Skip to content

Reciprocity

LETTER OF RECIPROCITY

University of California students who complete all lower division General Education (GE) requirements at one UC campus prior to transferring to another UC campus will be considered to have completed the GE requirements at the UC campus to which they transfer. This is commonly referred to as “GE reciprocity” between UC schools.

Students who have not completed the lower division GE at the time of transfer will be required to complete the GE requirements in effect and subject to the regulations of the UC campus to which they transfer (University of California Academic Senate Regulation 502).

UC MERCED LETTER OF RECIPROCITY

At UC Merced, you are eligible to request a GE Letter of Reciprocity from the Division of Undergraduate Education if you have already completed (passed) all of the following requirements:

Interim Reciprocity Guidelines for AY23-24 and AY24-25 are below.

University of California Requirements

  • Entry Level Writing Requirement
  • American History and Institutions Requirement

Campus General Education Requirements

  • Spark Seminar (SPRK 001: 3-4 units or SPRK 010: 2-4 units)
  • Written Communication (WRI 010: 4 units)
  • Quantitative Reasoning (one course: 4-5 units)
  • Language (second semester of college-level foreign language or equivalent)
  • Approaches to Knowledge (AtK) (One each of the Life, Physical, and Social Science and 1 of the 3 of the remaining AtK requirements)
    •  Literary and Textual Analysis
    •  Media and Visual Analysis
    •  Societies and Cultures of the Past
  •  Intellectual Experiences (3 of the 5 required)
    • Diversity and Identity
    • Ethics
    • Global Awareness
    • Scientific Methods
    • Sustainability 

If you have questions about your eligibility for a Letter of Reciprocity, please contact your academic advisor at UC Merced.

To request an official Letter of Reciprocity from UC Merced, complete this webform.

  • You must upload a PDF of your current UC Merced MyDegreePath audit when you submit the request.

  • The Letter of Reciprocity will be mailed within two weeks of a complete webform submission to the email or mailing address of the new UC campus that you provide on the webform.

For reciprocity guidelines for Catalog years before Fall 2023, please see here: reciprocity_catalog_years_2018-2022.pdf

NOTE: These interim guidelines are in effect for Letter of Reciprocity requests submitted on the UC Merced webform through 8/15/25.