<p>Hey everyone,
I am currently attending UC Riverside. I am a political science major, and have a 3.4 GPA. I did not get accepted anywhere except UCSC, UCR, and UC Merced from high school. I am applying as a transfer to UC Berkeley. Can anyone tell me if I have a chance?
This is not a typical Chance me type of thread. I have a lot riding on this, as I cannot afford an apartment and, if I get into Berkeley, I can live at home and actually still attend.</p>
<p>I attended UC Berkeley Summer sessions for the last 3 summers and took Philosophy (pass), Nutritional Science (A), and Astronomy (pass)</p>
<p>If I write a superb personal statement, will I have a fighting chance? I don't have EC or internships. The job market is pretty dead too.
Please do not tell me to attend CC! Thanks for all your help</p>
<p>I don’t have much experience to say (I’m looking to transfer to UCB as well) but I would say that Berkeley is quite a reach for you with those stats. Your GPA is low for Berkeley, and I see you’ve taken classes P/NP rather than for a letter grade (I assume this is looked down upon, although I could be wrong).</p>
<p>I would say apply anyways. Don’t ride everything on it, though, have some flexibility and be able to go to another school, or even stay at UCR. Apply to a few UCs for transfer and have some open options. Who knows, maybe you will get into UCB :)</p>
<p>thanks for the reply! Do you know if we submit our fall quarter grades with our application? Does it count?</p>
<p>I’m not too familiar with the application process, but I assume that we’ll have to submit fall grades :).</p>
<p>I have successfully transferred from UCR to UC Berkeley for Fall 2012. Your stats are quite low for Cal esp for an intercampus transfer, I know someone from UCR who got rejected to Cal even w/ a 4.0. But do apply anyway. </p>
<p>and yes, Fall quarter grades count in the admissions process, where you’re prompted to submit a transfer update in january.</p>
<p>that is really cool and amazing! i just checked, I have a 3.49. If I receive all A’s in my fall q, I can pull off something close to a 4.0. So does Berkeley wait until they receive your update to give you a decision? Or do they make a decision and get the update so they can keep up with your progress?</p>
<p>I believe your Fall grades are actually part of the decision rather than simply keeping up with progress. If it were simply keeping up with progress, I would think A) You would hear about your state of acceptance much sooner and B) you would just send them in with final transcripts.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you, study hard :)!</p>
<p>thanks! Feel free to PM me if you every need my assistance in anything guys. Sayonara~</p>
<p>If you have a 3.49 right now, I highly doubt a 4.0 this fall will bring your GPA close to a 4.0…3.6 is more likely. Maybe a 3.7 if you took many P/NP classes at UCR but that’s not going to look good anyway. I believe poli sci is impacted so you will have even higher competition. Do you have all of your prereqs completed? It will look <em>really</em> bad if you don’t. </p>
<p>By all means, apply. But your chances look low. Work on your personal statement a lot- get it proofread by professors and people that work in admissions. Although the UCs don’t look at your high school transcript, I believe you can still use high school ECs…isn’t there anything you’ve done? Any sort of sport or instrument? Any hobbies?</p>
<p>To the OP:</p>
<p>I think changing schools for you is a BAD idea. </p>
<p>Think about it…if you got a 3.4 GPA at a cra…um…average school, then you WILL do worse at one of the Best schools in the world. There are a lot more hardworking people at berkeley than at riverside.</p>
<p>Just finish your degree at riverside.
a job is easier to get with a 3.4 GPA at riverside than a 2.0 GPA at Berkeley. </p>
<p>Or you could go to a CC…but that would screw you over more because companies don’t like CC grads</p>
<p>By all means, UCR is not a crap or an average school. I have taken many classes at Berkeley already, and I found them a bit more challenging, but not hard at all. The main point was how much effort I put into the classes. I put barely any effort into Astronomy, and received a B+, but took it P/NP anyway.
I don’t believe I would do any worse at Berkeley, it is all the more incentive for me to work harder.
As for a job, at this point it hardly matters. What does matter is that I find Berkeley more challenging, interesting, and a goal worth pursuing. My GPA is worth less than this.</p>
<p>Also, as far as not liking CC grads, I would find that very unbelievable, as the current economy has driven many geniuses to CC b/c they cannot afford a 4 year straight out of high school.</p>
<p>Are you a Soph? (I was under the impression that Cal only accepted Jr transfers.)</p>
<p>Make sure in your essay you give the adcoms a good reason for your transfer. (higher prestige is not a good reason, nor is Coach Tedford.) Personal/family/financial/educational reasons are always good. (But educational reasons would be suspect since Poli Sci is a rather generic major offered everywhere.)</p>
<p>btw: Summer sessions aren’t close to the competitiveness of fall/spring. And taking two classes P/F is of no help – it’s almost a detriment to your case, IMO, by raising obvious questions about your ability to thrive at Cal.</p>
<p>About to be a soph, applying this year, hopeful for next year (junior) acceptance. That is actually a great idea, I will cite my financial reasons.
Damn, I really hope I have a chance</p>
<p>quote
“I put barely any effort into Astronomy, and received a B+, but took it P/NP anyway.”</p>
<p>Before going to medical school and becoming a physician, I received my undergraduate degree in Astronomy at the University of Maryland College Park. Large Universities with strong Astronomy programs like both UCB and UMDCP have, generally have two introductory courses in Astronomy. One is like the one I took for Astronomy majors and requires considerable knowledge of Calculus, Differential Equations and Calculus based Physics and is very challenging. If you took that Astronomy course and got a B+ with hardly any effort I am inpressed.</p>
<p>The Astronomy course taken by most students is one that allows Liberal Arts majors to meet their Physical Science without actually having to learn any science. It requires no knowledge of Math or Physics and for this class I do not see how anyone could get less than an A in it. Taking it P/NP looks particularly bad.</p>
<p>keep us updated man</p>