<p>Hey all, I'm a psych major at a CCC and I have a 3.83 gpa. I'll have all the pre reqs for Berkeley done by this spring. I'm pretty sure I can hold on to a 3.8. I'm also tagging to UCSD and TAP to UCLA. I know I have grades but I'm having trouble writing my personal statements. The second prompt for transfer throws me off because I have little to none experience in the field to write about. I want to be a psychiatrist. Should I volunteer at a hospital? I want to get experience in the field asap but I'm not sure volunteering will give me what I need. I'm really worried that my ECs and personal statements will weigh me down because psych is very competitive at CAL.</p>
<p>“What is your intended major? Discuss how your interest in the subject developed and describe any experience you have had in the field — such as volunteer work, internships and employment, participation in student organizations and activities — and what you have gained from your involvement.”</p>
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<p>I assume that if you have no experience, then you don’t list anything. I highly doubt you’ll be axed for not having relevant real-world experience in your field of study. It’s what you intend to study, not what you have a degree for. . . . You haven’t even taken any upper-division courses yet!</p>
<p>Personally, I’m a philosophy major, and I plan on sticking to the (seemingly) main point of the transfer prompt, and that is to “[d]iscuss how your interest in the subject developed.”</p>
<p>IS ^^^that^^^ the 2nd prompt?</p>
<p>As a psych major, you should have been (should be) pursuing ECs related to psych, not only related to the job you want in the future. They want to know that you are passionate about your major and that you have taken steps to enhance your knowledge of the area. Have you not participated in any ECs this past year? Do you have a job?</p>
<p>You can tie practically anything into psych – volunteer at a food bank? gives you experience working with a variety of people and giving them someone to talk to – selling magazines door to door? enhancing sales techniques in regards to peoples response to different prompts – psych club? opportunity to expand your horizons and interact with other students and build a community. Etc. But the problem is that you need to DO something before you can write about it, so go get involved ASAP.</p>
<p>I agree that you should focus on how your interest developed and qualities you might have gained from pre-reqs - new understanding of how the world works and your place in it sort of stuff.</p>
<p>Yeah I have a job. I completely support myself which makes it very difficult to focus on ECs. My ECs right now consist of
Honors program advocate for Moreno Valley College. Member of Club Cal. And then my job which I work 20-30 hrs per week.</p>
<p>What’s your job? Definitely write about that in your essay.</p>
<p>Well I work at a food joint. Nothing relating to my academic life at all. Maybe I can get a topic out of work?</p>
<p>SBaz45, definitely tie in your work (I think that’s a must). I actually heard a transfer counselor talk about this same type of thing. They said give examples like if at the store you worked at you came up with an idea on how to get customers to reorganize a product faster to make more people buy it or to make it more accessible to them. Also you must have been exposed (and became able to work with) a large number of personalities such as children, old people possibly mentally impaired people too.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think you should worry about not having too many extra circular activities because you said you are working a lot and need to support yourself so mention that in the statement (and possibly how you have developed more than other people because of it). A counseling teacher from one of my classes once told me that if you are in a hard situation where you need to work to support yourself the schools take notice of it (but make sure they do know because they aren’t mind readers)</p>
<p>I’ll definitely tie in my job. Thanks for the help everyone</p>