ASSIST is best used in combination with seeing a counselor on your campus. It is intended to help students and counselors work together to establish an appropriate path toward transferring from a public California community college to a public California university.
FAQs from Students
1. I can’t find my college/university on ASSIST. How do I figure out if my courses transfer?
ASSIST’s mission is to support undergraduate student transfer in California by providing official articulation information for students and those who serve them. The ASSIST website (assist.org) includes course transfer and articulation information for public institutions in California and participating institutions affiliated with the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU). The ASSIST website does not include course transfer and articulation information for out-of-state institutions, all other independent or private institutions, and graduate programs. We recommend you contact the admissions department of the specific university of interest with out-of-state institutions, independent/private institutions, or graduate program transfer questions.
2. How do I transfer my courses/credits to my current school?
Each college and university manages the process of transferring courses/credits. We recommend you check your school’s admissions website or contact them directly for information on how to transfer your courses/credits
3. I found a course on ASSIST that I want to take. How do I register?
Each college and university manages course schedules and registration. We recommend checking the institution’s website for information about course registration.
4. Some institutions have only published department agreements. What is the difference between a department agreement and a major agreement?
Articulation agreements are formal agreements between two institutions that define how courses completed at one institution may satisfy requirements at another institution.
Department and prefix agreements are the simplest course-to-course agreements on ASSIST. They display how courses at one institution are articulated to courses at another, organized by course department or prefix. These agreements are helpful when users have a specific university course of interest.
Major agreements display specific course requirements for a particular major and community college courses that can be used to satisfy those program requirements. Major agreements may also include specific advisories and/or admissions requirement information.
Articulation officers and data managers may begin publishing agreements for a new academic year, beginning with the simplest type - department and prefix agreements - before transitioning to major or general education/breadth agreements. Viewing agreements “by major” is the system default, but when a major agreement is unavailable, viewing agreements “by department” displays instead.
5. What does "no course articulated" mean in the agreements between institutions?
This is the default setting for when a university course does not have an established articulation with the community college you are viewing. The reason why articulation is not established may vary. Consult your campus counselor or the institution’s ASSIST data manager with specific questions. Contact information for each institution on assist.org can be found on the ASSIST Resource Center Contact page.
6. I need help completing my application/supplemental application.
Providing advice beyond technical support and instruction for using the ASSIST website is outside our area of expertise. If you need help using ASSIST to determine if your courses are transferable or fulfill requirements, we recommend watching a tutorial on the ASSIST Resource Center website.
We recommend contacting the university directly if you need help completing your application.
California State University (CSU)
University of California (UC)
Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU)
- Varies by institution. Contact each institution directly.
- For institutitional contact information, visit the AICCU Our College webpage: https://aiccu.edu/page/ourcolleges
Other FAQs
7. When does the upcoming academic year begin to display on ASSIST?
ASSIST releases the upcoming academic year in spring/summer to make available updated general education transferability lists based on completing the most recent review cycle. The UC Transfer Course Agreement (UC TCA) and UC Transfer Admission Eligibility Course Lists will become available at the end of October upon completion of the UCOP summer review and October appeal cycle.
8. Will I find articulation agreements for every academic year?
The availability of new articulation agreements historically begins the summer before the academic year and varies by institution. Each university is responsible for updating and publishing agreements. Many factors may affect the process, including the availability of updated community college curriculum, campus articulation resources, and approach to publishing. Additionally, participating AICCU-affiliated institutions began building articulation agreements in the system during the summer of 2024. Creating and publishing these agreements will take time and impact their availability. Given the varying approaches, there are important considerations when evaluating the availability of articulation agreements. Many campuses begin by publishing the less complex department and prefix agreements.
- The default system behavior is to display major agreements first. If no major agreements are available, the system will gray out that option as not available and display any available department agreements. Please note, departmental articulation agreements should not be relied upon for major related information.
- A help menu option identified with a question mark is available to explain the differences between major, department, prefix and general education/breadth agreements. The question mark is located near the "View Agreements by:" header.
If you have questions related to articulation agreement availability or specific information contained in an articulation agreement, please contact the college or university directly.
9. How do 2023-2024 articulation agreements differ from agreements in prior academic years?
New design features include:
- HTML agreement availability (on-demand display versus a static PDF document)
- Increased consistency and formatting across institutions
- Bolder colors, modernized design, and color differentiation among features
- Group numbers and section letters to clarify the contents and structure of agreements
- Improved and expanded conjunction display options
- Additional options to include instructions that help when reading agreements
For more information regarding the variations in display of articulation agreements visit the Articulation Modernization Project flyer. The flier details the applicable academic years for each iteration of assist.org articulation agreements.
10. Is there a tutorial available for the ASSIST public website that I can share with others on my campus?
Yes, please review the ASSIST Overview available on the ASSIST Resource Center website.
11. Are footnotes and comments still included on the transferability lists?
Footnotes and comments previously included on the CSU GE, CSU AI, and IGETC transferability lists in the legacy system were phased out. In most cases, the footnotes or comments that previously appeared on these lists ended prior to the 2017-2018 academic year. If additional footnotes or comments are available, a link is provided within the text at the top of the list. Footnotes continue to appear on the UC Transferable Courses list (the UC TCA).
12. Have any changes been made to the display of the UC Transferable Courses list (the UCTCA)?
The “#” symbol denoting something new or changed is not currently appearing on UC Transferable Course lists. It will appear as a feature on this list with a future public website release.
13. Whom should I contact if I have questions?
Please email help@assist.org with any questions about the ASSIST website. The ASSIST team will provide assistance or direct your inquiry to the appropriate party for response. If you have questions about a specific agreement, please contact your campus counselor or the institution's ASSIST Manager. You may also provide public website feedback using the feedback form located on the public website Support page.
14. How often is information on the ASSIST public site updated?
Transferability list updates are based on institution curriculum change timelines and system office course review cycles. Any changes made are displayed on assist.org immediately after publication. However, the display of course or transferability changes are subject to the availability of an academic year on assist.org and publication rules regarding adjustments made in the middle of the academic year (winter, spring, and summer terms). Articulation agreement updates are displayed immediately after publication, subject to the availability of an academic year on assist.org as well as curriculum cycles and CSU, UC, and AICCU particpating instituions' articulation processes.
No updates are made to legacy ASSIST transferability list and articulation agreement PDFs for academic years prior to and including 2016-2017. The PDFs of those lists and agreements were produced in the legacy ASSIST system and no further changes are taking place in that system.
15. When will extracts and web services containing course transferability information become available?
The ASSIST technology project timeline is based on a phased approach to key deliverables, including ASSIST data access via extract files, reports, and web services. Please see the Statement on ASSIST Data Requests document for more information.
16. Where is the "Explore Majors" feature?
Although we were not able to include an Explore Majors feature in the first phase of the ASSIST release, we absolutely understand the importance of the feature, clearly reinforced by the feedback we have received from counselors, transfer center directors, and students. Thanks to a creative partnership with Los Medanos College, an alternative exploring majors tool known as the Transfer Major Explorer (https://www.transferbound.com/) is available. The tool was built using information from the legacy ASSIST Explore Majors application and makes available a core exploring majors search feature. Students, counselors and others can select an Area of Study, a related Discipline, see which CSU and UC institutions offer the major selected, and click a link to visit a particular associated CSU or UC website for further information. It is important to note that some information contained on the website may be out of date and updates are being provided over time by CSU and UC articulation officers. A link to the Los Medanos tool is located on the ASSIST public website in the grey “Important Notes from ASSIST” information panel as shown in the screenshot below.
In terms of developing a new ASSIST Explore Majors application, ASSIST has convened intersegmental groups comprised of representatives from various areas of the CCC, CSU and UC systems, including counselors and transfer center directors, who used the legacy ASSIST Explore Majors application and provided focus group-type feedback. The input received helped ASSIST identify how a variety of users interacted with that application, the most critical components, and where improvements might be made in the future in order to prioritize development of a new Explore Majors tool. Until development work can begin, ASSIST will continue its partnership with Los Medanos College to host the alternative tool.
17. Where can I find C-ID course related information?
The C-ID website is the primary source for all C-ID related resources. C-ID course related information can be accessed on the C-ID Courses page.