
Welcome to Computer Science at Berkeley, New Transfer Students! Whether you are just beginning your transfer journey at community college or are in your first semester at UC Berkeley, we are here to help. Find resources and information below.
Welcome to Computer Science at Berkeley, New Transfer Students! Whether you are just beginning your transfer journey at community college or are in your first semester at UC Berkeley, we are here to help. Find resources and information below.
Admissions cycles from Fall 2023 onward:
Important Notice for Transfer Students admitted Fall 2023 only
Admissions cycles prior to Fall 2023:
We only use grades from UC Berkeley courses (CS 61A, 61B/BL, and 70) to declare CS. You can calculate your CS GPA using this CS Pre-Major GPA Calculator.
Use assist.org and choose the computer science major for a list of math and computer science classes available at your school. You should plan to take all the articulated classes that are offered at your school. Some transfer students choose to attend multiple community colleges in order to fulfill more requirements since it’s common for schools to not offer all our courses.
View this list of CA community colleges that usually offer classes equivalent to CS 61ABC.
1. It is very rare that we accept any course offered elsewhere as a substitute for CS 61A or 61C. We do not accept transfer credit for CS 70. Please read our detailed syllabi before asking for a course to be reviewed to satisfy these requirements. Here are some of the highlights:
61A: higher order functions, implement (not just use) objects with inheritance, declarative programming, write an interpreter for a programming language
61C: map-reduce project, optimizing memory-intensive parallel code, logic design of a MIPS processor
If you believe you have taken a course equivalent to UC Berkeley's CS 61A or 61C, please contact cs-advising@cs.berkeley.edu. You should send the syllabus and any additional information about the course. The advisors will coordinate with the faculty to review the course materials for equivalency. They may deem the course fully or partially equivalent.
2. On the other hand, courses equivalent to CS 61B are more likely to be offered at other institutions; if your course was called something like "Data Structures," we might accept it. Courses named after programming languages are rarely adequate. Here are some of the questions we'll ask about your course:
Did you implement (not just use from a library) a hash table?
Did you implement (not just use from a library) a balanced binary tree (e.g., red-black tree)?
Did you write a significant (several thousand line) programming project from scratch?
If you feel that you've taken a course equivalent to CS 61B, please send the course syllabus and any other course materials to cs-advising@cs.berkeley.edu.
Yes. If you see the text, “Articulation subject to the completion of a university course,” this means your class is not fully transferable; this is especially common for CS 61B articulations. Please contact us at cs-advising@cs.berkeley.edu so we can discuss whether a bridge course or taking the full course at UCB is best for you after you transfer.
We no longer offer any credit for the AP Computer Science exam. If you took this exam, you're prepared for our 61A course.
Please see the upper division requirements page for instructions.
Yes, see sample plans for examples. The more classes you have completed before you transfer, the more possible it will be for you to graduate in 2 years. You may want to consider taking a class during the summer before you start in the fall.
Yes, see sample plans for examples. Transfers are guaranteed four semesters (2 years), however, if you are under the unit limit during your 4th semester, you may request a 5th semester. Work with both a CS Advisor and L&S Advisor if you would like to request an extra semester.
You should assume that your first semester will be spent completing technical requirements that you were unable to take at your community college. Most students start out in CS61A. See sample plans for more examples.
Since admissions decisions for this major will be based on the technical prerequisites taken at Berkeley, it is important that you maximize your potential for doing well. We recommend that you take only 2 technical courses per semester.