Can anyone give me advice, please?

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

<p>Background:</p>

<p>I'm in my 4th year at my community college and I have no idea what I want to do for a living, but what I do know is that I want to transfer as soon as possible and catch up to everyone else. (On average, most people around me transfer from a community college at 19 or 20 and finish their Bachelor's at 21 or 22 while I'm 21 and I still haven't transferred yet.)</p>

<p>I half-***ed choosing my major and I picked Computer Science because it's a STEM field (job security and good pay) and it seemed to be the most practical out of all the STEM fields for me. I applied to a couple of universities last November and the thing is, I have a 4.0 GPA but I'm missing a bunch of courses (ranging from 3 to 6) for my major (I completed general ed).</p>

<p>Dilemma:</p>

<p>I have no idea what my chances are of getting into one of those universities (they're all UCs), especially since Computer Science is an impacted major. I signed up for 4 STEM classes this current Spring semester and after a month into the semester, it became clear that the workload (and depression and SA) was too much for me. I spent a month and a half sacrificing study time for 3 of my STEM classes to focus on Linear Algebra.</p>

<p>I failed my first exam for Linear Algebra and got 43%, which made me extremely unlikely to get an A in the class. I decided to drop the class because of the huge amount of work. But the problem was, I wasted so much time doing homework and stuff for that class. I was behind in all my other classes. So, I've been in catch-up mode for most of the semester.</p>

<p>Then I got an F on my Physics exam and each exam in that class is worth a chunk of my grade. It should've been an easy class but I barely had any time to study. I'd need to get a perfect score on everything from now on in order to get an 88% in the class and hope that my professor would curve my grade.</p>

<p>Then for my Computer Science class (which is second-level because they let people skip the intro class), the professor teaches pretty fast and talks as though you should have some experience in programming. I quickly fell behind in the class because of how my semester's been going and I've been trying to "tank" so far. But the problem is, there's a huge test on Monday (3 days away from now) and I'm still on Chapter 1.</p>

<p>So now, I'm just scared, disappointed, and upset at myself. I started out with 4 classes and I dropped one already but it looks like I might have to drop one or two more. I don't know how my actions are going to affect my acceptance to those universities (letters should be arriving in 2 or 3 weeks). I've been thinking a lot about whether or not I should drop and I've been getting a lot of panic attacks at night over this.</p>

<p>I don't know if I should tank those two classes and get Bs or Cs for them so that I can get them over with. And I don't know if I should drop those two classes to give me some time to sort myself out. Plus, for me, my grades are all I have to feel proud of in life. It would be heartbreaking to tank those classes, get rejected anyway, and ruin my GPA over courses I should've easily aced.</p>

<p>I don't know if I should bank on getting accepted and transferring this year or if I should just let it go and take my time and take another year to transfer. At my college, people always freak out when they find out I'm 21. It's going to be even worse when I'm 22. All this might sound silly or trivial to some people, but this stuff weighs on me a lot.</p>

<p>Can anyone give me advice/input, please? </p>

2

<p>It’s not a race… you should move at a pace you’re comfortable with. STEM classes tend to teach important concepts, they build on each other, and you’ll be using those skills after graduation. You’ll want to have a strong background in math and CS. Physics is more useful for the EE/hardware side of things, but again it’s important to have a good grasp on it.</p>

<p>That said… it doesn’t really sound like you’re enjoying CS. Do you actually like your classes? Are you going to be happy programming or whatever for the rest of your life? Right now you sound miserable and stressed out, and it seems like you’re just in it for job security. But if you don’t like what you’re doing, I’m not sure how far it’ll get you… It’s also a lot easier to succeed in school if you’re passionate about your major. And if you don’t love your major, and you don’t love your CS class, it might not be a good fit for you.</p>

<p>Missing pre-reqs: It sounds like you might be better off staying at CC for another year. It doesn’t matter if you’re a junior at a UC, you still need to complete those lower division courses. And if you’re missing 6 classes before you even get to upper div stuff, that’s a lot of catching up to do, and you’ll end up spending an extra year at a UC. You know, UC, that place where classes are harder and cost a fortune. If you don’t have your STEM pre-reqs done, you’ll be behind. Then you either end up like me (constantly scrambling to catch up, taking summer classes, refusing to take an extra semester) or you have to spend another semester/year paying high tuition.</p>

<p>4 STEM classes: Bad idea, especially if math’s not your thing. Don’t do that when you get to a UC. :stuck_out_tongue: Even I wouldn’t take 4 technicals together anymore, and I love math/CS. Balance it out with some humanities classes, if you can… it makes it a lot less stressful. And then you don’t get buried under projects and problem sets!</p>

<p>Failing classes: Uh, if you want to get rescinded, go ahead. I’m pretty sure failing a class can void admissions at any UC, especially if it’s a STEM pre-req. When you get acceptance letters, it’s not just a “yes” or “no”. Well, sometimes it just says no. But when they say “yes”, they give you a list of terms and conditions. Those usually come with GPA requirements, don’t fail any classes, and any required grades for specific courses. That’ll change depending on the school, but you will be given requirements. And failing a class is probably the worst thing you can do for those.</p>

<p>Advice:
If you like CS: Can you go to office hours? Tutoring? Play catch up as much as you can. You’ll need a strong Math and CS background to succeed in later classes. Physics is important too, depending on how much EE you do. But if you don’t understand these foundational classes, it’ll come back to bite you later. Or if you do decide to scrape by with a C and don’t quite grasp things, you might want to self-study the concepts or sit in on lectures next semester, so you don’t have holes in your knowledge.</p>

<p>Studying for Math/CS: The best way to learn is by doing! For math, get out your textbook and work through problems until you’re sick of them. For CS, dive in and write some code. Your textbook might have examples, or you can find tons of simple programming exercises online. But you can’t learn just by reading the textbook or watching lectures, you need to do things to understand them. And it’s stressful, but the more you do it, the better you’ll get and the more natural it’ll feel.</p>

<p>If you don’t like CS: Maybe STEM isn’t your thing. A lot of people just don’t like it, or struggle to understand it. If you’ve not done the technical pre-reqs, maybe there’s a subject you’re more passionate about, or do better in classes for? I don’t mean this to be discouraging, just people don’t do as well if they’re not really into CS.</p>

3

<p>I’m finishing my 4th year in CC to, but I’m transferring in Fall. Talk to a counselor in the career/transfer center at your CCC and just ask for some guidance and/or tests to see what would help and point you in the right direction.</p>

4

<p>I’m finishing my 4th year of CC too; I was prepared to do a 5th year but lucky I got all the classes I needed. </p>

<p>If you are struggling with CC STEM courses how will you ever pass UC STEM courses? UCs don’t punish for Ws. My 2 cents, drop all the STEM classes, withdrawal your application, pick a different major and apply for transfer to UCLA/Cal next year. </p>

5

<p>As a current UCLA STEM transfer student I can tell you things are going to be much worse at UC. To give you a little context, I got an A n my CC linear algebra class (gotta w the first time), it was the hardest class I have ever taken at a CC, however it is nothing compare to the level of math class at UCLA. </p>

<p>To keep it real, every year transfer students struggle to adjust to UCLA (even people with 4.0). It has nothing to do with intelligence, the simple fact is that CC does not fully prepare you for a UC. As much as. I complain of me being a math major, I can say that CS is such a hard major. You HAVE to CS, assignments take hours and even weeks to complete… </p>

<p>My final advice, take the extra year… Trust me, you don’t want to be taking lower division physics at UC… Classes are graded on a curve, and the competition can get pretty nasty.</p>

6

<p>I agree with bomerr. I would not risk getting bad grades on the off chance I pass them and get accepted to a UC. Also, did you know grad school takes into account your community college grades? </p>

<p>I would drop all the classes you’re not doing well in or feel as if you wouldn’t get the best grade possible, relax during the summer, and evenly distribute the classes for next fall/spring sprinkled with a couple easy courses to pad your gpa.</p>

7

<p>I’d like to also mention that I am 22 years old, took a gap year, and spent 3 years at a CC. </p>