<p>I’m a computer science major who transferred from UCR to UCLA. I’m in my third year and therefore just finished my first quarter at UCLA. From high school, the best school I was accepted to was UCR. As a transfer from UCR I was accepted to: UCLA, Berkeley, USC (with a big scholarship), UC Davis (with a Regent’s scholarship), and UCSB. I was waitlisted at Brown (I needed financial aid…they take that into account).</p>
<p>I figure my experience is pretty unique, and for people considering the differences between UC’s, my opinions might mean something.</p>
<p>I’m also bored (winter break…keeping it lazy), and I never really mind rambling about my personal experiences, haha. If my opinions help people out then I’ll feel that this thread was pretty worthwhile.</p>
<p>That’s awesome! I go to UC Santa Cruz and I’m thinking of transferring to somewhere like UCLA or UC Berkeley. What kind of grades/GPA will I need to be able to transfer to UCB or UCLA? I am a Business Management/Economics major and I just finished my first quarter and I did ok, got a 3.56 GPA but now that I know what’s expected I think I can do better. Even though it might be too early to be thinking about transferring, what can I do to help my chances? Also, when are you suppose to apply to transfer as a UC student?</p>
<p>Hey good luck to you. I’m not an admissions officer, but I think the best advice I can give you is:
A) Get all the pre-requisites done for your major (search for these online). Each school has their own major pre-reqs…they’re not universal for each school so you’ll need to look at each individual school. If your confused about any course equivalents, call the campus you want to transfer to and find out.
B) Get your GPA at or above the average for your major. For UCLA look here: [Profile</a> of Admitted Transfer Students, Fall 2010 - UCLA Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof10.htm]Profile”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof10.htm) and for Berkeley look on statfinder to find the average admitted for your major</p>
<p>I don’t have much to say about admissions so I’m probably not the best person for those types of questions. However, I think what I just listed are by far the most important aspects of getting admitted to Berkeley/LA.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks for the info! One more question that you should be able to answer, what year do you apply to transfer? Is it sophomore year around the same time as high school students apply? Although that wouldn’t make sense since you would only have one year of classes done.</p>
<p>You apply at the beginning of your sophomore year, but you need to have your schedule for the entire year mapped out (they’ll ask…they want to make sure all the requirements will be satisfied).</p>
<p>Is UCR a quarter school? If so, what constitutes a “full year” of a perquisite requirement for UCLA? I am sort of considering a transfer into UCLA’s Life Sciences major, and one of the requirements is a full year of Calculus. Would that mean 3 quarters of Calc? Also, what about a full year of Chemistry? I have AP credit from highschool so I’m allowed to chemistry this quarter…so if I take chemistry for the next two quarters will I have fulfilled 3 quarters of chem? All this is sort of confusing to me because we don’t have the handy assist website to use…</p>
<p>Sorry, I know I’m asking a lot but when they say biology with lab, does that mean I need one quarter or a whole year of bio lab (I guess this question can apply to Chem too)? Because going by my school’s structured courseplan, I will only have finished one bio lab by the end of my 2nd year. </p>
<p>Another thing is, for General Education, if I want UC-UC reciprocity, would I have to finish a GE if it is an upper division requirement? Or do I just have to finish the lower division portions (I don’t think it will be very likely that I will be able to get into the upper division class).</p>
<p>Thank you for helping. There’s not a lot of good, solid info out there for this sort of transfer, despite all the discussion =/ I’d be grateful if you could answer just one of these questions :)</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, how long did you plan your transfer for? I know its too early to say that I will be transferring without knowing how my first year GPA will look like but I’ve been planning already. I don’t want to feel like I need to transfer, but it’s not like I’m doing anything extra. I’d still have to finish my GE’s and the perquisites pretty much fall in line with what I’m doing for my major anyway. Sorry to blab on nonstop. How was the overall process? Stressful? Gratifying? Do you miss your friends at UCR? Haha I feel so intrusive but I really need to know before my own attempt :)</p>
<p>ProteinMan: They do admission based on your freshman year grades and your first quarter of your sophomore year (you have to update your grades online after your first quarter/semester)</p>
<p>oceanpartier: UCR is a quarter school. A full year implies 3 quarters (however, if you’re really unsure, find a contact at UCLA and ask him. Without doing this I would have ended taking up a wrong class). I’m really not sure how AP credit factors in though…sorry. If it just says bio with lab (and not “full sequence” or “a year”) it probably just means one class. Of course, I’m not the definitive answer on these topics. I know nothing about UC reciprocity because it didn’t apply to me. How long did I plan my transfer? Well, to be honest, I wasn’t really happy with only having gotten into UC Riverside. I felt like I could get into a “better” school (I admit the term “better” is naive but it’s how I felt haha). So, the summer before I even started freshman year I was thinking about transferring. I made up my mind of where I wanted to transfer and which major by my third quarter of freshman year.</p>
<p>The overall process was incredibly stressful and incredibly gratifying. Going into UCR with the mindset of wanting to transfer probably adversely impacted my experience. Don’t get me wrong, I went in looking to make friends and being open to new things and all that. Nonetheless, I feel like the desire to transfer made me feel a sense of unhappiness with where I was. Besides the intangibles like that, I was continually motivated to transfer because I just wound up not liking it all that much there. I felt it was a horrible “fit”. I struggled to make friends although I am NOT an introvert and have never struggled to make friends. This was a pretty clear tell that this was not a good fit for me. Obviously, the transfer process was stressful. Transferring in my major requires a GPA of about 3.8, and that is TOUGH to get in computer science. I studied a lot, I was constantly stressed about grades…the whole process was unpleasant. It was worth it though. My GPA transfers over to UCLA, which is pretty cool.</p>
<p>I had visited UCLA the summer before my sophomore year of UCR and just completely fell in love with it. When I found out I was accepted it was DEFINITELY one of the highlights of my life, haha. Hence, incredibly gratifying. There are a few kids I miss at UCR, but honestly not that much. In my quarter at UCLA, I’ve made more friends than I had the whole time I was at UCR. Maybe it’s because I’m not stressed out about wanting to transfer, but honestly I feel like it just means UCLA is a better “fit” for me. I have ZERO regrets about the transfer. </p>
<p>And don’t feel intrusive! The whole point of me posting this thread was to answer questions about my experience…ask away!</p>
<p>ProteinMan: They do admission based on your freshman year grades and your first quarter of your sophomore year (you have to update your grades online after your first quarter/semester)</p>
<p>oceanpartier: UCR is a quarter school. A full year implies 3 quarters (however, if you’re really unsure, find a contact at UCLA and ask him. Without doing this I would have ended taking up a wrong class). I’m really not sure how AP credit factors in though…sorry. If it just says bio with lab (and not “full sequence” or “a year”) it probably just means one class. Of course, I’m not the definitive answer on these topics. I know nothing about UC reciprocity because it didn’t apply to me. How long did I plan my transfer? Well, to be honest, I wasn’t really happy with only having gotten into UC Riverside. I felt like I could get into a “better” school (I admit the term “better” is naive but it’s how I felt haha). So, the summer before I even started freshman year I was thinking about transferring. I made up my mind of where I wanted to transfer and which major by my third quarter of freshman year.</p>
<p>The overall process was incredibly stressful and incredibly gratifying. Going into UCR with the mindset of wanting to transfer probably adversely impacted my experience. Don’t get me wrong, I went in looking to make friends and being open to new things and all that. Nonetheless, I feel like the desire to transfer made me feel a sense of unhappiness with where I was. Besides the intangibles like that, I was continually motivated to transfer because I just wound up not liking it all that much there. I felt it was a horrible “fit”. I struggled to make friends although I am NOT an introvert and have never struggled to make friends. This was a pretty clear tell that this was not a good fit for me. Obviously, the transfer process was stressful. Transferring in my major requires a GPA of about 3.8, and that is TOUGH to get in computer science. I studied a lot, I was constantly stressed about grades…the whole process was unpleasant. It was worth it though. My GPA transfers over to UCLA, which is pretty cool.</p>
<p>I had visited UCLA the summer before my sophomore year of UCR and just completely fell in love with it. When I found out I was accepted it was DEFINITELY one of the highlights of my life, haha. Hence, incredibly gratifying. There are a few kids I miss at UCR, but honestly not that much. In my quarter at UCLA, I’ve made more friends than I had the whole time I was at UCR. Maybe it’s because I’m not stressed out about wanting to transfer, but honestly I feel like it just means UCLA is a better “fit” for me. I have ZERO regrets about the transfer. </p>
<p>And don’t feel intrusive! The whole point of me posting this thread was to answer questions about my experience…ask away!</p>
<p>Ok thanks for that answer! That was probably most of what I was looking for + more I will try to take in everything you’ve said…I’ll ask if I have more questions. Thanks again!</p>
<p>Did you have your whole schedule planned out already in the beginning of freshman year to transfer to UCLA? What I mean is that did you plan all your courses in the beginning of your freshman year to fit UCLA’s pre-major requirements? Also, I assume UCLA has GE requirements, do you have to fulfill those too? I went to assist.org and I could only find info on transferring from a CC to a UCLA, no info of UC to UCLA.</p>
<p>I’m a first year computer science major at UCR and I just finished my quarter. So, I have a few questions I want to ask you.
So after transferring to UCLA, what do you think the difference between UCLA and UCR was? is it just the prestige of each school? Are the curriculum the same for computer science major at UCLA and UCR?
Also, why did you struggle to make friends at UCR?</p>
<p>I was actually thinking if I should stay at UCR all four years or transfer to a better school… so, does transferring to a better school (ex. UCLA) open more doors for you in the future??</p>
<p>ProteinMan: I had my entire schedule for my sophomore year planned out by the third quarter of my freshman year. I don’t know about the GE requirements. I transferred to an engineering college, thus my requirements were different than for another college. You should assume you have to satisfy all the same requirements a community college student would have to. If you’re unclear, call the campuses and ask people.</p>
<p>linoch: well…there are several differences between UCR and UCLA. They’re different schools. Different campuses, different student bodies, different locations etc. I’m a little confused by your question of “is it just the prestige that’s different” so if you could clarify that I could give you a better answer. The curriculums are similar, as in, you’ll have to take a similar set of courses. </p>
<p>Why did I struggle to make friends at UCR? Well, it’s not like I was a total loner. Like I said, I’ve been a pretty social guy my whole life and have never struggled that much to make friends. I just really did not connect with anyone I met at UCR. I only had a very small amount of people I considered friends, and they weren’t all that great friends. I would again attribute my struggle to make friends with UCR being the wrong “fit” for me. </p>
<p>My experience at UCLA leads me to believe that it DOES open more doors than being at UCR. Literally within the first three weeks of being at UCLA, I had gotten a research position at the David Geffen School of Medicine and had secured a great internship for the following summer. I’ve received offers for internships during the school year that I’ve turned down. All the top companies recruit here; I definitely could not say that with my experience at UCR. One caveat though: I wasn’t aggressively pursuing research/internships at UCR like I was once I got to UCLA since I was more focused on transferring. I’m not saying you can’t have similar opportunities from UCR, it just seems like they’re easier to get at from UCLA. If you are enjoying your time at UCR and don’t have a burning desire to transfer, I wouldn’t recommend doing it.</p>
<p>Were there others that you knew transferred also? I was also wondering which grades are more “important” say you do poorly on your breadth requirements but ace all your prereqs for your major. Would that have an impact?</p>
<p>I was wondering how the student bodies at UCR are different from the student bodies at UCLA. It seems that my dorm buddies and some of my study buddies aren’t that motivated to study. Are the students at UCLA more motivated to study than students at UCR or are they the same as UCR students? </p>
<p>When you said “I just really did not connect with anyone I met at UCR”, did you try not to make friends at UCR?</p>
<p>So, did you make a lot of great friends at UCLA than at UCR?</p>
<p>linoch: I tried to make friends at UCR, and made a few, though I found that I had an easier time making good friends at UCLA. I feel like that’s because the school was a better “fit” for me. Not much more to say about that. </p>
<p>Yes, students at UCLA are much more motivated to study than students at UCR. At UCR, I may not have been fully prepared for a test but still came out with an ‘A’ because of the unpreparedness of the other students. The same certainly cannot be said of UCLA. Keep in mind that the kids at UCLA were right at the top of their class in high school (or wherever they transferred from). One statistic we were told at orientation is “1 out of every 4 students at UCLA was their high school valedictorian”, so it makes sense that the kids study hard. As far as differences in student bodies, the kids at UCLA tend to study more and be involved in more extra curricular activities (clubs etc.) than the kids at UCR.</p>
I will try to take in everything you’ve said…I’ll ask if I have more questions. Thanks again!</p>