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 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, community college to community college transfer, 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 institution, non-AICCU participating California independent/private institution, 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. I am interested in transferring to an AICCU participating institution. Which general education transferable course lists apply to AICCU general education and admissions requirements?
The general education transferable course lists are specific to transfer from a CCC to a CSU or UC. Some AICCU institutions choose to make General Education agreements available or embed general education information within major articulation agreements; however, it is not a requirement to do so, and may not be appropriate for all AICCU institutions. Contact the AICCU campus directly with questions regarding admissions and general education requirements. Contact information for each institution on assist.org can be found on the ASSIST Resource Center Contact page.
5. Some institutions only have department agreements available. 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 type of agreements on ASSIST and display course-to-course, series-to-course, course-to-series, and series-to-series articulation. They display how courses at one institution articulate 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 and university requirements for a major and the 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 choose to 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 no major agreements are available, viewing agreements “by department” displays instead.
6. What does "no course articulated" mean in the agreements between institutions?
This is the default setting for when a university course does not have established articulation with the community college you are viewing. Reasons why articulation is not established will 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.
7. 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 the ASSIST Overview 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
8. How can I compare articulation agreements between two different receiving institutions?
The Agreement Comparison tool, available for all types of articulation agreements, enhances the user experience by providing the user the option to compare articulation agreements. It provides the ability to view a side-by-side comparison of any two articulation agreements that exist on assist.org within the same display. An overview of the tool, along with a tutorial, is available if you have any questions about using this new system functionality.
9. Why aren’t “Formerly” notations displayed to identify prior versions of courses in the new Cal-GETC for UC and CSU transferability lists, like they are in the IGETC lists?
The 2025-2026 Cal-GETC for UC and CSU transferability (Cal-GETC) lists do not display “formerly” notations to identify a previous version of a course. To produce the “formerly” notations, transferability lists compare the current academic year's list to the prior academic year's list. Since there are no Cal-GETC lists before 2025-2026, it is not possible to compare courses featured on the lists to a prior version.
“Formerly” notations will begin to display on the Cal-GETC lists beginning with the 2026-2027 academic year and will only include “formerly” notations that reference previous versions of courses for the 2025-2026 academic year and forward.
10. When does the upcoming academic year begin to display on ASSIST?
ASSIST releases the upcoming academic year in late spring/early summer to make available new articulation agreements and updated general education and transferable course lists. The general education and transferable course lists are updated based on the most recent review cycle, which is completed at varying dates each academic year. The list of approved CSU AI and Cal-GETC courses is dynamic and will continue to be updated into the summer until the current review cycle is completed. 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.
11. 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 approaches to publishing. Additionally, Cohort 1 AICCU-affiliated institutions began building articulation agreements in the system during the summer of 2024, and Cohort 2 AICCU-affiliated institutions began building agreements during the summer of 2025. 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 that 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.
12. How do 2023-2024 articulation agreements differ from agreements in prior academic years?
The data management application used to build articulation agreements was modernized to include these new design features:
- 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.
13. 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. Another tutorial worth viewing and/or sharing is the ASSIST Agreement Comparison Tool tutorial that provides instructions on how to use this new tool for searching and comparing articulation agreements.
14. 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 before 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).
15. 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.
16. Whom should I contact if I have questions?
Please email help@assist.org with any questions about the ASSIST website. The ASSIST team will assist 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.
17. 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 before 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.
18. 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 review the information provided on the Data tab within the ASSIST Resource Center for more information.
19. 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 other site users 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 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.
20. 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.