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Transfer students deserve to feel welcomed into the Bruin community.

In the 2022-2023 academic year, transfer students accounted for 23.9% of undergraduate students. With over 7,700 transfer Bruins this year, transfer students have always been and continue to be a substantial share of the UCLA population.

Transfer admit welcome weekends – a chance for newly admitted students to explore the campus and meet different people – encourage a greater number of students to accept their UCLA offers of admission. Yet, UCLA transfer programs only receive half the funding that the university provides to the first-year admit programs.

The severe underfunding goes against UCLA’s mission of building a community of fairness and only worsens the hardships that transfer students experience.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a high school student with a 4.0 GPA who, despite having no home Wi-Fi or functional laptop for weeks on end, earned admission to his dream school – UC San Diego. Here’s the catch: his single immigrant mother from El Salvador could not afford the tuition. With a $4,000 funding gap from his financial aid package, he was looking to attend community college instead.

In part because of costs, more than 10,000 of the state’s lowest-income students admitted into the UCs are also choosing alternatives. While completing the first two years of undergraduate schooling via a more affordable route is by no means an unfavorable path, it does indicate that the traditional trajectory toward graduating from a UC has become inaccessible to many.

As national income stays on the rise, college affordability becomes complicated, according to the LA Times. Many students, who still can’t fully afford college, are now ineligible to receive Pell Grants. On top of that, students are afraid of taking out loans because they aren’t sure they’ll be able to pay them back.

Students who may initially be unable to attend a UC might then look to transfer. However, compared to enrolling as a first-year student, transfer offers might be less appealing due to the lack of attention given to transfer students.

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a budget in January that would require UCLA to be a part of the transfer admission guarantee program as a condition to receive state funding, but the UC quickly countered with a proposal that could make getting in even harder.

The transfer admission guarantee would help demystify the admissions process to make it easier for students to move through an already complicated situation. However, if a transfer admission guarantee were to be provided, it would be imperative for UCLA to provide more funding to its transfer programs. Because as it stands, transfer students who might benefit from this change would just have a lackluster experience transitioning to UCLA.

Steps are being taken to ease the financial burden that may cause some students to look for a more affordable path than pursuing a UC education. The UC Board of Regents put aside 45% of its revenue for financial aid, which adds $16 million to the UC’s need-based aid program. UC President Michael Drake also started a “debt-free path” program with the aim of providing enough work-study opportunities and grants to cover college costs without needing loans. This program is going to be slowly phased in with the goal of being provided to all undergraduates by 2030.

Most recently, UCLA announced its own UCLA Affordability Initiative. Set to start in 2024, the initiative will allocate a $15 million donation to fund up to 35 in-state students with about $20,000 in scholarships each over four years.

While these programs are meant to help more students afford a UC education, they will take some time to be fully implemented and have a large enough impact. A program like the UCLA Affordability Initiative also relies on the generosity of wealthy donors, something that is not guaranteed in the long run.

Financial aid needs to become structurally accessible and ultimately granted to prospective college students in need. No qualified student should be forced to derail their post-high school plans in the name of an administration’s failure to institute an effective, all-encompassing financial aid system.

Until then, UCLA must continue to provide better resources and greater funding for transfer programs to stay true to the university’s values of diversity and inclusivity.