<p>The person who started this thread seemed to believe that transfer students are mostly inferior to students who were accepted to the universities to which they matriculated straight out of high school. If you look through this thread, you'll find that it caused long and ridiculous arguments that went on for pages and pages. Needless to say, a lot of people in that thread view transfer students with utter contempt.</p>
<p>This worries me, and should worry all of you, because these people presumably go to the schools that we all want to transfer to or have already transferred to. It makes me wonder if the sentiments expressed in this thread are common throughout the UCs or not. Of course, I realize that these people are probably not representative of the students who attend the UCs, but it seems difficult for me to dismiss them entirely as an unimportant minority of students at these schools, especially since I haven't really experienced the social scene at any of the UCs.</p>
<p>For those of you who have already transferred to the UCs, did you find these attitudes common on campus? Uncommon? Somewhere in between?</p>
<p>And for those of you who have not yet begun classes at the UC to which you will or wish to transfer, I encourage you to skim through this thread that I've linked to. Some possibly legitimate points have been made by the more respectful posters in that thread about the perceived lack of rigor at some community colleges, which they believe allows some transfers to take "the easy way out" in gaining admission to the UCs. Do you agree? Disagree? Somewhere in the middle? I'm interested to hear your opinions.</p>
<p>One of the perks of being an older student is that I really don’t care what most people think of me. If someone chooses to be prejudiced in their thinking, that’s their issue, not mine. </p>
<p>I recognize the value of not caring about what other people think if their opinions are ignorant, as they are here, but I wonder if, in this context, it should matter, as it might impact the social experience of some transfer students like myself. I know you’ve said you’re not in school to make friends, and that’s fine, but the social experience is something I think I’ll value and I fear that my academic background will hinder that for me.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t really care. IMO, there’s a lack of rigor at pretty much every HS. We’re going to graduate with the same degree and will have saved a bunch of money. Winning… </p>
<p>Cayton, you strike me as the type of person who is kind and considerate and will have no problem making friends at UCLA. Will you find people who might judge your for being a transfer? Sure, probably, but you wouldn’t want to be friends with them anyway! 99% of the people, unless they ask or you tell them, probably won’t know the difference.</p>
<p>I think it mostly has to do with them feeling it’s unfair that we can do well in community college for 2 years and transfer to the school of our dreams, while they had to get straight As all through high school just to have a chance at the top UCs. It’s like a cheat code to them that they resent.</p>
<p>I know where you’re coming from @cayton which is why I prefaced my comment in regards to being older. Btw- while making friends isn’t my goal, I’m also not trying to be socially awkward in a corner either :-)</p>
<p>I think for you and other more traditional students, you still have to be able to not be too affected by ignorance. It will always be present no matter what you do or where you’ll go.</p>
<p>But think about it, even if every single continuing student thought transfers were scum, you still have the opportunity to make friends with other amazing transfers. Regardless of people who may look down on you for whatever reason, there will be way more who like and appreciate you for being exactly who you are.</p>
<p>Many of my friends are 1st years at UCLA, and I have seen and felt the stigma towards transfer students. I don’t think the vast majority of 4 year students at UCLA especially think that badly of transfers, because transfers make up 1/3rd of UCLA. A lot of 4 year students have tried telling me that UCLA is VERY VERY difficult, and will be quite an adjustment for me, and try to make it seem extra intimidating to scare me, i guess, lol. </p>
<p>I think one problem is that the perception of community colleges, in a freshman admit’s eyes is very low. They’ve never been to CC so they believe that it easier than high school. However this doesn’t take into the honors program, or various research on Assist.org and major pre-reqs that we have done in order to get where we are. </p>
<p>I don’t think many of us took the “easy way out”. Transfer students have their own struggles, and show a maturity beyond the elitist attitudes of many 4th years. Also, many transfers have commuted daily to get to school, enrolled in 2 or more community colleges to get classes in addition to working. Many transfers are also taking 18+ students, taking anywhere from 4-8 classes per semester. CC classes may be easier, but balancing that many courses counts for something. 4 year students overlook all these things when attacking transfer students. </p>
<p>Reading that thread was upsetting, but when I visited UCLA, people seemed friendly enough regardless of whether or not I was a transfer student. </p>
<p>And the people at UCLA were pretty friendly with me, too.</p>
<p>@music1990 </p>
<p>Yeah, they probably still cling to those stereotypes about community colleges being easy and being filled with dumb students who bumble their way into 4-year universities.</p>
<p>I feel like that attitude from four-year students towards transfers is very real at schools like Cal and UCLA. Not so much the other UC’s, in my opinion. </p>
<p>It’s interesting that the continuing comment is that transfers don’t have to take “weeder classes” and while that’s true, it doesn’t necessarily mean that a transfer is not as competent as a four-year student. What can we even say is “grossly subpar”? The thread is ridiculous but it’s kind of shocking to see many pages of hate against transfer students. </p>
<p>It doesn’t mean that all students are like that, as you said @Cayton. But I feel that it’s the lower-division students that carry this negative attitude. They graduate from high school being in the top of their class and expect to be around with the best at their university. When they find out about transfers coming in from community college, it’s no doubt they’ll feel transfers are inferior to them. </p>
<p>But who cares, right? It doesn’t even matter if you’re a four-year student or transfer. At the end of the day, we’re just all students at Cal or UCLA or wherever. </p>
<p>I hope they have. A lot more people have gone to community college in recent years for financial reasons and seem to find that they aren’t so bad as conventional wisdom would have you to believe. </p>
<p>@ocnative </p>
<p>There’s definitely an awful lot of hyper-competitive people at Cal/UCLA and many of these people applied to Ivy leagues, Stanford, MIT, etc., so they may be the ones most inclined to be disdainful of transfers. </p>
<p>But hey, UC officials have gone on record saying that transfer students are just as good as their 4-year counterparts , according to the studies, and seem to be harder-working because of their unique life experiences. Each group has their set of strengths and weaknesses.</p>
<p>I agree to an extent, but I also agree that you can water down difficulty in High School as well (I saw it first hand). I think in general whether it be transfer or not there is going to be a distribution that supports this. It doesn’t bother me though, just because you got into UCLA or Berkeley out of HS doesn’t impress me lol. </p>
<p>@Cayton it weird i was actually thinking about this today, random
but I can see why they would think that since it is said to be harder to get into UC from high school, since the GPA can be above 4.0 and they are expected to have tons of ECs, while transfer can get away with no ECs during college. Than again most cc student can maintain a high GPA while working full time which is just as impressive imo </p>
<p>Ether way I think its a bratty thing to look down on others because they didn’t go straight to a UC. Not all cc students did bad in high school(even though i did). Some got into UCs but couldn’t go.</p>
<p>In the end I’m sure we will be fine, if anything just don’t mention your a transfer student…lol </p>
<p>Not to completely change the subject, but I thought you might have an answer to this. Did you ever find out definitively whether your IGETC had been certified? I can’t seem to get ahold of anyone at the college who can tell me for sure. Everyone I talk to just says, "well if you did it right, then you are certified."This is really annoying to me, because I like to know things for sure.</p>
<p>Well, I sent in the necessary paperwork a couple of weeks ago, but since my CC told me it would take 8 weeks(Yes, 8 ■■■■■■■ weeks) to process and mail that certification to UCLA, I doubt I’ve officially been certified yet. </p>
<p>If you want to know if you’ve been certified, try calling the admissions office at your CC or, better yet, visit in person to find out. </p>
<p>You could also contact UC Berkeley to see if they received your paperwork yet. </p>
<p>Thanks, I’m glad to know I’m not the only person who hasn’t been notified. I mean I’m sure I did everything correctly as I’ve checked dozens of times, but there’s still that inkling of doubt that they could have lost the paperwork or something. I’ve called every department I can think of, but it’s hard to get any straight answers, especially since everyone seems to be gone now that it’s summer. I’m not too worried about it, but it would just be nice for them to tell us what’s going on, considering our futures and living situations are on the line. Thanks though, maybe I’ll ask my admissions officer if she has received anything.</p>
<p>It’s terrible and arrogant that 4 yrs look down on transfer students, but I can honestly admit that it is soooo much easier to get into ucla/cal as a transfer student. Even though I was ECSTATIC that I got in, I didn’t feel as smart as the people who go in as a freshman. Comparing myself to those who got in as freshmen, there are CLEAR gaps. I’m not saying that all transfer students are “subpar” but most of them are. It’s easier to get in as a transfer student, because the majority of people who go to CC were those who did poorly in high school or don’t care about schoool or just want to go through life doing the bare minimum. This makes it easy for someone like me to shine academically in comparison to them. As long as you study and do your work, you will get an A in a CC class (there are exception of course). I did terribly in high school but I got straight As very easily at CC. I don’t really know if I can handle UC level work. I hope I can, but I can’t be confident. I think it’s so unbelievable to me that I got into some great schools. Plus, transfer students don’t have to take the SATs/ACTs, which are pretty tough in my opinion. If you compare the freshman profile of UCLA to the transfer profile, there are obvious differences. The people who got in as freshmen are ususally those who have been doing well since kindergarten, whereas transfer students usually have the realization in CC that they should aim high. </p>
<p>I hope I didn’t offend anyone here. Also, there are exceptions to all of what I said above. All I’m saying is, I get where their snotty attitude comes from. We don’t deserve it though</p>