Students transferring to California State Universities have the option of completing the California State University General Education-Breadth (CSU GE-B) pattern to meet lower-division general education requirements. Students admitted to a CSU campus with full certification may not be held to any additional lower-division general education requirements. Upon transfer to a CSU campus, students must take nine units of upper-division general education courses.
The Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) provides an option for students to fulfill lower-division general education requirements before transferring to either a CSU or a UC campus. Students transferring to a CSU campus may choose to use the CSU GE-B pattern in lieu of IGETC, as all of the IGETC coursework is embedded in the CSU GE-B pattern.
Students may use certain Advanced Placement (AP) examinations with scores of 3 or higher to meet areas of CSU GE-B and IGETC. Certain International Baccalaureate (IB) examinations with scores of 4 or higher may be used toward CSU GE-B and scores of 5 or higher to meet areas of IGETC.
International coursework cannot not be used to meet CSU GE-B and/or IGETC requirements. Although international courses may be accepted by four-year universities, evaluation of such courses is determined independently by each transfer institution.
The California Community College CSU GE-B and IGETC courses are approved annually for the academic year. If a course is taken before it is approved or after it is removed, it cannot be used to satisfy CSU or UC transfer general education. The CSU GE-B and IGETC course lists for all California Community Colleges are available at www.assist.org.
Students must request that a CSU General Education Certification or an IGETC Certification be sent to the transfer institution along with the final Sierra College transcript.
Students pursuing majors with extensive lower-division unit requirements, such as Engineering, are advised to focus on completing the pre-major requirements while meeting minimum admission requirements. See a counselor for more information on either of these transfer general education certification programs.