So basically I’m having major regrets about the decision I made almost a year ago. At the time, as a soon to be graduating high school teenager, I had absolutely no desire to stay in my town anymore and haphazardly accepted Cal Poly Slo’s offer.
Now don’t get me wrong, Cal Poly SLO is a great school, but unfortunately the university has proven to be a mediocre fit at best for me.For several reasons alone I have contemplated moving back to my local community college but intend to get a degree from a more traditional university.
I know that community colleges have a sort of “backdoor” into the UC’s and after one of my highschool friends acceptance to UCB this year ( He on the otherhand had decided to go to cc straight after highschool and transferred to Berkeley after two years), I have drawn a fictional path in my head transferring from CPslo to CC and then ultimately to UCB.
I’m mainly wondering if I’m connecting the dots too optimistically and if any other schools ( I was thinking UCLA, UCSD, or private schools such as Santa Clara or USC) would perhaps be more likely than UC Berkeley.
What does not fit at CPSLO for you?
Your GPA at CPSLO + CC needs to be high to have a good chance of transfer admission to UCB.
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfer-admissions-summary says that, for 2015, 34% of applicants with 3.60-4.00 GPA were admitted, 10% of applicants with 3.20-3.59 were admitted, and trivial percentages of lower GPA applicants were admitted. You can check on other UC campuses as well on that page.
The biggest reasons I can come up with why CPSLO hasn’t been the best fit for me are the student culture and an my immaturity. While it may be naive to say only a year of college in, I have yet to find major sparks of inspiration at my school. While everyone I know without a doubt are motivated to complete school, it seems that a large part of the culture is fine with just settling with just “good” rather than shooting for “great”. That being said, I on my own part have let myself down in being able to adapt to college life. While I could make up several excuses as to why I am struggling , the bottom line is I am neither performing very well (3.0 gpa) nor enjoying my time enough to make up for it. For that reason I have heavily considered transferring back to CC regardless if I transfer to Uc Berkeley or not.
If you could only reach to a 3.0 GPA in there, I highly doubt you could be motivated much in UB even if you somehow get in.
@Sopittedbrah…Maybe you could take a quarter off to work or do an internship in your major; the coursework at Cal Poly could then seem more relevant. Generally, are you happy with your major?