<p>I am an electrical engineering major currently attending IVC. I got 3 C's in classes that are not associated with my major (art history, philosophy, psychology). (I didn't know that IGETC was not required for transferring until much later, so I ended up taking useless classes) They affected my GPA pretty badly in a sense that even with my past semesters being 4.0s, my GPA did not increase that much. I am just wondering if UCs (specifically UCI) will care a lot about those classes.</p>
<p>Obviously they will calculate that into my transferable GPA, but do they take into account the major?</p>
<p>I am in a similar position. I only have one bad grade, and it is in a course that is not related to my major.</p>
<p>I 100% understand that this affects my GPA, and that the reviewing schools will care (because the class is transferable), but does anyone have any idea if the application readers might “care” more or less, depending on the subject? </p>
<p>At the very least, I hope it is not as bad as having a bad grade that is relevant to my major.</p>
<p>That’s some inappropriate sarcasm, @andrewexd. The OP did not insinuate that those classes were useless. I think it’s an entirely reasonable question.</p>
<p>yes, i said that in my opening post. “Obviously they will calculate that into my transferable GPA” my main question was if they “cared” too much about those classes.</p>
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<p>i would understand the significance of the overall GPA over the major gpa. but engineering majors are not even required to complete IGETC (and if you look on uci’s website, it’s even recommended to NOT do igetc if you are in an engineering major). i’ve also contacted Erkki from UCLA’s engineering school and he also suggested following assist only and ignoring IGETC for my major. (and he of course told me that writing 1/2, or english 1A/1B were required) so i figured they wouldn’t be too rigorous about non-major classes.</p>
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<p>i FIGURED they wouldn’t care too much about it… but i’m not sure… so that’s why i’m asking heh</p>
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<p>that wasn’t even what i was implying in my opening post, but now that you say it that way, yeah. those are useless to my major. i get lots of critical thinking from all the upper level math, engineering and cs classes. as for reading and writing, i’m sure that’s what the 2 writing classes you have to take in cc are for.</p>
<p>They will take into account your upward trend so that will definitely help you, but a 3.1 is not the best GPA. You have a shot at SC, UCR and Merced. I know a lot of people got into those school with GPA’s around 3.1.</p>
<p>That’s the cutoff GPA. People with GPA’s lower that 2.8, will have their applications thrown out and likewise with the 3.0 required with prerequisite courses. Obviously, they are going to take people with higher GPA’s because of the competition.</p>
<p>i know 3.1 is not the best GPA. calculating my GPA without those classes makes it higher. this is why i was asking if they put more importance in the required courses for your major.</p>
<p>um, yes i know. did you forget the original question? my question was if they put more weight or significance in the required classes for the major. the link i posted noted that the GPA requirement for major classes was higher than the overall transferable GPA, thus making the GPA for major classes more important than the transferable GPA.</p>
<p>Well, what is your major GPA? From what I’ve heard (take this with a grain of salt), overall GPA is more important. I’m not sure how they do things at UCI, but that seems to be the general consensus at other UC’s. You can search these forums and you’ll find a ton of threads conversing “major gpa vs overall gpa”.</p>
<p>If you had gained lots of critical reading and writing skills from English, you would have got a better grade than a C in those 3 other classes.</p>
<p>@mermaker - just computed my major GPA, it’s 3.56. still not that high but still better than a 3.1. where does that information come from? just curious. thanks for the info though!</p>
<p>@almalex5 - those classes (the ones i got the C’s in) are not needed for my major, so therefore they are deemed useless to me. i got C’s in those classes because i was taking chemistry and calc 2 in that same semester (which are, in fact, mandatory prerequisites for my major). i don’t want to make excuses because i obviously could have tried harder in the classes if i wanted to, but i wanted to invest more time in the classes that i NEEDED instead of the classes i don’t. which is probably what most people would do. kind of like an english major slacking off in his/her one math requirement class. if i had the chance of starting over, i would ONLY take my prerequisite classes and focus on those. but i didn’t know any better so i wasted a lot of time.</p>
<p>You can see what the average GPA of accepted transfer students is. For UCLA’s Electrical Engineering major the average GPA of admitted transfer students is a 3.80. Also the major admitted 105 out 355 applicants (admit rate of ~30%). </p>
<p>Engineering is a very popular major and if you are applying to a school that is known for their engineering program, like Berkeley, their average admit GPA will be very high because they can afford to be picky. I know you mentioned that the main school you are interested in is UCI so maybe you could call and ask them if they have any statistics on their average GPA admitted for Electrical Engineering majors. </p>
<p>Also, you could try going through past forum posts on here for UCI admissions threads and see what stats other admitted Electrical Engineering majors had and see if you are in the ball park.</p>