The transfer acceptance deadline was two days away and Owen Richards had all but given up on his first choice, The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He had already been accepted at another music education program with a saxophone studio, and he was just beginning to give up his dream of becoming a Bruin.
Then, the acceptance letter came.
“It was crazy,” said Richards. “I was overjoyed. I couldn’t believe I had gotten in.”
For transfer applicants like Richards, acceptance to UCLA marks an important milestone in their educational career. But transfer students also bring singular energy to the school of music, enriching the intellectual and artistic life of the entire school.
“Transfer students bring a wealth of experience and fresh perspectives to our classrooms and ensembles,” said Eileen Strempel, inaugural dean. “We’re committed to ensuring they feel fully integrated—academically, artistically, and socially—from the moment they arrive through graduation.”
The number of transfer student applicants has steadily increased since the school of music was formally established as UCLA’s 12th professional school by the UC Regents in 2016. Recruiting and retaining transfer students has been a priority, reflected
both in recruitment and internal policies. To support this commitment, the school of music has finalized articulation agreements with three local community colleges: Pasadena City College, Los Angeles Community College and Santa Monica College.
“The articulation agreements have helped enormously,” said Adam Fox, director of student affairs. “They help streamline transfer paths by specifying course requirements and ensuring that credits transfer smoothly.”
Transfer students follow the same application process as first-year undergraduates, completing both the general UCLA application and a supplemental application for the school of music. Auditions and interviews (for certain majors) occur simultaneously with first-year applicants. Transfer applicants typically learn of their status by May 1, and have until June 1 to make their decisions. The path for transfers is diverse, although some patterns hold. Transfer students, most often, transfer after two years at community college. Over half come from community colleges in the larger Los Angeles metropolitan
region and, currently, the single biggest “feeder” school is Santa Monica College.
Nonetheless, individual transfer student paths vary widely.
“I took time after finishing Santa Barbara Community College to teach and to gig around before applying to transfer into four-year universities,” said Richards. “It helped me confirm that I really did want to teach and gave me valuable experience playing.”
For Daisy Faragher, an ethnomusicology student, the transfer path was different. She took courses at Los Angeles Community College, but prior to that she matriculated at UC Berkeley. Faragher, who graduated from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, was admitted to UCLA after high school, but chose to leave for the Bay Area. She was undeclared, studying language and literature. She didn’t take any music classes, but bought an alto saxophone for $200 at a San Francisco pawn shop and taught herself to play in her apartment.
Faragher left Berkeley and returned to LA, where she worked for several years before eventually enrolling in a jazz improvisation class at Los Angeles Community College. “It was the only music class I had ever taken at that point in my life.” She applied to transfer into ethnomusicology, combining her love of world cultures and music. Ethnomusicology also offered her the ability to study musical traditions not normally represented in collegiate curricula.
Adjusting to the transfer experience can differ by major and by student. Sydney Owens transferred from El Camino College, where she studied classical piano. Her passion, however, was jazz, and she had taken jazz saxophone lessons alongside classical piano. For Owens, the global jazz studies major appealed for its wide breadth and the proximity of great artists teaching multiple combos and ensembles. Nonetheless, the transition was challenging.
“As a transfer student, you arrive in the middle,” said Owens. “The students have all been there for two years, they know each other already when you arrive, and it can be hard to get in that bubble.”
These challenges have been offset by the educational experiences and intellectual exploration offered at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. “UCLA is a unique place to study jazz,” said Owens. Notwithstanding jazz’s roots in the African American experience, its global reach and hold are front and center in a program that also connects jazz with other global music traditions. “Going into the Music of India room, taking my shoes off and sitting down to listen and understand the sitar—it was an unforgettable experience. You experience glimpses of musical traditions that teach you new kinds of scales, new sounds, that end up in your own compositions.”
For Owen Richards, who entered as a music education student and is a member of the saxophone studio the social transition was easy. The saxophone studio is made up of students of all ages, from first years and transfers to graduate students. Quarterly recitals and group activities keep students close and collaborative. Still, the academic demands were significant. Due to the compressed timeline for graduation (two years), music education transfer students are required to take two sets of methods courses–meant to be taken in sequence–simultaneously.
“It’s a lot,” said Richards. “But I knew going in that this is what I wanted to do, and I’m passionate about it. And the music education cohort has an amazing culture of support.”
Daisy Faragher also praised the breadth of her education. UCLA offered opportunities for her to work in multiple traditions, to continue her studies in Iranian music, to participate as a vocalist in Dr. Diane White-Clayton’s African American music ensemble and to explore her own compositions.
For her senior capstone project (which she described as a “crazy ambitious” project), she is recording an album’s worth of original music that will be accompanied by animation and film. Her multi-media project defies ordinary genres and explores both her academic and creative voices.
“[Daisy Faragher] stands out as a powerful example of what it means to embrace new cultures,” said Shahab Paranj, lecturer at the school of music and Gramian-Emrani Postdoctoral Fellow. “She is not Iranian, but she has boldly chosen to learn the Persian language and study Persian singing and is also one of the most important members of the Iranian Ensemble.”
Faragher, Owens and Richards all graduate in June 2025, marking yet another milestone in their education. Their perspectives, along with those of other graduating transfer students, have helped The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music build deeper relationships with area community colleges while offering an affordable educational pathway. As an essential part of the school’s strategic vision and central to UCLA’s mission as a public university, transfer students are at the heart of the school’s enrollment strategy.