UCLA Transfer Alliance Program (TAP):Priority and Certification

Families of community college students who plan to transfer to UCLA often hear the name TAP. The UCLA Transfer Alliance Program (TAP) is a partnership between UCLA and the honors programs of selected California community colleges. Students who complete the honors program at a member college and receive certification get priority consideration when applying to majors in the UCLA College. TAP is not an admission guarantee; UCLA states in its official FAQ that no GPA guarantees admission.

Majors Covered by TAP

This section explains the scope of TAP priority consideration and the alternate major review available only to TAP students.

• Priority considerationAll majors in the UCLA College (The College).
• Priority considerationThree majors: Public Health, Public Affairs, and Education and Social Transformation.
• Alternate major reviewIf a certified student is not admitted to the first-choice major, UCLA reviews the student’s alternate major.
• Schools that do not participateThe schools of Engineering, Arts and Architecture, Music, Nursing, and Theater, Film and Television.

UCLA states that non-TAP applicants are not reviewed for an alternate major. The alternate major must be listed on the UC application. To add or change it after submission, the student must contact UCLA by January 31. A total of 15 majors, including Biology, Psychology, Political Science, Communication, and Pre-Economics, cannot be chosen as an alternate major.

Member Community Colleges

The official UCLA list currently includes 56 member community colleges. Only students who complete the honors program requirements at one of these colleges can receive certification. The table below groups the colleges by region according to the cities on the official list.

Region	Member community colleges
Orange County	Irvine Valley College, Saddleback College, Orange Coast College, Santa Ana College, Santiago Canyon College, Fullerton College, Cypress College
Los Angeles County	Santa Monica College, Pasadena City College, El Camino College, Glendale Community College, Long Beach City College, Mt. San Antonio College, Cerritos College, Citrus College, Rio Hondo College, East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles Harbor College, Los Angeles Mission College, Los Angeles Pierce College, Los Angeles Southwest College, Los Angeles Valley College, West Los Angeles College, College of the Canyons, Antelope Valley College
Inland Empire	Chaffey College, Crafton Hills College, Moreno Valley College, Mt. San Jacinto College, Norco College, Riverside City College, San Bernardino Valley College
San Diego County	San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego Miramar College, MiraCosta College
Central Coast and Ventura County	Santa Barbara City College, Moorpark College, Cabrillo College
San Francisco Bay Area	De Anza College, Foothill College, Mission College, West Valley College, College of San Mateo, Cañada College, Skyline College, City College of San Francisco, Las Positas College, Los Medanos College
Sacramento Area	American River College, Cosumnes River College, Sacramento City College
Central Valley and Other	Clovis College, Reedley College, Cerro Coso College

How to Join an Honors Program and Receive Certification

This section explains the three certification steps, the new two-year enrollment rule, and the timeline. UCLA specifies that a student must complete all three of the following to be certified.

• Submit the UC applicationSubmit during the filing period and select UCLA as a campus.
• Sign the agreementComplete the TAP Applicant Agreement Form.
• Complete the honors programMeet all requirements of the community college’s honors program; the program director then submits the certification.

Beginning in May 2026, students transferring after one year are not eligible for TAP certification. A one-year transfer is defined by time: the student has attended college for only one year after high school graduation, regardless of the number of units completed. A student planning to enter UCLA in fall 2027 must have attended college for at least two years by the end of spring 2027.

The timeline for the previous application cycle, as published on the TAP website, was as follows. The UC application filing period ran from October 1 to November 30. The TAP Applicant Agreement submission period ran from December 3 to March 6, 2026. Certification information entered the UCLA admission system at the end of March, and admission decisions were released at the end of April. Dates for the new cycle are subject to updates on tap.ucla.edu, and some community colleges set earlier internal deadlines.

Each community college sets its own honors program requirements. Irvine Valley College (IVC), for example, publishes the following standards on its website.

Item	IVC published requirement
UC transferable GPA	At least 3.5 for TAP certification; at least 3.25 to complete the honors program itself
Honors course GPA	At least 3.25
Honors course units	At least 15 semester units, with at least 9 units completed by the end of the fall semester before transfer
Honors courses from other colleges	No more than 6 units
Honors courses taken during high school dual enrollment	No more than 6 units
Grading	All honors courses must be taken for a letter grade, not P/NP
Coursework at IVC	At least 30 UC transferable units completed at IVC by the end of the spring semester before transfer

IVC recommends that students plan courses with an honors program counselor in their first year and complete English and mathematics early. Transfer GPA calculation is explained in How the Transfer GPA Is Calculated.

How TAP Differs from TAG

The Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) is offered by six UC campuses, and UCLA is not one of them. A student can prepare for both at the same time, but they are different in nature.

Comparison	UCLA TAP	TAG
Nature	Priority consideration; admission not guaranteed	Admission guaranteed when all conditions are met
Participating campuses	UCLA only	UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz
How to participate	Complete the honors program at a member community college and receive certification	Submit online from September 1 to 30, 2026
Majors covered	UCLA College majors and three designated majors	Each campus lists excluded majors separately
Time in college	At least two years in college after high school graduation	30 semester units completed at the time of submission

The two names are easily confused. UC TAP is the UC Transfer Admission Planner, the system through which TAG is submitted. UCLA TAP is the Transfer Alliance Program; the two are not the same. Full TAG requirements are described in the Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG).

UCLA Fall 2025 Admission Data by Community College

For fall 2025, UCLA received 28,288 transfer applications and admitted 6,466 students, an admission rate of 23%. Of admitted transfer students, 93% came from California community colleges. For fall 2026, UCLA received 30,668 transfer applications and admitted 6,796 students, an admission rate of 22.2%. The table below shows fall 2025 data for several TAP member colleges.

Community college	Applicants	Admission rate	Admit GPA (25th to 75th percentile)
Santa Monica College	1,859	34%	3.74 to 4.00
Pasadena City College	1,366	30%	3.78 to 4.00
De Anza College	1,126	22%	3.84 to 4.00
Irvine Valley College	1,026	31%	3.76 to 4.00
Orange Coast College	592	22%	3.81 to 4.00
Saddleback College	516	28%	3.68 to 4.00
Foothill College	452	28%	3.82 to 3.98

UCLA states that the colleges in this table are counted by the institution most recently attended at the time of application. The data include both TAP and non-TAP students; the page does not report a separate admission rate for TAP students.