Recently, the governor of California officially signed a new bill requiring the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to join the existing Transfer Guarantee Program (TAG) to increase the chances of students transferring to UCLA.
The main content of the bill requires UCLA to give priority to transfer students who have completed an associate's degree at a designated California community college for the 2026-2027 academic year. The bill also provides that transfer students who meet the admission criteria of the University of California will be given priority to receive admission to other UC campuses, even if they are not admitted to the TAG campus.
Everyone must have heard of the difficulty of applying to a state-level university, especially the UCLA University mentioned in the above bill, which has long been one of the universities with the largest number of applicants in the United States. You know, judging from the latest admission data released by UCLA, a total of about 150,000 applications were received this year, but only 12,844 people were admitted, and the acceptance rate was only 86%！
However, many people don't know that there is also an "official shortcut" to the University of California, which is to overtake in the corner of studying at a community college with a "tag agreement".
What istag protocol
TAG, which stands for Transfer Admission Guarantee, is an agreement guarantee for the transfer of a California community college to the University of California, and currently 6 of the University's 9 undergraduate campuses are participating in the program
University of California, Santa Barbara.
University of California, Irvine.
University of California, Davis.
University of California, Riverside.
University of California, Santa Cruz.
University of California, Merced.
To put it simply, TAG is a transfer admission guarantee between a local community college in California and the University of California, and applicants can choose one of the UC branches in TAG to apply for when transferring, as long as they meet the transfer requirements of the selected branch, they can be guaranteed admission.
This proposal not only includes UCLA in the TAG agreement, but also allows applicants to have the opportunity to attend other UC campuses even if they are not admitted to the institution selected by the TAG agreement. It is reported that it is expected that by 2028-2029, four more California universities will join the TAG agreement.
The purpose of this bill is also to further simplify the application process for community college transfer to UC universities, and gradually expand the transfer channel of UC departments. Transferring to a UC school through a community college is much less difficult than applying directly to a freshman application. This is undoubtedly good news for students who are currently studying or about to attend a community college in California, and it can be said to make subsequent transfers more clear and add a guarantee.