You may be able to receive UCSC course credit for a course taken at a college or university that's not part of the California Community College system, but you'll need to provide detailed documentation about the course. (The UC campuses and California Community Colleges have extensive articulation agreements—they've already shared and reviewed the relevant information about common courses—so you don't need to provide that information for courses listed in ASSIST.)
This approach can also apply to community college courses that don't appear in ASSIST, but the odds of approval are lower—math departments within these systems typically complete the articulation process for their eligible lower division courses, so if a course isn't listed, there may be a good reason why it isn't. No harm in asking, though.
If you're considering taking a non-UCSC. non-articulated course, you should obtain the following information about the course before you enroll:
• catalog course description (essential)
• syllabus (essential)
• textbook information: title, author(s), edition, table of contents (very helpful)
• samples of old exams or homework (great if you can get them, but may be difficult to obtain).
Email this information to the mathematics undergraduate adviser, allowing at least two weeks for review.
Syllabi
The word "syllabus" means different things to different instructors. Information about the instructor's policies regarding classroom etiquette, late homework, etc. won't help us determine whether or not the content of your prospective course is sufficiently close to that of a UCSC math course. We need to know which topics are covered in the course and approximately how much time is spent on each topic. Some instructors provide this information in a lecture schedule.
Send the secret decoder ring
If you can obtain a syllabus, lecture schedule, or homework schedule, but the schedule shows only the numbers of the sections in the text, not the names of the topics, be sure to provide us with the table of contents of the text. It's not helpful to know that Section 7.4 will be covered in the third week of the course unless we also know what mathematics is covered in Section 7.4!
Calculus courses
Many colleges and universities offer multiple versions of calculus, so please include the course descriptions of any other calculus courses or sequences offered by the college, as well as the description of the course you're considering taking. The additional information will help us match the course you're interested in to the corresponding UCSC course (if any).
When you're searching for a non-UCSC calculus course, it's a good idea to look up the other college's requirements for your (intended) major. That should help you decide which calculus course is most likely to match the UCSC course you need. Please send that information along with the rest!
GIYF
Course syllabi can often be found by searching for the course name, course number, and the name of the college or university. Try to find recent examples; if it's more than a few years old, we probably won't accept it.
If you can't find syllabi for the course by searching online, contact the Math Department of the college or university where you're considering taking the course. If they won't help you, take your business elsewhere.
Textbook publishers provide detailed information about their books, including the table of contents, on their websites. Many popular texts are also sold on Amazon, which will typically also provide the table of contents.
After you've completed your course
Submit the information requested above, plus your unofficial transcript, to the mathematics undergraduate adviser,
The review can take one to two weeks, so make sure you leave enough time to make enrollment decisions. We will contact you when it has been reviewed.