Single Most Important Factor When Ranking UCSD Colleges

Confused about the college system at UCSD? You are not alone! Each of the colleges has its own theme, general education requirements, traditions, and student body. How do you make order out of chaos? Focus on the general education requirements because that directly affect the number and the type of courses you have to complete at UCSD (and, to some extent, the flexibility you have to take other courses you may be interested in)!

Keep in mind that you may not get your first (or second, or third) choice, so make sure you rank ALL colleges in descending order of preference.


UCSD Freshman General Education Requirements

You may find an explanation for the colleges here. I also recommend looking at the requirements of each college for specific course information (follow the college links below).

Applying as a FRESHMAN applicant and prefer a shortcut? Purchase a side-by-side comparison chart of all eight colleges here for $15 (remain on the payment page after you pay and you will be redirected to the PDF – please note, purchase of a digital product is NONREFUNDABLE) that will show you the number of math/science courses (seems to be the deciding factor between STEM and non-STEM students), as well as the total number of general education courses, required at each the colleges.


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UCSD Transfer General Education Requirements

UCSD has reaffirmed at the UC Ensuring Transfer Success conference (9/6/2023) that the new Eighth College will welcome its first transfer class in Fall 2025 (although Eighth College appears in the Fall 2024 UC Application for transfer applicants).

All colleges require you to complete additional general education requirements after you transfer to UCSD. I recommend looking at the general education policy for each college (follow the college links below) to figure out the required coursework in addition to IGETC (there is also information for students without IGETC).

Applying as a TRANSFER applicant and prefer a shortcut? Purchase my resource guide here for $15 (remain on the payment page after you pay and you will be redirected to the PDF – please note, purchase of a digital product is NONREFUNDABLE) that will show you the number of additional general education courses required at each college.


Know someone who can benefit from this information? Share the page with family and friends using a button below!

Help support this blog by making a contribution by credit card (processed through Stripe) or through Zelle (to ) today! Any amount is greatly appreciated!

2 Comments

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Courtneyreply
September 30, 2023 at 9:11 am

Hello! Thank you so much for this information on UCSD colleges! How do the individual UCSD colleges handle credits earned as an International Baccalaureate Diploma student? How does this affect the general education requirements? Thank you so much for your input!

Ms. Sunreply
September 30, 2023 at 10:41 am
– In reply to: Courtney

Thanks for pointing that out! I added the link into the “Additional Resources” section of the PDF (if you have the PDF link, just visit it and refresh your browser to load the new version). You can also find the UCSD IB credit chart here.

Questions or Comments?