Community College to UC Merced:Admission Rate and TAG

Transferring from a community college to UC Merced means choosing the campus with the highest transfer admission rate among the nine UC undergraduate campuses. The official UC page shows that UC Merced received 6,635 transfer applications for Fall 2026 and admitted 5,089 students. Calculated from these counts, the admission rate is 76.7%. The same page lists an admission rate of 67.5%, which does not match the counts; this page uses the rate calculated from the counts. Of the admitted transfer students, 96.6% came from California Community Colleges. UC Merced is on the semester system, opens TAG to all majors, and also offers a spring TAG, which makes it well suited as a safety campus.

Transfer Admission Data

This section explains how many transfer students UC Merced admits each year and how to read the admission rate data.

Item	Fall 2026
Transfer applicants	6,635
Admits	5,089
Admission rate (calculated from counts)	76.7%
Admission rate (listed on the official page)	67.5%
Share of admits from California Community Colleges	96.6%

The University of California describes these figures as an admissions snapshot and cautions parents not to use them to predict an individual student’s chances of admission. The official UC page for Fall 2026 does not publish a GPA range for admitted transfer students, and the UC Merced admissions office does not publish one either.

The UC Merced admissions office states that transfer students must complete 60 semester units (90 quarter units) with a transferable GPA of at least 2.40, or at least 2.80 for nonresidents. Courses graded Pass/No Pass may count for a maximum of 14 semester units. The admissions office explains that the main selection criteria are completion of the UC transfer requirements and the prerequisite courses for the intended major, and that an upward grade trend is also considered. The GPA calculation method is explained in How the Transfer GPA Is Calculated.

Selective Majors and Prerequisites

This section explains which courses each UC Merced major requires before transfer.

All majors in the three UC Merced schools, the School of Engineering, the School of Natural Sciences, and the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, have lower-division prerequisite requirements. Students must complete these courses to be considered for admission. Prerequisite courses require a grade of C or higher. The table below is based on the UC Merced admissions office major prerequisite requirements for Fall 2027 and lists the requirements for applicants who have completed 60 or more units.

Major	Courses to complete before transfer (UC Merced course numbers)	Notes
Computer Science (B.S.)	CSE 015, 022, 030, 031; MATH 021, 022, 024	2.40 transferable GPA
Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, and other engineering majors	CHEM 002 with lab; MATH 021, 022, 023; PHYS 008 with lab	The School of Engineering does not recommend completing Cal-GETC or IGETC
Biological Sciences (B.S.)	BIO 011, 012 with labs; CHEM 002, 010 with labs; MATH 011 or 021; MATH 012 or 022	2.40 transferable GPA
Economics (B.A.)	ECON 001; MATH 011 or 021	2.40 transferable GPA
Management and Business Economics (B.S.)	ECON 001; MATH 011 or 021	2.40 transferable GPA
Business Administration (B.A.)	ECON 001, 005, 006A, 010; 1 course from MATH 005, 008, or 011	2.8 cumulative GPA
Psychology (B.A.)	PSY 001, PSY 010	Screening courses are temporarily not required for the Fall 2025 through Fall 2027 application cycles

These are all UC Merced course numbers; the equivalent community college courses must be looked up in ASSIST, the official course articulation system for California public colleges and universities. Psychology falls under a pilot arrangement of the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. The school provides that, for the Fall 2025 through Fall 2027 application cycles, transfer applicants to some majors can be admitted without completing major screening courses. The 2.40 in the table is the minimum GPA for California residents; for nonresidents it is 2.80.

UC Merced also offers two campus-specific admission pathways:

• Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) guaranteed admissionStudents entering in Fall 2027 through Fall 2029 who complete an approved ADT and apply to the same major are guaranteed admission and can also receive a $4,000 scholarship each year for up to two years. Approved majors include Biological Sciences (B.A. and B.S.), Anthropology, Liberal Studies (elementary education emphasis), History, Political Science, and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies.
• Early Transfer OpportunityStudents who have completed fewer than 60 units and who were already UC-eligible in high school can apply for early transfer according to their unit range.

TAG

This section explains the thresholds of the UC Merced fall and spring transfer admission guarantees.

The Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) is an admission guarantee that six UC campuses offer to California community college students. TAG at UC Merced is open to all majors and, when all conditions are met, also guarantees the major. For the Fall 2027 entry cycle, the GPA must be reached by the end of the Summer 2026 term:

School	Minimum TAG GPA
School of Engineering	3.0
School of Natural Sciences	2.9
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts	2.8; 3.0 for Psychology and Public Health

Other key points of TAG are as follows:

• At the time of submission, the student must be enrolled full time at a California community college and have completed at least 30 UC-transferable units; part-time students must explain the reason in the application.
• Fall TAG is submitted between September 1 and 30, with results released on November 15.
• Spring TAG is submitted between May 1 and 31; Spring 2028 TAG results are released on July 1.
• UC Merced pre-reviews the courses, and students are advised to submit the UC application after receiving the TAG result.
• The Public Health major requires Cal-GETC (California General Education Transfer Curriculum) or IGETC certification; other majors do not.
• TAG for the Computer Science and Engineering major requires a grade of B or higher in CSE 022.

The course milestones for Spring 2028 TAG differ: the first English composition course (UC-E) must be completed by the end of Spring 2027 and the second by the end of Summer 2027. The mathematics course (UC-M) and other conditions must be completed by the end of Fall 2027. The full TAG rules are explained in TAG: Transfer Admission Guarantee.

Application Timeline and Materials

This section lists the fall and spring application dates for transferring to UC Merced.

Entry term	TAG submission	UC application
Fall 2027	September 1 to 30, 2026	October 1 to November 30, 2026
Spring 2028	May 1 to 31, 2027	July 1 to 31, 2027

Fall applicants must complete the UC English and mathematics requirements by the end of the spring term before enrollment. Spring applicants must complete these two requirements by the end of the fall term before enrollment. Both groups of applicants must complete 60 transferable units by the end of the term before enrollment (excluding summer). The overall arrangements for spring entry are explained in Spring Entry.

The UC Merced admissions office also notes three points. Applicants must report all courses taken at every institution attended. Any gap after high school graduation must be listed in the application with its start and end month and year. Grades from international coursework should be entered on the original grading scale without self-conversion.

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