Research · UC admissions · October 2026
UC transfer admit rates at all nine campuses, Fall 2026 and Fall 2025
As of October 2026: For Fall 2026, UC transfer admit rates run from 20.0% at Berkeley and 22.2% at UCLA up to 79.5% at Merced, 70.4% at Riverside and 67.7% at Santa Cruz. Systemwide, UC offered admission to 32,360 of 46,476 transfer applicants, and 91% of those admits came from a California community college.
The table holds all nine undergraduate campuses for Fall 2026 and Fall 2025. These are offers of admission, not students who enrolled.
Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com), October 2026. Figures and the table may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.
The findings, in plain English
Berkeley and UCLA are the two hard doors. Berkeley admitted 5,248 of 26,216 transfer applicants for Fall 2026, a 20.0% rate. UCLA admitted 6,796 of 30,645, a 22.2% rate. Those two campuses drew the most transfer applications in the system and admitted the smallest share of them.
Five campuses admitted more than half of their transfer applicants. For Fall 2026 the rate was 79.5% at Merced, 70.4% at Riverside, 67.7% at Santa Cruz, 61.6% at Santa Barbara and 58.2% at Davis. San Diego sat at 47.4% and Irvine at 36.4%. The same student can meet a wall at one campus and a wide door at another.
Almost every UC transfer admit comes from a California community college. UC reports that 91% of its Fall 2026 transfer admits came from a California community college, about 29,400 students, which it calls an all-time high. By campus the share runs from 89% at San Diego to 97% at Merced and Santa Cruz. A transfer plan at UC is mostly a community college plan.
UC transfer applicants, admits and admit rate by campus
Fall 2026 first, then Fall 2025, in the same campus order.
| Campus | Term | Applicants | Admits | Admit rate | From a CA community college |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berkeley | fall 2026 | 26,216 | 5,248 | 20.0% | 93% |
| Los Angeles | fall 2026 | 30,645 | 6,796 | 22.2% | 92% |
| Irvine | fall 2026 | 27,038 | 9,839 | 36.4% | 96% |
| San Diego | fall 2026 | 26,314 | 12,473 | 47.4% | 89% |
| Davis | fall 2026 | 17,421 | 10,138 | 58.2% | 93% |
| Santa Barbara | fall 2026 | 18,866 | 11,620 | 61.6% | 92% |
| Santa Cruz | fall 2026 | 13,501 | 9,141 | 67.7% | 97% |
| Riverside | fall 2026 | 14,753 | 10,382 | 70.4% | 96% |
| Merced | fall 2026 | 6,401 | 5,089 | 79.5% | 97% |
| Berkeley | fall 2025 | 23,313 | 5,603 | 24.0% | 92% |
| Los Angeles | fall 2025 | 28,239 | 6,403 | 22.7% | 92% |
| Irvine | fall 2025 | 25,436 | 10,011 | 39.4% | 95% |
| San Diego | fall 2025 | 23,422 | 12,355 | 52.8% | 90% |
| Davis | fall 2025 | 17,173 | 9,776 | 56.9% | 94% |
| Santa Barbara | fall 2025 | 18,818 | 11,089 | 58.9% | 92% |
| Santa Cruz | fall 2025 | 11,595 | 8,852 | 76.3% | 96% |
| Riverside | fall 2025 | 12,326 | 9,351 | 75.9% | 94% |
| Merced | fall 2025 | 3,696 | 3,730 | 100.9% | 95% |
Transfer applicants and admits at the nine UC undergraduate campuses, from UC's own preliminary admissions tables for Fall 2025 and Fall 2026. The admit rate is admits divided by applicants. Admits are offers of admission, not enrolled students, and a student admitted at several campuses counts at each one. The Merced Fall 2025 rate sits above its applicant pool because UC counted applications in January and admission offers in June of that year; the row is printed as UC published it and its rate should not be read as a rate. The last column is the share of that campus's transfer admits who came from a California community college. San Francisco is not listed because it enrolls no undergraduates.
How to read these rates
Each rate here is admits divided by applicants at that campus for that term. UC publishes the two counts and does not publish the rate. The counts are preliminary, taken while the cycle was still moving, so read them as the shape of a cycle rather than a final figure.
One row needs a warning. Merced's Fall 2025 line shows more admits than applicants, because UC counted the applications in January and the admission offers in June. The two columns describe different moments, so that rate is a reporting artifact. We print the row because UC published it, and we do not use it.
An offer is also not a seat taken. Many transfer students hold offers at more than one campus, so the admit counts across the table are larger than the number of people behind them.
Fall 2026 was tighter where it was already tight
Berkeley fell from 24.0% to 20.0%, Irvine from 39.4% to 36.4% and San Diego from 52.8% to 47.4%. Applications rose at all three. Riverside slipped from 75.9% to 70.4% and Santa Cruz from 76.3% to 67.7%, and both still admitted most of the students who applied.
Systemwide the direction was the other way. UC admitted 31,014 of 44,666 transfer applicants for Fall 2025 and 32,360 of 46,476 for Fall 2026, so the pool grew and the number of offers grew with it. Davis rose from 56.9% to 58.2% and Santa Barbara from 58.9% to 61.6%.
What a family should do with this
Plan the transfer around a list of campuses rather than one. The spread in the table is the point: the same record can meet 20.0% at Berkeley and 70.4% at Riverside in the same year.
Finish the community college coursework UC asks for, and finish it on time. Six campuses offer a Transfer Admission Guarantee to students who meet its terms, and they are Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz.
Treat Berkeley and UCLA as reach campuses even with a strong record, and give the application list a campus where the rate is high. A student who applies only to the two hardest doors has a thin plan.
Questions parents ask
What is the UC transfer admit rate?
Systemwide, UC offered admission to 32,360 of 46,476 transfer applicants, and 91% of those admits came from a California community college.
Which UC campus is the hardest to transfer into?
Berkeley admitted 5,248 of 26,216 transfer applicants for Fall 2026, a 20.0% rate.
Do most UC transfer students come from community college?
UC reports that 91% of its Fall 2026 transfer admits came from a California community college, about 29,400 students, which it calls an all-time high.
Method & sources: The counts are UC's own preliminary admissions tables for Fall 2025 and Fall 2026, covering transfer applicants and transfer admits at the nine undergraduate campuses. Each admit rate was computed from UCOP's own applicant and admit counts for that campus and term, because UC publishes the counts and not the rate; the applicant table and the admit table are released at different points in the cycle, which is why Merced's Fall 2025 row reads above its applicant pool and is not usable. Admits are offers of admission, not enrolled students, and San Francisco is excluded because it enrolls no undergraduates. Rows are grouped by term and then ordered by the Fall 2026 admit rate, lowest first, so each campus sits in the same place in both halves of the table.
- Fact Sheet: Fall 2025 First-Year and Transfer Admissions (narrative)
- Fall 2025 UC Undergraduate Preliminary Admissions Summary, Table 1a (admits by campus)
- Fall 2025 UC Undergraduate Preliminary Applications, Table 1a (applicants by campus)
- Fact Sheet: Fall 2026 First-Year and Transfer Admissions (narrative + data tables, admits by campus)
- Fall 2026 UC Undergraduate Preliminary Applications, Table 1a (applicants by campus)
- UC Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG)
This brief as data: /research/transfer-admit-rates-uc.json. Free for editorial use with attribution to Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach).
Related: CSU transfer admit rates by major · UCLA · UC admit rate by GPA