Submit a portfolio and personal statement.  The department will determine your eligibility based on your qualifications and available space in the program.

Enrollment in studio art courses is limited. Plan to enroll in only one or two studio courses per term. Be prepared to take courses in other departments to maintain full-time enrollment. 

Portfolio format: Minimum of 10 images in PDF upload to application. See requirements.

Personal statement: Concise statement describing your interests, experiences, art influences, and goals in studio art.

UC Santa Cruz

Enrollment in studio art courses is limited. Plan to enroll in only one or two studio courses each term. Be prepared to take courses in other departments to maintain full-time enrollment.

You must have completed the equivalent of the required lower-division studio courses (numbered 1-99) if you plan to take upper-division studio courses (numbered 100-199). Contact the undergraduate advisor if you have questions about course requirements.

All Campuses

Submission of a portfolio is recommended.

BIOLOGY / BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

All Campuses

The following courses will prepare you for any UC campus. 

• Introductory biology encompassing animal, plant, and cell biology
• General chemistry
• Calculus 
• Physics (calculus-based)

UC Irvine

Biological Sciences (BIO SCI) courses not open to reciprocity students:

• 2A and 2B Freshman Seminar
• 2D Ease Seminar
• 101 California Teach 2
• D113 Genetics Majors Seminar
• D114 Developmental and Cell Biology Majors Seminar
• E107 Seminar in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• E117ABC Exercise Sciences Seminar
• N115AB Advanced Neurobiology I and II
• N120ABC Human Biology
• 190 Transfer Student Seminar

Complete 100 Scientific Laboratory at UCI before enrolling in upper-division laboratory courses numbered 100-199.

UC RIVERSIDE

Coursework in Neuroscience is listed under Cell Biology and Neuroscience (CBNS).

UC SANTA BARBARA

Complete all prerequisites for upper-division biology courses numbered 100-199.

Advanced upper-division biology courses and labs require additional upper-division prerequisites in subjects such as organic chemistry, biochemistry, and genetics. Biology courses, including advanced lab courses, may be impacted.
 

EARTH SCIENCE / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

All Campuses

Most UC programs in earth science or environmental science will require similar prerequisites to biology.

Review the course catalogs to check if you have the prerequisite courses for your major. Information on prerequisites is provided as a general guide only. Other coursework as outlined in individual course descriptions may be necessary.

All Campuses

The following courses will prepare you for any UC that offers the major. 

• Introductory microeconomics*
• Introductory macroeconomics*
• Calculus
• Statistics

*Intermediate microeconomics and macroeconomics preferred.

You must be a business or management major at your home university to study in this major at UC.

UC Berkeley

Business (UGBA) courses not open to reciprocity students: 

• 10 Principles of Business
• 100 Business Communication
• 193i Travel Study (formerly called Business Abroad)
• Graduate courses (numbered 200 and above) 

UC Irvine

Management (MGMT) courses not open to reciprocity students:

• Courses numbered 100-110
  • 101 Management Science
  • 102 Managing Organizational Behavior
  • 105 Introduction to Marketing
  • 107 Introduction to Management Information Systems
  • 109 Introduction to Managerial Finance
  • 110 Strategic Management
• Accounting courses (numbered 130-139)
  • 131A/B Intermediate Accounting
  • 132A Individual Taxation
  • 133 Corporate and Partnership Taxation
  • 136 Accounting Information Systems & Spreadsheets
  • 137 Advanced Accounting
  • 138 Auditing 
• 191W Business Communication
• Graduate courses (numbered 200 and above)

UC Merced

Major listed as Management and Business Economics.

UC Riverside

Business courses not open to reciprocity students:

• Graduate courses (numbered 200 and above) 

UC San Diego

Rady School of Management undergraduate courses include business, accounting and entrepreneurship.

Management courses not open to reciprocity students:

• Graduate courses (numbered 200 and above)

All Campuses

Space in this popular field of study is limited. 

UC Berkeley

Major listed as Media Studies.

UC Los Angeles

Communication courses not open to reciprocity students:

• 150 Methodologies in Communication Research

The computer science major at UC requires students to have the same preparation as engineering students. You must be a computer science major at your home university to apply to this major at UC.

The following courses will prepare you for any UC where the major is open to reciprocity students. 

Computer Science

• Data Structures
• Computer Organization and Assembly Language

Mathematics

• Single Variable Calculus
• Multivariable Calculus
• Differential Equations
• Discrete Mathematics
• Linear Algebra

Physics (calculus-based) topics of one-year sequence must include mechanics and electromagnetism.

Computer Programming

• Introduction to Programming
• C
• C++
• Java
• MATLAB
• Python

UC Berkeley

Computer science courses are not available to reciprocity students.

UC Irvine

Computer science courses are available to reciprocity students only through the Samueli School of Engineering. The computer science major is not available to reciprocity students through the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science.

Computer science applicants must have completed coursework in Java.

UC Los Angeles

Computer science courses are not available to reciprocity students.

You may complete the Enrollment Consideration Request (ECR) form. Completing the form does not guarantee Computer Science course access. The ECR is on a priority basis, not a first-come, first-served basis.

UC Riverside

Computer science applicants must have Discrete Mathematics, Data Structures and Assembly Language/Machine Organization.

All Campuses

Your application will be reviewed by the host. Supplementary materials, such as audition recordings, may be required. You may not be able to enroll in private music lessons offered by the department or may be subject to a fee. Offerings in practical training (e.g., acting, design, voice, etc.) may be limited.

You must be a drama, dance or music major at your home university to study in these majors at UC.

UC Berkeley

Theater courses that are not open to reciprocity students:

• 60 Introduction to Technical Theater and Production
• 111 Advanced Acting
• 167 Technical Theater: Performance Practice
• 168 Technical Theater: Shop Practice
• 172 Stage Management

UC Irvine

Drama courses which are not open to reciprocity students:

• Audition based courses
• Musical Theater
• Productions

Dance courses which may not be open to reciprocity students:

• Dance technique 
• Production

Music courses which are not open to reciprocity students:

• Private applied music lessons
• Studios

UC Los Angeles

Drama/Dance courses that are not open to reciprocity students:

• Acting
• Musical theater
• Design/production
• Directing 

Theater courses open to reciprocity students

• See the minor course list 

Music major and coursework, including Ethnomusicology, Global Jazz Studies, Music, Music Industry, Musicology, are not available to reciprocity students.

UC Riverside

Drama: Major listed as Theatre, Film and Digital Production.

UC Santa Barbara

Theater courses not open to reciprocity students:

• Acting series
• Voice series
• Movement series

Consider alternative courses in theater and community, playwriting, design, and theater studies.

Clarinet, flute, and brass lessons not available to music majors. 

All Campuses

Taking the following courses will prepare you for any UC campus.

• Introductory microeconomics*
• Introductory macroeconomics*
• Calculus
• Statistics

*Intermediate microeconomics and macroeconomics preferred.

You must be an economics major at your home university to study in this major at UC.

UC Berkeley

Anticipate enrollment in a maximum of two economics courses per semester. Complete the remainder of your schedule with courses from other major departments. You must complete intermediate macro- and micro-economic theory at your home university before arrival at UC Berkeley.

Courses that are not open to reciprocity students:

• 1/2 Introduction to Economics
• 100A/101A Intermediate Microeconomic Theory
• 100B/101B Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory
• 140/141 Econometrics

UC Davis

Major listed as economics, and managerial economics.

UC Irvine

Anticipate enrollment in a maximum of two economics courses per quarter. Complete the remainder of your schedule with courses from other major departments. You must complete intermediate macro- and micro-economic theory at your home university before arrival at UC Irvine.

Courses that are not open to reciprocity students:

• 105A-B-C Intermediate Quantitative Economics
• 123A-B-CW Econometrics for Quantitative Economics
• 126 (Computational Macroeconomics), 128 (Machine Learning for Economists), and 129 (Special Topics in Quantitative Economics) Quantitative Elective courses
• 190/190A-190B Honors in Economics 

UC Los Angeles

Anticipate enrollment in a maximum of two economics courses per quarter. Complete the remainder of your schedule with courses from other major departments. You must complete intermediate macro- and micro-economic theory at your home university before arrival at UC Los Angeles.

Courses that are not open to reciprocity students:

• 11 Microeconomic Theory
• 41 Statistics for Economists
• 101 Microeconomic Theory
• 102 Macroeconomic Theory
• 103/103L Introduction to Econometrics and lab
• 104/104L Data Science for Economists and lab
• 106 Business Economics series
• 167 History of Financial Crises
• 168 Value Investing
• 169 Applied Value Investing
• 173A Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship
• 173B Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship
• M188XP Practicum in Social Entrepreneurship
• 198A Honors Research in Economics 1
• 198B Honors Research in Economics 2
• 199A Directed Research in Economics

UC Santa Barbara

Major listed as economics and business economics. Graduate level courses (numbered 200 and above) are not open to reciprocity students.

UC Santa Cruz

Major listed as economics, business management economics, and global economics.

UC San Diego

Major listed as economics and management science (a quantitative major in applied economics with a management focus). You must have a strong background in mathematics to enroll in courses in this major.

All Campuses

Plan for two courses in your major and the remainder of your courses in another complementary major. If you are pursuing coursework in another major, you may add some courses from the education minor (subject to available space in classes).

UC Irvine

Education major 

UC Riverside

Education, Society, and Human Development 

UC Santa Cruz

Education, Democracy, and Justice 

All Campuses

The following courses will prepare you for any UC where the major is open to reciprocity students. 

Mathematics

• Single Variable Calculus
• Multivariable Calculus
• Differential Equations
• Linear Algebra

Physics (calculus-based) including the following topics:

• Mechanics
• Electricity
• Magnetism
• Wave motion
• Heat
• Oscillation
• Physical optics
• Relativity
• Quantum physics
• Electrodynamics

General Chemistry

Computer Programming 

• C
• C++
• Java
• MATLAB
• Python

You must be an engineering major at your home university to apply to these majors at UC.

UC Berkeley

Aerospace Engineering (AERO ENG), Bioengineering (BIO ENG), Computer Science (COMPSCI), Electrical Engineering (EL ENGR), and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) courses are not available to reciprocity students.

In addition, the following courses are not open to reciprocity students: Engineering (ENGIN) 26, 29, 128; Civil Engineering (CIV ENG) restricted only in the Fall semester: 11, C103N, 111,167; restricted in the Spring semester: 11, 92A and 92B, C106, 110, 123, 186;  Industrial Engineering (IND ENG) 115, 142, 150, 151, 160, 162, 171, 172; Mechanical Engineering (MEC ENG) restricted only in the Spring semester: 102B and 103; 100, 110, 130, 132, 136, 139, 163, C180, and 191K.

UCB College of Engineering cannot guarantee enrollment in courses. Be prepared to select alternative courses.

Students may request from one to four units of Independent Study units each semester. Courses numbered 98, 99, 198, and 199 allow students to pursue the study of special topics, in groups (98, 198) or individually (99, 199) under the direction of a faculty member.
Students may enroll in no more than four units of independent studies or group studies per semester. Enrollment must be approved by the department and a professor sponsoring the research. Independent Study is not guaranteed.

Undergraduate students may enroll in a maximum of one graduate (numbered 200 and above) engineering course per semester. Permission of the instructor/department is required. Undergraduate reciprocity students may not enroll in graduate research units (numbered 298 and 299). Be prepared to select alternative courses.

UC Los Angeles

Computer engineering courses are not available to reciprocity students.

Courses open to reciprocity students:

• See the Engineering Course List. If an engineering course is not on the list, it is not available to reciprocity students.

You may complete the Enrollment Consideration Request (ECR) form. Completing the form does not guarantee Computer Science course access. The ECR is on a priority basis, not a first-come, first-served basis.

UCLA School of Engineering cannot guarantee enrollment in courses. Be prepared to select alternative courses.

Students may enroll in a maximum of one graduate course (numbered 200 and above) per quarter. Students must petition to the HSSEAS Office of Academic and Student Affairs to obtain permission from both the instructor and the department.

UC Riverside

Electrical engineering applicants must have completed two courses in circuit analysis with a laboratory. Coursework in Electronic Circuits, Signals, Signals and Systems is recommended.

Mechanical engineering applicants must have coursework in Statics, Computation, MATLAB, and Thermodynamics.

Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, and Environmental Engineering applicants must have coursework in organic chemistry, general biology, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics.

Materials Science and Engineering applicants must have Statics and Circuit Analysis with a laboratory.

UC Santa Barbara

Enrollment priority in the College of Engineering is given to UC Santa Barbara engineering students. Course offerings and availability vary from term to term. General laboratory courses, and senior and capstone project courses are not available to reciprocity students.

Undergraduate reciprocity students may enroll in graduate (200 and above) courses with the permission of the faculty teaching the course and the associate dean. Students staying longer than one term at UC Santa Barbara must have a UC Santa Barbara GPA of 3.0 or higher to enroll in graduate-level courses in subsequent terms.

All Campuses

Enrollment in screenwriting and film production courses is limited. Courses in film criticism and film history are more readily available. You may need to obtain the instructor's approval to enroll.

You must be a film major at your home university to apply to this major at UC.

UC Berkeley

Course enrollment is limited in this small department.

UC Davis

Major listed as Cinema and Digital Media.

UC Irvine

Enrollment is subject to available space and instructor's consent.

Enrollment in these courses is limited:

• 117ABC Screenwriting
• 118AB Writing for Television
• 120ABC Production

UC Los Angeles

Courses not open to reciprocity students:

• Production courses
• Graduate courses (numbered 200 and above)

Courses open to reciprocity students:

• See the minor course list. If a film course is not on the minor course list, it is not available to reciprocity students.

UC Riverside

Major listed as Theatre, Film and Digital Production.

UC Santa Cruz

You must have experience in production to enroll in production classes. 

Be prepared to provide course syllabi from the film courses you have taken at your home university for enrollment in film courses. Refer to the UC Santa Cruz Film and Digital Media department's website for information on projected course offerings - see under Courses.

UC San Diego

Major listed as Visual Arts: Media.

These studies programs are your link to a multidisciplinary exploration of societies, cultures, and the world.

UC Berkeley 

Global Studies 

UC Davis

International Relations 
Community and Regional Development 

UC Irvine 

Global and International Studies

UC Los Angeles

Global Studies
International Development Studies

UC Riverside 

Global Studies

UC San Diego

International Studies (See political science and other complementary majors)

UC Santa Barbara

Global Studies

UC Santa Cruz 

Environmental Studies
Community Studies

Explore other complementary majors at UC

Anthropology
Communication
Comparative Literature
Earth Science Environmental Science
History
Philosophy
Political Science
Sociology
Legal Studies/Law and Society
Urban Planning
Language study

UC Irvine

Literary Journalism 

UC Riverside

Creative Writing

All UC's 

Writing (lower division, introductory) is a required course for all UC students so space in class may be limited.

Legal studies courses provide a useful introduction to the American legal system but are not comparable to law courses.  UC law school courses are not open to reciprocity students.

UC Berkeley

Major listed as Legal Studies. You may enroll in a maximum of two legal studies courses per semester.

Courses that are not open to reciprocity students:

• 195A Honors Seminar
• 195B Honors Thesis
• 195C Honors Research and Writing Seminar

UC Riverside

Major listed as Law and Society.

UC Santa Cruz

Major listed as Legal Studies.

All Campuses

Enrollment in psychology courses, particularly laboratory is limited. Anticipate enrollment in a maximum of two upper-division (numbered 100 - 199) psychology courses per term. Complete the remainder of your schedule with courses from other major departments.

Most upper-division psychology courses are research oriented.  

The following courses will prepare you for any UC.  

Social Sciences introductory courses

• Psychology
• Sociology 

Mathematics

• Statistics
• Calculus for sciences

Sciences

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics

UC Irvine

See School of Social Ecology: Psychological Science  (listed as PSCI in the schedule of classes)

PSYC courses under the Department of Cognitive Science are not open to reciprocity students.

Not all majors are open to reciprocity students

Use the search tool to explore UC majors. Majors are listed under the discipline with which they are most often associated. Some majors that have restricted enrollment are not open to reciprocity students and will not appear in your search and the majors below are not available.

Business Administration (MBA programs)

Except by special arrangement with selected partner schools, MBA courses are not open to reciprocity students.

Design

Medicine, Nursing, Veterinary Medicine

Medical education is taught in graduate schools which are not open to reciprocity students. If you are an undergraduate interested in these areas of study, see biology at all campuses and animal science at UC Davis.

Law 

Law school courses are not open to reciprocity students.  See Legal studies  for an introduction to the American legal system.  See also complementary courses in political science, international relations, global studies and sociology.