The first three mistakes are all in your academic history, so it makes sense to fix them in one sitting with your transcripts open.

1. Entering Grades From Memory

It’s tempting to fill in the academic history from what you remember: Calc 1 was a B+, English was an A. But memory is less reliable than students think, especially across three or four semesters and sometimes more than one college. A grade off by a step, a course listed under the wrong term or a unit value that doesn’t match the catalog all make your record look less accurate than it is.

Pull up your unofficial transcript from every college you’ve attended and enter each course exactly as it appears there: course number, title, term, units and grade. It takes longer, but it’s the only way to know the record UC sees matches the one your college will send later.

2. Leaving Off College Classes You Took in High School

If you took community college classes through dual enrollment while you were in high school, those count as college coursework, and they belong on your transfer application. Students often leave them off because they think of them as part of high school, or because they took them at a different college and forgot.

Those units can count toward the 60 you need, and a course might already satisfy a requirement you’re planning to take again. Leaving them off can also create a mismatch when your official transcripts arrive. Check whether you have a transcript from any college you attended during high school, even for a single summer class, and add those courses.

3. Entering Unofficial Grades for Your Current Fall Classes

Your fall classes aren’t finished yet, so they don’t have grades yet. Some students enter the grade they currently have in Canvas or the one they expect to earn. Don’t.

Any course you’re still taking this fall should be marked as in progress (IP). When the term ends and your final grades post to your transcript, you’ll enter them through the Transfer Academic Update, which UC requires of every transfer applicant after they apply. The priority deadline for fall applicants is January 31. That’s the right place for final fall grades, and it keeps your application consistent with your official record.

4. Leaving Out Your Planned Spring Courses

Many students skip the planned coursework section because their spring schedule isn’t set. That’s understandable, but a blank section can cost you more than any other mistake on this list.

To transfer as a junior, you need at least 60 semester (90 quarter) units of UC-transferable credit by the end of the spring before you transfer. UC reviews your completed, in-progress and planned courses together to decide whether you’ll get there. If you’re counting on spring to reach 60 units but don’t list those classes, the application shows you falling short, and UC can only evaluate what you report.

Major preparation works the same way. Say you still need two required courses for your major and you plan to take them in spring. If they aren’t on the application, the campus has no way of knowing you’re on track to finish them. For majors that expect certain courses to be done before you transfer, that gap can be the difference between being considered and being turned away.

Enter your best plan based on your educational plan and what your college usually offers in spring. You’ll be able to confirm or adjust it in the Transfer Academic Update. A reasonable plan you update later is far better than an empty section.

5. Forgetting Your AP and IB Exams

Students tend to assume AP scores only matter for first-year applicants. For transfers, they can make a real difference.

UC grants units for AP scores of 3 or higher, and those units count toward the 60-unit minimum. Certain AP and IB exams can also satisfy parts of the seven-course pattern, the English, math and breadth courses every transfer applicant needs. Depending on the campus and major, some exams may even count for a major preparation course. A student who looks a few units short, or one breadth course short, may already be covered.

There are limits. Only one of the two required English courses can be met with an AP score, for example, and each campus decides how exams apply to major preparation. Find your score reports, enter every exam you passed, and check UC’s AP and IB credit charts to see what each one counts toward.

6. Leaving the Activities Section Blank

The activities and awards section doesn’t carry the weight for transfer applicants that it does for first-year applicants. Your coursework, GPA and major preparation come first. That doesn’t make it optional in practice.

It matters most if you’re applying to highly competitive majors, where a large share of applicants already have very strong GPAs. When grades are close across the pool, what you’ve done outside class helps show genuine interest in your field and readiness for it. Work, research, an internship, a club or project connected to your major, volunteering and family responsibilities all belong here. Use the description space to say what you did and what you were responsible for, not just your title.

7. Not Answering the Required PIQ

Every transfer applicant answers four personal insight questions, and one of them is required. It asks how you’ve prepared for your intended major, including your “readiness to succeed in your upper-division courses” once you enroll. You can read the full prompt on UC’s transfer PIQ page.

The most common problem is a response that answers a different question. It’s a story about how a childhood moment sparked a love of biology, or a description of a dream career. A line or two of that is fine for context, but the question is about preparation and readiness. A strong response shows the major preparation courses you’ve taken and what you can now do because of them, related work outside the classroom, how you handled something difficult, and why you’re ready for upper-division work.

A quick test: read each paragraph and ask whether it shows how you prepared for your major or why you’re ready for upper-division courses. If it doesn’t, cut it down or replace it. Our guide to UC transfer PIQs goes deeper on the required question and the other three.

8. Waiting Until Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, and the deadline is the following Monday. It’s easy to look at that weekend as four free days to finish. In practice, it fills up with travel and family, and the counselor or teacher you’d ask for a last look is probably away.

Deadline day itself is risky too. Huge numbers of applicants, both first-year and transfer, try to submit at the last minute. Heavy traffic can make the application site slow or hard to get into, and if something goes wrong that Monday night, you have no time left to fix it.

Here’s a schedule that fits the time you have:

• November 10 to 15: Check your academic history against your transcripts, add any college classes from high school, mark fall classes as in progress, enter your planned spring courses and add your AP and IB scores.
• November 16 to 20: Fill in your activities, finish your PIQs, read the whole application once more and submit by Friday, November 20.
• Thanksgiving week: Your backup window, not your plan.

For a longer week-by-week plan, see our UC transfer application timeline, and check UC’s dates and deadlines page for the official filing period.