Ask me anything transfer/career/success related

<p>csteep for the advice you gave me, theres one problem with that. compsci in L&S for berkeley has different prereqs for all other schools such as ucla and ucdavis. THeres also a chance that I wont be admitted into L&S for berkeley and if not then i will have no alternatives because I dont have the prereqs done for UCLA or UCDavis although it is the same major. So even going for L&S would be a risk because it will only gear me up for ONE choice and not other UC's. What should I do about that?</p>

<p>"Csteep, in terms of the job application process, do you think one is at a disadvantage or should approach the job application process differently if they are coming from a liberal arts background (I'm Poli Sci major, but this, I guess, would apply to all L&S-type majors)?"</p>

<p>I suppose it depends on what sort of job you are looking for.. if you want a business oriented job and you are a poli sci major, yea you will have do somehow demonstrate you are capable of handling the work either by taking select courses or through work experience. In general, sorry to say poli sci majors and other majors in L&S have difficulty landing the very competitive jobs. It's just the unfortunate reality that philosophy and archaeology are assigned less value in our society than say engineering or business. </p>

<p>"Also, are all of the jobs that the Career Center offers in the Bay Area/Northern California? Is there any diversity in terms of Geography?"</p>

<p>Many are local, ie. bay area/california.. there are jobs posted from other regions too, but you'll have to dig. </p>

<p>"Lastly, did you ever feel you were at a disadvantage because you were a transfer student? Did the firms you applied to look down upon that?"</p>

<p>Coming in I thought that being a transfer would hurt me, thinking about it now I don't think it ever really did... you learn it's best not to advertise that you transferred.. you also find ways to answer the question of why you transferred and how that shapes you as a person.</p>

<p>"csteep, you're awesome for doing this and giving such thoughtful responses.</p>

<p>i think (though i'm not sure) that you mentioned knowing a few people who've graduated with degrees in philosophy and gotten into consulting positions. do you have any other insight as to what type of consulting they, and graduates of similar concentrations would be considered / recruited for?"</p>

<p>It's never a specific type of consulting, it can be anything. If you can show that you have a passion for philosophy with a strong GPA, papers you've written, activities you've been a part of... perhaps taken several business courses or an advance level math/stat class you will be well positioned to be at least offered a first round interview invitation. Unfortunately that is where most L&S types screw up, they simply don't know how to dress themselves and carry themselves in an interview.... once you are in the interview room nothing besides you and your personality matters... at that point they already know you are smart, that's why they called you.. it is up to you not to foul up during the 30 minutes you are in the presence of hiring staff. Knowing this get yourself positioned, practice interviewing, find out what kind of questions get asked and rehearse your answers until they flow naturally. If you can dominate interviewing you can land any job you want, even if you did major in basket weaving. </p>

<hr>

<p>"also, you're confusing 'then' and 'than'.
not being a dick.. i'd just hate to hear that you were rejected for some future promotion or your applications thrown out due to grammatical errors."</p>

<p>Thanks for pointing that out... I'll admit I speak out my answers when I'm responding to these posts very quickly and type what I hear in my head... when speaking "than" and "then" sorta come out sounding the same, hence the mistake.</p>

<p>"also, you're confusing 'then' and 'than'.
not being a dick.. i'd just hate to hear that you were rejected for some future promotion or your applications thrown out due to grammatical errors."</p>

<ul>
<li>how is he/she going to be rejected for a promotion based on items he/she posted on a message board...especially on a board filled with grammatical errors that are very common? how is it going to occur especially when he/she never stated any of his/her personal information such as uhh i dont know, his/her name? his/her employer? his/her sex? (serious question)</li>
</ul>

<p>"csteep for the advice you gave me, theres one problem with that. compsci in L&S for berkeley has different prereqs for all other schools such as ucla and ucdavis. THeres also a chance that I wont be admitted into L&S for berkeley and if not then i will have no alternatives because I dont have the prereqs done for UCLA or UCDavis although it is the same major. So even going for L&S would be a risk because it will only gear me up for ONE choice and not other UC's. What should I do about that?"</p>

<p>A: I realize your problem, as I said before it's a choice I can't make for you. There are risks both ways, sounds like it might be safer to apply to EECS so that you can at least fall back on LA or Davis, if you shoot for comp sci at Cal you risk rejection and are out of the game for the rest of the UC's for not having the prereqs done.</p>

<p>csteep, i'll be looking into those classes for next fall.
i don't know much about consulting other than that the people in consulting positions tend to travel a lot, which i'm in to. thanks.</p>

<hr>

<p>chibi "is, once again, out of the"_loop-i.</p>

<p>would PM me your personal statements? if it would help, i'd send you mine, too.
i think they'd provide an insight that forum posts could never provide.</p>

<p>I noticed the "then" and "than" as well.</p>

<p>Csteep, I'm curious, what username did you use before this one?</p>

<p>pinker, clever!!!! just asking a serious question! :)</p>

<p>i know.. you had gave us the courtesy of specifying that with parentheses.
(serious answer) it was a joke, man. read csteep's previous posts.</p>

<p>Let's try to keep the side discussion to a minimum, I'd like this to strictly be a Q&A. Some of these message strings get really long (multiple pages) and can easily get cluttered when people have irrelevant discussions in them. </p>

<p>nickthecoolest: If I wanted you to know my old username I wouldn't have created this one, the old one gives away my identity.</p>

<p>csteep: 'irrelevant' is so.... subjective.</p>

<p>*X-->'had'.</p>

<p>"way to omit the smiley face. no fair."</p>

<p>okay csteep, i got a question for you. what was the general sentiment on campus in regards to the tree-sitters?</p>

<p>"okay csteep, i got a question for you. what was the general sentiment on campus in regards to the tree-sitters?"</p>

<p>Good question... first I should note that none of the tree sitters were Berkeley students, they were a bunch of losers who wanted attention and saw an opportunity to take advantage, most of them were 30+. </p>

<p>Most students thought the tree sitters were bums, there were some who disagreed, but anyone who was rational and knew the situation with the grove knew UC was doing the right thing.</p>

<p>The proposed plan was to build a sports facility for Cal athletes and to make improvements to the stadium... when they finally did clear the trees, most were left.. just a few had to be cleared to make room for the structure. Importantly for every tree they cut down they were going to plant something like 3-4 mature trees in and around the project area. </p>

<p>The tree sitters wound up wasting the college's money by holding up the project, legal fees, and 24/7 security of the area.</p>

<p>In general the very politically active, protest-hungry, hippy-spirited Berkeley of the 60s is long gone.... nowadays students are too busy with coursework, jobs and other activities... in their free time most would rather party than protest.. not to say that protesting doesn't go on, but it would be a mistake to think Cal is some kind of round the clock activist haven.</p>

<p>Csteep, I want to thank you for taking your time answering our's worried questions. Before, I go to my question, I was wondering, in this current economy, how do you find yourself an internship? In addition, i'm majoring in engineering, but I can't really find any companies that would take me in. Also, I don't want to do the chance me, but I want to ask this question for long time now. Well, I'm a freshmen and I have fail my first semester with a W and a F in addition with passing grade of a B's and a C's. Is there any way I could still be accept by the likes of UCB or UCLA?</p>

<p>"Csteep, I want to thank you for taking your time answering our's worried questions. Before, I go to my question, I was wondering, in this current economy, how do you find yourself an internship?"</p>

<p>Typically you look for internships for the summer between your sophomore and junior year and for the summer between junior and senior year... it is rare for a freshman to land anything good.</p>

<p>"In addition, i'm majoring in engineering, but I can't really find any companies that would take me in."</p>

<p>Keep trying, it will come eventually </p>

<p>"Also, I don't want to do the chance me, but I want to ask this question for long time now. Well, I'm a freshmen and I have fail my first semester with a W and a F in addition with passing grade of a B's and a C's. Is there any way I could still be accept by the likes of UCB or UCLA?"</p>

<p>It is unfortunate you performed so badly... unless there is a reason your performance suffered it will be hard to explain this away. If you can manage as close to straight A's for the rest of your community college years you might have a shot, but it is going to be slim. To make sure you are aware, if you keep performing the way you are you won't even get into the lower tier UC's let alone CSU's. Pull the grades up, if you are going through a tough time right now, withdraw from your classes and fix whatever is giving you a hard time then come back when you are able to dedicate 100% of your energy to school.</p>

<p>good luck</p>

<p>^ solid advice.</p>

<p>Thanks for your advice, csteep.</p>

<p>Do you mind if I ask you three more questions? </p>

<p>I heard that if I fail a class, I have to repeat it and the grade may be line out and may not factor on GPA? Is that true? </p>

<p>Also, what if I manage to get close around 3.6 to 3.8 GPA the whole way through, does UCB or UCLA see as that "Wow, this guy have mature a lot since the beginning, maybe we can give him a shot"?</p>

<p>Plus, I do have my personal problem, but I wouldn't publicity state it. Should I put it on my college application essay?</p>

<p>Thanks for answer, in advance.</p>

<p>I'm just hoping if there's any hope.</p>

<p>"I heard that if I fail a class, I have to repeat it and the grade may be line out and may not factor on GPA? Is that true?"</p>

<p>You do have to repeat the class, and I believe the new grade is the one used to calculate the GPA, however the F still shows up on the transcript. </p>

<p>"Also, what if I manage to get close around 3.6 to 3.8 GPA the whole way through, does UCB or UCLA see as that "Wow, this guy have mature a lot since the beginning, maybe we can give him a shot"?"</p>

<p>Yes, like I stated keep the grades up the rest of the way to show you can handle the coursework. They look highly on improvement and will account for this in their decision. You still have a shot. </p>

<p>"Plus, I do have my personal problem, but I wouldn't publicity state it. Should I put it on my college application essay?"</p>

<p>You don't want to talk about the issues to get the admission committees pity, but you do want to talk about it is it was the reason for your poor performance... also, perhaps most importantly you want to talk about how you overcame the problem and what you learned from it. They like to see that people when faced with challenges persevere through them...</p>

<p>how hard is to get accepted as a physics or astrophysics major compared to engineering?</p>

<p>"how hard is to get accepted as a physics or astrophysics major compared to engineering?"</p>

<p>I can tell you it's challenging, but possible to be accepted in any of the majors you mentioned.. UC publishes transfer statics separated by major, look up the latest version of this document to get an idea of the relative competitiveness. </p>

<p>And as I've said before, if you are determined and complete your prereqs and transfer coursework you can reach your goal.</p>