<p>I am interested in attending Berkeley, I was wondering what my chances are.</p>
<p>I am enrolled at a CC, 4.0 GPA</p>
<p>High school 3.0, hence community college</p>
<p>ASG president hopeful.</p>
<p>Member of Phi Theta Kappa</p>
<p>Letters of recommendation </p>
<p>English Major, I would also like to pursuit math, possibly as a double?</p>
<p>2000 SAT, plan to retake and anticipate substantial improvement.</p>
<p>If not Berkeley, where?</p>
<p>Your high school stuff is irrelevant to transferring into Berkeley. As long as you meet the transfer requirements, including those of your major, and maintaining the highest possible gpa you'll get in.</p>
<p>Thankyou
Do you know anything about double majors at berkeley?
I forgot to mention that it is a out of state cc</p>
<p>You didn't say where you are. If you are in California you have a fair shot. If you are out of California you may as well save your application fee. It is nearly impossible to get into Cal from out of state even with good stats. It can happen, but not very likely (as in, I think <10% of their transfer are from out of state and that includes both community college and four year transfers).</p>
<p>I am in washington state, at Bellevue Community College. I will definitely give it a shot, but are there other schools you recommend? Are Ivies out of reach?</p>
<p>How many semesters of college do you have? How closely they inspect your high school record will depend largely on how much time you have spent in college. The ivies do seem to put more emphasis on the hs record than other schools, though. You probably have a shot at Cornell.</p>
<p>What are you looking for in a school?</p>
<p>Why not go to UWashington? It's transfer admission period for 2009 has closed, but so has Cal's. And most of your credits would transfer to Washington since you're in-state, while Cal would have to individually review your course descriptions.</p>
<p>Essentially I am looking for a institution committed to academics. Im primarily interested in English, Math and Political Science (ill decide before I apply). I have two quarters of college credit. I plan to apply for fall 2010.
I think my hs grades can be used as an advantage if I adequately describe how and why I have changed.
I also plan on attending grad school, so prestige may be an issue. I want the most comprehensive and exploratory education I can get.</p>
<p>Washington is prestigious. Your GPA and GREs are also more important than where you went to school for grad school admissions.</p>
<p>Cornell would be the easiest Ivy to transfer to by far.</p>
<p>Joworo, I'm no expert, so take my advice for what it is, personal opinion.</p>
<p>It's great that you are thinking about transfering early. Some students (most) at community colleges don't start thinking about transfering until the last minute and then regret not paying more attention to their grades. If you can keep your grades up going forward you have a good shot at getting into a great school.</p>
<p>I think applying to Cal is a waste of time for a few reasons. The chances of getting in out of state are really low, but even more importantly is the cost. Cal is a good school with a good reputation, but it is still a state school. Their resources are more limited. Even if you do get in it will cost you a pretty penny. I don't know your financial situation, but if you are low or middle income most top private schools have loan-free financial aid packages. If you go to Cal you will get no such thing, which means you are gauranteed to get strapped with a lot of debt.</p>
<p>If you want to go out of state concentrate on private schools. It really doesn't make sense to transfer to a state school in another state, even Cal.</p>
<p>If you want a school with strong academics look at liberal arts schools. Some place like Swarthmore if you don't mind going east. If you want to stay out this way consider a place like Pomona or Claremont McKenna. Not only are those schools much more focused on academics than a big national college, but they also have smaller classes where you can have a more personal relationship with your profs, which is great for getting grad school recs ;).</p>
<p>Don't get too caught up in rank. Going to a high ranking school that is a bad fit will not be as satisfying as going to a slightly lower ranked school where you will be happy.</p>
<p>UW is certainly an option, however the environment at UW seems to isolate people. I know a number of students there and most of them, intelligent as they may be, seem discouraged by their sheer anonymity.</p>
<p>Thank you for the information PoshGirl. I will look into Swarthmore and Pomona. Its hard to gauge how colleges will look at a cc background, how about amherst? It seems to have a good cc program.</p>
<p>Amherst is a great school, though VERY selective. Last year their transfer acceptance rate was only 7%. Something to keep in mind, though, is that Amherst is a part of a "Five College Consortium." So if you can get into any of the schools in the consortium it means you will have a chance to take classes at any of the schools. So you don't necessarily have to get accepted into Amherst to take classes there. </p>
<p>The colleges in the consortium are : Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith, University of Massachusetts - Amherst. Check them all out. Smith is a very good college by its own right and their transfer acceptance rate last year was 42%, so if you keep your grades up I bet you would have a great shot there.</p>
<p>Sounds good, maybe a good idea to apply to Smith and Amherst. After some research, Swarthmore looks like an excellent option.
I don't intend to get anything less than a 4.0, but I currently work full time as a manager at a local coffee shop (here in seattle we all work in coffee shops) so ecs are a bit out of reach.
I took two years off school after hs and I became a carpenter, I travelled and learned a great deal. Does my experience in a trade have any significance?</p>
<p>It certainly won't hurt. I think work is a fine excuse for not having a lot of ec's. My impression is that ec's are more important for high school students who haven't really had time to develop a lot of character. If you've been in the real world working for a living, you already have character. That being said, maybe look into working with Habitat for Humanity once a month?</p>
<p>I think you have a chance regardless if you are an out of state applicant. UCB is really selective about their applicants. I myself am from California and know first hand how selective they are even to residents. Although California CC's do get a bit of priority over you but don't let that get you down.</p>
<p>High School GPA, SAT scores, and recommendation are not required for transferring. Your GPA and EC's are really high but you need to check whether or not you have fulfilled the prerequisites for your prospective major(s) because that in itself is huge.</p>
<p>Someone above suggested Pomona College, the problem with Pomona is that you enter the really low acceptance rate territory, and I often wonder who really are those that transfer into top LACs, since it seems like the only ones who are well aware of them are those who often don't go to community college, but are transferring in from other 4 year schools. If you decide to go the Political Science route, I will say that Claremont McKenna is definitely a school to look at. Their acceptance rate for transfers hovers in the 20-30 percent area because of the construction of a new dorm building. The benefit with Claremont McKenna, is the flexibility that exists for double majoring or pursuing a dual major or major and minor, with that you get to take your English lit class at Pomona or other Claremont schools.</p>
<p>By the way, you may want to look at Reed College as well in Portland. Academics is a biggie there, similar to Swarthmore.</p>
<p>I looked into Reed a while ago, however when I got in contact with their admission office I was informed that Reed requires a full year of humanities courses before junior year. Normally I wouldn't mind taking the extra time to complete interesting courses but the prices are exorbitant.
That is a brilliant idea about Political Science at Claremont McKenna. Useful information!
As far as applying to Berkeley, it sounds like I should apply but I shouldn't hold my breath. It sounds like an amazing school.
Im leaning towards just saving my money and applying all over the place (I plan on working on essays this summer).
Does anyone know how the schools will look at extensive experience in a trade, namely carpentry. I think you may be right PoshGirl that work experience is comparable to ecs.
Thankyou for all of your help!</p>
<p>well in regards to reed, isn't most transferable coursework regardless of institutions specifically all humanities and liberal arts?</p>