UC application for fall 2027: deadline, PIQs, fees and tests

One application for nine campuses

UC has its own application, which UC’s September 2025 slides for school counsellors describe as distinct from the Common App. If you’re also applying to colleges through the Common App, your UC application is a separate one.

One application covers all nine UC campuses. In it you choose which campuses you’re applying to and the majors you’re interested in, and UC encourages you to apply to more than one campus. Submit only one application per term: sending more than one delays processing, and UC cancels duplicates.

Each campus decides on its own. UC says all the campuses consider your application at the same time but independently, and none of them knows how the same application is doing at another campus.

Dates for fall 2027

These dates come from UC’s 2026–27 dates and deadlines page for first-year applicants:

UC gives the deadline as a date, Monday 30 November 2026, without a time of day, so don’t leave it until the last day. Most campuses don’t accept applications after the filing period.

Fees and fee waivers

• The application fee is $80 for each UC campus you choose, or $95 for each campus for international and non-immigrant applicants.
• International students already enrolled at a US institution may qualify for the $80 fee.
• You pay by credit card, and there’s an option to pay later.
• Fees aren’t refundable. Once you’ve submitted, you’re expected to pay for every campus you chose, even if you cancel your application later. UC says its fees are subject to change.

UC waives application fees for up to four campuses for qualified students who would otherwise be unable to apply. Its fee waiver programme is open to US citizens, permanent residents and certain other applicants that UC lists on its fees page, so most international applicants won’t qualify; check before you count on one. A waiver never covers more than four campuses, whether it comes from UC or elsewhere (UC gives College Board’s SAT waiver as an example), and a student using a waiver pays $80 for each choice beyond four.

The personal insight questions

The application asks personal insight questions (PIQs). There are eight, you answer any four, and each answer can be up to 350 words. UC says all the questions are equal and get equal consideration, so choose the ones most relevant to your experience and that best reflect your circumstances.

In UC’s order, the questions ask about:

1. an example of your leadership experience: how you positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time
2. your creative side, which might show in problem solving, original and innovative thinking, or artistically
3. your greatest talent or skill
4. how you took advantage of a significant educational opportunity, or worked to overcome an educational barrier
5. the most significant challenge you’ve faced, and the steps you’ve taken to overcome it
6. an academic subject that inspires you
7. what you’ve done to make your school or your community a better place
8. what you believe makes you a strong candidate for UC, beyond what you’ve already shared in your application

These are summaries, so read each question in full on UC’s personal insight questions page before you start. There is just one shared application, and UC’s admissions experts point out that if you want different majors at different campuses, you’ll need to think a little more about how you talk about your interests.

UC doesn’t accept changes to the personal insight questions or the activities and awards section once your application is submitted, so check both carefully before you send it.

Activities and awards

You can list up to 20 activities and awards. UC’s September 2026 slides for school counsellors allow up to 350 characters to describe each activity. Every entry goes into one of six categories:

• “Award or honor”
• “Educational preparation programs”
• “Extracurricular activity”
• “Other coursework”
• “Volunteering/Community service”
• “Work Experience”

UC says it’s looking for quality, not quantity, so focus on the activities and awards that matter most to you. There’s no magic number of extracurriculars UC is looking for.

Your academic record and letters of recommendation

You report your complete academic history yourself, in the application: the courses and grades from every school you attended in high school. Have your records in front of you rather than working from memory. If you studied outside the US, record every course and grade exactly as your school reported it.

Don’t send official transcripts when you apply. If you’re admitted, UC needs an official academic record sent directly from each institution you attended, starting with grade nine, and it checks what you reported against them. For fall 2027, final transcripts are due by Thursday 1 July 2027.

UC doesn’t require or read letters of recommendation when you apply, and you shouldn’t send any. Some campuses or majors may ask for them later as part of a supplemental review, so watch your email for a message from a campus.

English language tests

Whether you apply as a first-year or a transfer student, you must show proficiency in English. If you’ve done all your secondary schooling in a country where English isn’t the language of instruction, you can show it by taking one of these tests no later than December of your final year of secondary school and earning UC’s minimum score:

• The TOEFL minimum looks low because the iBT moved to a new scale in January 2026: 1 to 6, in half-point steps. Campuses can set a minimum above 4.5.
• UC doesn’t accept IELTS One Skill Retake or MyBest TOEFL.
• Report your scores yourself in the application. If you’re offered admission, send your scores only to the campus where you intend to enrol.
• If you’ve had some secondary schooling in the US, you may need to show English proficiency in a different way.

SAT and ACT

UC won’t consider SAT or ACT scores when making admission decisions or awarding scholarships. Scores may still be used as another way of meeting minimum eligibility requirements, or for course placement after you enrol, and UC’s guide to filling out the application says they can only be reported after you submit.

UC’s September 2026 slides for school counsellors say there’s no change to admission requirements for students applying for fall 2027.

If you’re in Iran or normally live there

On Monday 24 August 2026 the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control suspended several general licences allowing services related to Iran and individuals in Iran. UC says that because of this it can no longer file or process applications, accept application fees or tuition payments, or provide certain educational services to anyone currently in Iran, or outside Iran but ordinarily living there.