All incoming students will receive a placement into UC Irvine writing courses. UC Irvine writing faculty will be placing students into courses during summer.

In order for students to receive their writing placements before they attend their academic advising session during summer orientation, students must do the following:

• Complete the Writing Course Placement Portfolio 
• Submit their scores, if they have them, from tests such as AP English Language, AP English Literature, AP Research, or AP Seminar; the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT); American College Testing (ACT); and/or the International Baccalaureate (IB). 
• These scores, if available, should be submitted to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions by July 1, 2024. If scores are not available by July 1, students should submit them as soon as possible after that date.

The writing placement process takes into consideration all relevant information from students’ records. Providing the scores requested will assist greatly in placing students in writing courses best suited to foster their academic success.

All incoming students will be notified of their placements or whether further steps must be taken to determine placement.

The initial writing placement process does not review outside writing/composition coursework at another institution.

Students who have self-reported college credit for writing have been notified to inform their advisor during orientation to determine how their course credit may impact their writing placement.

In general, these students are in one of two situations:

• • The student has no placement scores, and their portfolio submission will serve as their placement. They could still place higher based on writing college credit.
  • The student has been placed based on scores, but may achieve a higher placement based on their writing college credit.

Students with eligible college credit for writing requirements at UCI will be reviewed in one or both of the following ways:

For out-of-state course and UC course review, ELWR credit is reviewed by Admissions, and LDW credit is reviewed by Writing Placement. See petition links above.  

California Community College courses that meet IGETC Area 1A are eligible for Entry Level Writing (this would be cleared by Admissions).  Courses that meet IGETC Area 1B should be eligible for Lower Division Writing (UCI GE 1A) credit.  Please note that IGETC Area 1C does *not* meet this requirement. Consult ASSIST for IGETC equivalency. 

Per the catalogue, “for the purpose of counting courses for the UCI GE requirement, one semester course is equivalent to one quarter course, and two semester courses are equivalent to three quarter courses.” As a general rule for writing requirements, one transfer semester course (IGETC 1A) is equivalent to Entry Level Writing (WR 40) at UCI, and two transfer semester courses (IGETC 1A+1B) are equivalent to Entry Level Writing plus both Lower Division Writing courses (WR 50 and 60) at UCI.  See diagram below.

Students who have completed enough transfer credits to clear all LDW courses (ELWR plus UCI GE 1A), will need a CPEP entered for “Lower Division Writing – Prerequisite Satisfied”.  This CPEP clears the student for Upper-Division Writing (UDW).  These would also need to have their DegreeWorks updated to clear GE 1A (WR50 + WR60).