To be considered for admission to the computer science: game design major, incoming transfer students should complete CSE 16, MATH 19A and MATH 19B, and CSE 30, as well as one of the following courses:
CSE 13E
CSE 13S
CSE 12 & CSE 12L
A GPA of 2.8 must be obtained in these courses.
Transfer students entering UCSC in Fall 2021 or earlier may use MATH 19A and MATH 19B; and CSE 14, CSE 15, and CSE 16 as their qualification courses. A GPA of 2.8 must be obtained in these courses.
Transfer students should have completed as many general education requirements as possible. If transfer students are admitted for the winter quarter of their junior year, they must have completed ARTG 80G and ARTG 80H before coming to UCSC.
Transfer students should also have completed the equivalents of all but one course from CSE 20, AM 10 or MATH 21, CSE 13E or CSE 13S and CSE 12 & CSE 12L, as well as all general education requirements if they wish to graduate in two years.
To the extent possible, it is recommended that transfer students take the equivalents of additional major required courses beyond the core programming, computer systems, and mathematics courses. If students have access to courses that develop a foundation in building and understanding games and other forms of interactive media, these are valuable to take—and in some cases may be substituted for CMPM 80K: Foundations of Video Game Design once they enter the program. Transfer students who are planning a course substitution for CMPM 80K should refer to the School of Engineering portion of the catalog (subheading Course Substitutions).
Transfer students may declare the major at any time after coming to UCSC by following the steps in 'How to Declare a Major.'
Please note that most major courses have a strong theoretical component to prepare the student for designing, as opposed to simply using, technical and game systems. Often, courses taken at other institutions which emphasize applications of current programming languages and authoring tools do not count toward the major at UCSC. For specifics on the BSOE's transfer student policies, please see Baskin Engineering's Transfer Students website.