General Education and Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC)

The Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) is a series of courses prospective transfer students attending California community colleges may complete at the community college to satisfy the lower-division breadth/general education requirements at both the University of California and the California State University.

Students have the option of completing IGETC (as described in the chart below) or the specific lower-division breadth/general education requirements of the school or college at the campus they plan to attend. IGETC must be completed prior to transfer.

The University has an agreement with each California community college that specifies which of its courses may be applied to each category of IGETC. All courses must be completed with a grade of C or better. Courses are listed on the ASSIST website.

IGETC is most helpful to students who want to keep their options open — those who know they want to transfer but have not yet decided upon a particular institution, campus or major. Certain students, however, will not be well served by following IGETC. Students who intend to transfer into majors that require extensive lower-division preparation, such as engineering or the physical and natural sciences, should concentrate on completing the many prerequisites for the major that the college screens for to determine eligibility for admission. (See IGETC Considerations section below.)

IGETC is not an admission requirement. Completing it does not guarantee admission to the campus or program of choice. However, completing the lower-division breadth/general education requirements — whether through IGETC or the campus-specific requirements — may be considered by the campus in selecting among qualified applicants.

Students who do not complete IGETC before transferring will be required to satisfy the specific lower-division general education/breadth requirements of the UC college or school they attend.

* Students intending to transfer to CSU are required to take an additional course in oral communication and do not need to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English.

GPA Requirement

IGETC courses must be completed with a grade of C or better. A grade of Credit or Pass may be used if the community college’s policy states that it is equivalent to a grade of C or better.

Use of AP Exams

IGETC course credit may be earned for scores of 3, 4 or 5 on Advanced Placement (AP) exams that the community college faculty recognize as equivalent to its IGETC-approved courses. An acceptable score on an English AP exam may be used to meet the English Composition requirement, not the Critical Thinking/English Composition requirement.

Proficiency in a Language Other Than English

Students may demonstrate proficiency for the purpose of fulfilling the Language Other Than English IGETC requirement in one of the following ways:

• Complete two years of high school coursework in one language other than English with a grade of C or better.
• Complete a course or courses at a college or university with a grade of C or better in each course. Any course (excluding conversation courses) considered by the college or university to be equivalent to two years of high school language may be used. Many college catalogs list the prerequisite for the second course in a language as: Language 1 at this college, or two years of high school language. In this case Language 1 clears both years of the requirement.
• Achieve a satisfactory score on  the SAT Subject Test in languages other than English. If the test was taken before May 1995, the first score is the minimum; if the test was taken after May 1995, use the second score.

  Chinese With Listening: not offered before 1995/520
  French/French With Listening: 500/540
  German/German With Listening: 500/510
  Hebrew (Modern): 500/470
  Italian: 500/520
  Japanese With Listening: 500/510
  Korean/Korean With Listening: not offered before 1995/500
  Latin: 500/530
  Spanish/Spanish With Listening: 500/520

• Achieve a score of 3, 4 or 5 on a College Board Advanced Placement (AP) Examination in a language other than English.
• Achieve a score of 5 or higher on an International Baccalaureate (IB) Higher Level Examination in a language other than English.
• Satisfactorily complete a proficiency test administered by a community college, university or other college in a language other than English. The test must assess the student proficiency at a level equivalent to at least two years of high school language.
• Complete, with grades of C or better, two years of formal schooling at the sixth-grade level or higher in an institution where the language of instruction is not English. If secondary school was completed in a non-English-speaking country and the language of instruction of the secondary school was not English, language other than English proficiency can be certified for IGETC without further evaluation. The student must present appropriate documentation of attendance at the secondary school.
• Earn a passing grade on the international A level or O level exam in a language other than English.
• If an appropriate achievement test is not available to assert proficiency, have competency verified by a faculty member associated with a California community college. Such verification requires that the college provide a document on letterhead asserting that the student's proficiency in the language is equivalent to two years of high school study.

If an appropriate acheivement test is not available to assert a student's proficiency in a language other than English, a faculty member associated with a California community college can verify comptency. The college must provide a document on letterhead asserting that the student proficiency in the language is equivalent to two years of high school study.

IGETC Course Agreements

A single community college course may be listed on the IGETC Course Agreement under more than one subject area; however, it may be used only once to satisfy one IGETC subject area. The University will allow students to use the same course to count toward IGETC as well as major requirements.

Certification

Certification of IGETC completion is the responsibility of the last community college a student attends prior to transfer.

IGETC Considerations

Students with a substantial amount of coursework from institutions outside the United States should consult with a community college counselor to determine whether they should complete IGETC or the lower-division breadth/general education requirements at the campus they plan to attend.

In addition, some colleges or majors prefer that transfer students follow a more prescribed lower-division curriculum, as described here:

• Berkeley: IGETC is acceptable for all majors in the College of Letters and Science, and it is highly recommended. The Haas School of Business and the Colleges of Engineering, Environmental Design and Chemistry have extensive, prescribed major prerequisites. In general, IGETC is not appropriate preparation for majors in these colleges. Although IGETC satisfies breadth requirements for most majors in the College of Natural Resources, specific lower division major requirements must still be satisfied; check with the college or visit the ASSIST website for more information.
• Davis: Anyone preparing for a bachelor of science degree is advised not to pursue IGETC, and instead to concentrate on major-specific preparatory work.
• Irvine: All schools accept IGETC. However, selection by the campus is based on demonstrated academic achievement and preparation for the intended major.
• Los Angeles: The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science does not accept IGETC.
• Merced: The School of Engineering and the School of Natural Sciences do not recommend IGETC.
• Riverside: The Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering and the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences do not accept IGETC, although any courses taken to satisfy IGETC may be applied toward the college’s breadth pattern. The College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences accepts IGETC.
• San Diego: IGETC is accepted by John Muir, Earl Warren, Sixth and Thurgood Marshall Colleges only. Students completing IGETC are welcomed at Eleanor Roosevelt and Revelle Colleges; however, they must fulfill the specific general education requirements of those colleges. At UCSD, all majors are available to students in each college, so students who choose IGETC will not be restricted in their choice of major as a result.
• Santa Barbara: Transfers into the College of Letters and Science and the College of Creative Studies may use IGETC to substitute for general education requirements. Transfers into the College of Engineering may also use IGETC to substitute for general education requirements. In addition to general education, all students in the College of Engineering are required to complete a depth requirement. Students who wish to satisfy the depth requirement prior to transfer must complete a yearlong sequence in the history of world civilization, history of Western civilization, history of the United States, history of Western philosophy or history of Western art. Students may want to choose courses for IGETC that will concurrently satisfy the depth requirement. Students may also complete the depth requirement with upper division coursework after transferring. Note that students planning to transfer into a major in engineering, computer science or the biological or physical sciences must be careful to complete lower division major prerequisites to ensure competitiveness and make normal, timely progress through the major.
• Santa Cruz: IGETC is not appropriate preparation for any major in the Jack Baskin School of Engineering or the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences. This is because IGETC does not provide students with enough mathematics and science courses to complete their majors in two years after transferring.

IGETC Course Lists Online | IGETC course lists for all California community colleges are available at the ASSIST website.