<p>Applying to UCSD Bioengineering. Which is impacted, if I'm not mistaken.</p>
<p>Major: UCSD Bioengineering, intended pre-pharm
From: Grossmont Community
Overall GPA: 3.8
- received two B's, one in microeconomics and one in general chemistry, both freshman year.
-everything else, A's</p>
<p>Extra Curric: Volunteer at UCSD Hospital in the Pharmacy, Certified Pharmacy Technician and working (not at the same place where i vol.), Part of Honors Club (Phi Theta Kappa) and Medical Club</p>
<p>Extra Notes:
-carried an average 13 credit per semester workload
-finished general chem, calc 1-3, working on multi vari, and finished physics
-have letter of rec from chem professor</p>
<p>If you need anymore info, just ask away! Thanks again. Truly appreciate it.</p>
<p>I did not apply as a Bioeng. Major last year, but I was accepted to one of SD’s impacted major with a 3.8 (Close to 3.9) last year. Based on what you listed, I think your chances are pretty good given u had well written personal statements. Best of luck</p>
<p>I decided to go UCLA instead. Loving it there but I think SD is a great place to be if u make it there. I used to work with some ppl who went to SD for EE, and they were pretty well off financially.</p>
<p>That’s great to hear. Best of luck to you in LA by the way.</p>
<p>If I may inquire, what were your grades in classes prior to being accepted? Or specifically, what grade and class brought you down to that 3.8? Was it in the beginning of your college years, or the in the middle, or toward the end? I’d like to see the trend you had.</p>
<p>Also - any advice for applying as a transfer? Thanks.</p>
<p>Thanks for the wishes. While I won’t get into the details of the classes that attributed to the 3.8 I carried when transferring (Mostly b/c I too lazy to pull up my transcript and this is a public forum), I will say that they were from my first year as a freshman in CC.</p>
<p>In terms of advice, these are the general things I learned and somewhat knew after finishing my first quarter as a transfer student to the UC. I’m sure you’ll hear at least one of them next year when you attend the transfer students orientation to whichever university you decide to attend (Some of which, I believe, you should already know since those As in your transcript didn’t come by accident):</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Take 9 units in your first quarter even if you were a rock star at CC, so you’ll smoothly transition from semester to the quarter system. </p></li>
<li><p>If you were capable of earning good grades while you were in CC, you’ll do just fine at a UC as long as you continue to push yourself and stay disciplined with the reading assignments. </p></li>
<li><p>Not sure if this would be considered as an advice or a general reflection from my personal exp: I actually found midterms to be more stressful than finals since all 3 of the classes I’ve taken this past quarter had only two exams that amount to the final grade for the course. Knowing this, I went into the midterm “cold”…Not knowing what to expect and with the knowledge that a 4.0 quarter may not be reachable if I didn’t ace them. The pressure was quite stressful so just be prepared. Finals were not so bad since I had a good idea what the professors were looking for going in. I am not saying this to psyche you out, but I just felt a bit like fish out of water when I first learned that the calculations for the course grades were so cut and dry w/2 exams and all. </p></li>
<li><p>Just a Personal advice: Believe in the fact that, as long as you do your due diligence, you will earn good grades. Honestly, I never overstress myself with the details as to how the grades are calculated or what I will need to earn on the finals to come out with an A. I mean, I have a fair estimate in my mind, but I don’t ever seek this information unless I felt that the final grade was way off than my prediction. This belief has helped me mentally with all of the classes I’ve taken so far since returning to school at ripe young age of 28 :)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>wow, thank you so much. truly, this is really encouraging and motivating.
your intro about getting that 3.8 due to freshman year, really relieves me, but also reminds me that i gotta get my a’s!</p>
<p>your advice really helps a lot. each one, really, is great insight, but number 4 really speaks out. thanks man. i’m in the same boat when it comes to stressing, so having that mentality in my pocket will really help.</p>
<p>another question though (haha, sorry), what advice do you have PRIOR to getting into the university; such as my work ethic at cc, the things i should do at cc, the resources, application methods, little advice. thanks again!</p>
<p>Going bioengineering for pre-pharm is pretty risky. Are you sure you want to go through with it? All pharmacy school care is your GPA regardless of your major. So are you willing to go through the whole bioengineering major just for pharmacy school, when you could easily go through another major and carry that GPA with you?</p>
<p>random tip:
Take speech and anatomy at ur CC because most UC’s don’t offer those courses and they are pre-reqs for many pharm schools.</p>
<p>ok, let’s see…Umm, if you have already applied, there is not much to do at this point other than wait patiently and maintain a decent grade for the Spring semester. However, if you are a year away from applying, I also don’t think there is much for me to offer other than the usual: Maintain/Boost your GPA, review target school’s admittance GPA from the previous year to see how you stack against last year’s applicants and do some extra curricular while not letting them affect your grades. </p>
<p>I guess the only thing that is flexible in terms of differentiating yourself against others in the entire application would be the personal statement, so I would spend some efforts on making it unique and address each of the prompts properly. I had my counselor, transfer adviser and a Political Science professor review my earlier drafts prior on submitting it. I thought about using professional companies to make sure it was as perfect as it could be. But, in the end, I was pretty happy with what I had, so I decided to save the $ and spend it come time for graduate school application. </p>
<p>With regards to GPA being the sole determining factor for pharmacy schools, I am not sure on this since my goal isn’t to become a pharmacist, but I believe most schools take the holistic approach when reviewing applications for most graduate/professional schools. Specifically, I think admission officers would take in consideration on the classes one has taken in addition to the GPA itself.</p>
Thanks.</p>