Bioengineering Transfer Student: problems with Cal, UCLA, UCSD english requirements

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

Hey everyone, I have a question:

I am a 2nd year community college student, and I plan on applying to the UC System for their Bioengineering programs. In particular, I wouldn't mind attending the following schools

UC Berkeley - Bioengineering
UCLA - Bioengineering
UCSD - Bioengineering: Biotechnology

In general for all three schools, I have completed all of my pre-major requirements, and currently have a 4.0 GPA with some honors coursework in physics and calculus. I have also partaken in neurobiology research at CSULB, and plan on going back there over the summer to work on a 3-D Bioprinter with a friend and his mechanical engineering professor, who happens to have a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. I may also partake in an internship at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in winter, in order to expand my prospects in the Biotech field (keenly interested in BioMEMS, Microfluids, Biomaterials, and tissue engineering). I believe my personal statements are adequate (I am willing to share these to anyone who would like to critique them; the feedback would be much appreciated), and my extracurriculars are substantial due to the research I have partaken in. I do have one problem however:

I passed the AP English Literature & Composition exam with a 3, allowing me to skip the transfer equivalent course for English R1A (UCB), ENGCOMP3 (UCLA), and the college system writing requirements (partial IGETC @ UCSD) at my local community college.

This allowed me to skip to the second english course, which I successfully completed this summer. However, I am very well aware that this is not substantial for Cal’s and UCLA’s writing requirements, especially for engineering. According to assist.org, those who have not completed 100% of all class requirements are automatically rejected to Cal engineering - I am not sure if this is the same for UCLA. I have no idea where I could fit another english course into my spring semester in order to have this “100% completion of courses” since I already have a 17 unit load consisting of the following courses:

Differential Equations (3)
Waves/Optics/Modern Physics (5)
Organic Chemistry I (3)
Organic Chemistry I lab (2)
Evolutionary and Population Biology (4)

Should I apply anyways to transfer to Cal and UCLA? Or should I not? Should I bite my tongue and take the english course in spring totaling my load to 20 units, or possibly enroll in a winter course at another community college in order to complete the requirement? (my community college doesn't offer winter session). I have completed ALL OTHER COURSES by spring of 2016 for my major, with the exception of that english course. Is there anyone in a similar situation or has successfully transferred to any of these schools for engineering without 100% completion?
2

Winter course! See if the English course is offered online at a school on the quarter system, perhaps.

I was in the same scenario as you (or a similar one) - got a 3 on my AP Lit exam, and freaked out about it when I learned that Cal didn’t accept it. IGETC bypasses this, but you aren’t taking IGETC I assume.

Because you have a 4.0 and have taken honors physics/calc courses, I assume you can handle a heavy course load. Some Engineering majors take 3 years, so you could possibly take English and some other course over the summer (to lighten your load) and take a gap year if you’d like, but it is not impossible to do it in 2 years.

You will be rejected if you don’t have the English course, at least for Cal. I believe that UCLA accepts a 3 on the AP Lit exam, but I could be (and likely am) incorrect. I say bite the bullet.

3

^^^ agree with @goldencub. If you are doing IGETC, you’re fine. If not, wedge one into winter intersession.

It looks like a 3 fulfills for UCLA (is that how you guys read it?) - but it is essentially irrelevant if you need an English course for Cal.

http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/APCreditEN.htm

Here is a link of CCCs that have intersession. It’s last year’s but is probably still the same:
http://www.sbcc.edu/transferacademy/2015%20Winter%20Intersession%20List.pdf

4

UCB engineering does not accept IGETC to fulfill general education requirements.

5

Thank you everyone for the feedback - I think I will take an equivalent english course at SDSU this winter since Grossmont doesn’t seem to offer any english course for winter intersession.

6

Be sure to send transcripts to clear any prereqs for that English class.

7

@NikkoJayy,

Intersession schedule comes out in two weeks for the SD area CCCs but Cuyamaca is scheduled to have that English class. Southwestern, as I’m told by some of my friends, is tentatively scheduled to have three sections of it as well during intersession.

8

@SDGoldenBear Thank you so much, that will help me out a lot. Good thing Southwestern is only a 5 minute drive from where I live :slight_smile: