UC TAG:GPA Thresholds and Timeline at Six Campuses

The Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) is an admission guarantee that the University of California (UC) offers students at California Community Colleges (CC). A student who completes the specified courses and reaches the required grade point average (GPA) receives guaranteed admission to one specific UC campus. Six campuses participate in the fall 2027 entry cycle: UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Santa Cruz. UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC San Diego do not offer TAG. For students transferring from a community college to UC, TAG is the main way to secure a destination early. This page is based on the official TAG matrix dated June 9, 2026. For full transfer planning, see Community College Transfer Services.

GPA Thresholds and Excluded Majors at the Six Campuses

This section explains the GPA each TAG campus requires and which majors cannot use TAG. GPA here means the GPA in UC-transferable courses; the calculation is explained in How the Transfer GPA Is Calculated.

Campus	Minimum TAG GPA	GPA calculated through	Majors not eligible for TAG
UC Davis	Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Letters and Science 3.2; College of Engineering 3.5	End of summer 2026	Undeclared, business, computer science, data science; landscape architecture receives pre-major status only
UC Irvine	3.4	End of fall 2026	Art, business administration, dance, music, nursing, and all majors in the School of Information and Computer Sciences
UC Merced	School of Engineering 3.0; School of Natural Sciences 2.9; School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts 2.8, with psychology and public health at 3.0	End of summer 2026	All majors open
UC Riverside	College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences 2.8; College of Engineering 3.0; College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences 2.8; School of Business 2.8; School of Education and School of Public Policy 2.7	End of summer 2026	Art Studio
UC Santa Barbara	3.4; some majors have an additional prerequisite GPA	End of fall 2026	All majors in the College of Creative Studies and the College of Engineering; Dance BA and BFA, Music BM, and two theater tracks
UC Santa Cruz	3.0; some screening majors have an additional prerequisite GPA	End of summer 2026	All majors open

UC Riverside has several exceptions. Psychology and Theatre, Film, and Digital Production require 3.3. Computer science requires 3.6, while computer science with business applications and computer engineering require 3.3. Mechanical engineering requires 3.1, and data science requires 3.0. At UC Santa Barbara, the biology, chemistry and biochemistry, economics, mathematics, physics, and statistics and applied probability majors have additional prerequisite GPA requirements. For College of Letters and Science majors that have a pre-major at UC Santa Barbara, TAG guarantees pre-major status only.

Common Requirements for All Applicants

This section lists the TAG requirements shared by all six campuses, using fall 2027 entry as the example.

1. Complete 30 semester units or 45 quarter units by the time of TAG submission (end of summer 2026).
2. Complete at least 1 English composition course (UC-E) and 1 mathematics course (UC-M) by the end of fall 2026.
3. Complete the remainder of the 7-course pattern by the end of spring 2027.
4. Complete 60 semester units or 90 quarter units by the end of spring 2027.
5. Complete at least 30 semester units at a California community college, and spend the final regular term at a California community college.
6. Need no more than 19 units in the final regular term.
7. Have no more than 80 semester units or 120 quarter units of transferable credit in total.
8. Earn a C or higher in every course taken in fall, winter, and spring of the current academic year, and remain in good academic standing.
9. Submit the Transfer Academic Update (TAU) by January 31, 2027.

Students who already hold a bachelor’s or higher degree cannot apply for TAG. Students who previously attended UC and wish to return to the same campus are also ineligible. Students who left UC in poor academic standing, and students still enrolled in high school at the time of submission, are likewise ineligible.

Timeline from Submission to Enrollment

This section walks through the key TAG and UC application dates in chronological order. UC TAP refers to the UC Transfer Admission Planner, the system through which TAG is submitted.

Date	Step
September 1 to 30, 2026	Submit TAG through UC TAP
October 1 to November 30, 2026	Submit the UC application; the major applied to at the TAG campus must match the TAG major
November 15, 2026	UC Merced releases fall TAG decisions
End of fall 2026	Complete 1 UC-E and 1 UC-M course
January 31, 2027	Submit the TAU
End of spring 2027	Complete the 7-course pattern and 60 semester units

UC Davis, UC Merced, UC Riverside, and UC Santa Cruz pre-review TAG coursework. These four campuses recommend that students wait for their TAG decisions before submitting the UC application. UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara do not offer a coursework pre-review.

Spring TAG and Changes to UC Irvine Majors

This section covers two rules that are easy to overlook. In this cycle, only UC Merced accepts spring TAG; the filing period is May 1 to 31 each year, and decisions are released on July 1. Applicants for spring 2028 entry must complete the first UC-E course by the end of spring 2027. The second UC-E course must be completed by the end of summer 2027. The UC-M course and the remaining TAG requirements must be completed by the end of fall 2027.

Beginning with fall 2028 entry, UC Irvine will exclude an additional group of majors. The newly excluded majors include aerospace engineering, biological sciences, biology and education, business economics, cognitive sciences, and computer engineering. Ecology and evolutionary biology, economics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, psychology (BA and BS), and quantitative economics are also on the list. Students who enter a community college in fall 2026 and transfer after two years usually apply in this cycle, so they need to consider this when choosing a major.

How TAG Relates to the Regular Application, and Common Misconceptions

This section clarifies where TAG fits in the overall community college to UC application. Transfer students can apply to UC without TAG by submitting during the regular filing period. UC data show that about two-thirds of admitted transfer students did not have a TAG. UC states that TAG is nonbinding, and an admitted student can choose a different campus. Pathways+ is a UC program that combines transfer pathway coursework with TAG; see How to Use ASSIST for details.

Common misconceptions include the following:

• Focusing only on GPATAG also sets a unit cap, a limit on final-term units, and course completion deadlines.
• Relaxing after submissionAny course below a C in the current academic year makes the student ineligible for TAG.
• Assuming every major is eligibleIrvine, Santa Barbara, and other campuses have clearly excluded majors.
• Expecting a guarantee at the most selective campusesUC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC San Diego do not participate in TAG; students aiming for UCLA can look into the UCLA Transfer Alliance Program (TAP).