Students who transfer with 59 or fewer transferable semester units are considered lower-division transfer students.

Students who transfer with 60 or more transferable semester units are considered upper-division transfer students.

Lower Division Transfer Admission Requirements

Students are eligible if they:

1. Have a college GPA of 2.0 or better in all transferable units attempted.
2. Are in good standing at the last college or university attended.
3. Meet the admission requirements for a first-time freshman or have successfully completed necessary courses to make up the deficiencies they had in high school if they did not complete the 15-unit pattern of college preparatory subjects.
4. Meet the eligibility index (GPA and SAT/ACT scores) required for a freshman.
5. Some campuses may require the completion of English composition and general education mathematics.
6. Many campuses do not admit lower-division transfers.

To check the status of campuses that are currently accepting applications from lower-division transfer students, please  see the "Is your campus still accepting transfer applications" from the CSU Application Dates and Deadlines page. 

CSU Lower-Division Transfer Guidance

Upper Division Transfer Admission Requirements

Students are eligible for admission if they:

1. Have completed 60 or more units of CSU transferable coursework prior to admission (by the end of spring for fall entry and by the end of summer for spring entry).
2. Have a college GPA of 2.0 or better (2.4 for non-California residents) in all transferable coursework. GPA minimums and competitive GPA's vary by campus and major and are higher for impacted programs.
3. Are in good standing at the last college attended.
4. Have completed or will complete prior to transfer at least 30 semester units of courses equivalent to general education requirements with a grade of C or better in each course. The 30 units must include the general education requirements in communication in the English language (English composition, oral communication and critical thinking) and one course of at least three units in college-level mathematics.

CSU Upper-Division Transfer Guidance

Impacted Majors and Campuses

When the number of applications received by a CSU campus from qualified applicants is greater than the number of available spaces, a campus is considered “impacted” for undergraduate degree programs or for undergraduate students who apply from outside the local admission area.

In this case, an impacted campus is allowed to use additional criteria to screen applications.

Campuses without the impaction designation at the program or campus level are open to all CSU eligible applicants.

To find out whether a program is impacted, use the CSU Impaction Database to search by campus name and applicant level.

Associate Degree for Transfer

If students enroll in an Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) program at a California Community College (CCC), they can transfer to a CSU and graduate with only 120 units. There are two kinds of ADT programs: Associate in Art for Transfer (AA-T) and Associate in Science for Transfer (AS-T).

To graduate from the CSU with 120 units, students will need to choose a bachelor’s program that’s similar to the one in which they earned their associate’s degree at community college. To locate similar majors, use the Associate Degree for Transfer Major & Campus Search or A Degree With a Guarantee Find Colleges tool.