UC Merced launches transfer program for MJC, Columbia College students. How it works

Taylor Johnson
·2 min read
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The University of California Merced and Yosemite Community College District have partnered to create the Merced Promise Pathway Program. This will give students attending YCCD schools — about 30,000 students at Modesto Junior College and Columbia College — a streamlined pathway to transfer to the UC school beginning in October.

“In transferring into UC Merced, they would have already completed their first two years of undergraduate studies and can now focus on their last two years at UC Merced,” said YCCD Chancellor Henry C.V. Yong. “Due to UC Merced’s prime location, many will not even have to leave home to attend a UC institution. They will end up saving money on housing, which they could use for their graduate studies.”

For this program, UC Merced plans to attract and retain over 100 students within the Yosemite Community College District by 2025 and target incoming community college first-year students who applied to UC Merced as high school seniors but were not granted admission at that time.

The pathway also includes development of “an online program mapper, a clear, simple-to-use tool that will allow students to select a program of study and accelerate their progress toward completion,” a news release says.

In addition, the program outlines the development of a scholars program for Yosemite Community College District students and plans for UC Merced to offer financial scholarship packages to attend the university as part of the transfer pathway.

This is the third pathway program UC Merced has created with other community college districts. The other two agreements are with Fresno City College and Merced College. The UC school has been in negotiations with the Yosemite Community College District since January for this new program.

This is not the only agreement Modesto schools have with UC Merced.

Last September, Modesto City Schools signed a guaranteed-admissions agreement with UC Merced, allowing students in their junior year of high school to have a clear pathway to attend the university. Students who graduate high school with a weighted GPA of 3.5 and no grade lower than a “C” can be automatically admitted to UC Merced.

“In signing this agreement, we honor the original purpose that impelled the UC system to place its newest campus in the Central Valley — a vow to increase college-going rates among the valley’s population and a promise of progress and a better life,” UC Merced chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz said of the YCCD partnership.