<p>Hey everyone.
So, I'm going into my second semester at a community college in northern california, and starting to get a bit antsy about my chances to transfer to UCLA. I plan to major in communications. I have a 4.0 GPA which I plan to be able to sustain and will be the president of a club called Circle K (Kiwanis college chapter; community service) next year. On the not so good side, I've never been employed, and the biggest thing that is getting me worried is that none of the community colleges in the Sacramento area (5+) offer some of the classes which are considered prereqs for a communications major (ASSIST lists 2 of the courses I need to take as having no equivalents). I've heard that it's possible to take summer courses at Sac State without needing to go through the entire application process, which could be a possibility. I'm also considering taking couses with Honors and joining the community college Honors program (Phi Theta Kappa) in the hopes of bolstering my transcript.
I guess my main questions are what you believe my chances of being admitted are as a whole, whether or not missing 2 of the prereqs will be a disqualification, whether or not it would be possible to take classes at a CSU or UC over the summer without being formally enrolled, and if taking the honor courses is worth it (possibly at the expense of my GPA). I know that's a ton, but any help that you could give me would be great. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>PS: I'm not sure if this has any impact on anything, but I took the CHSPE at 16 and started attending community college.</p>
<p>I took the CHSPE too! Although, it was six years ago :). You should be fine as long as you complete IGETC for the UC system, which will effectively wipe out your high school record.</p>
<p>As far as I know, you are not penalized if your college does not offer pre-reqs listed on ASSIST, so you should be OK.</p>
<p>I don’t personally know how much Honors courses and Phi Theta impact admission, perhaps someone else can chime in on that. It is my opinion that you should strike a balance between challenging courses and maintaining the highest GPA you can first and foremost, and ECs come after that.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. It’s awesome to hear someone else has done it Where did you end up going to college?
And it would be great if that’s how it works - Communication Studies really is what I want to major in, and it just sucks that they don’t have transferrable classes at my CC. It’s a relief to know that, though…it would really bolster my chances.
Thanks for the advice regarding priorities - that’s basically what I was thinking, but browsing through the forums I see so much about the TAP, which isn’t offered at my college.</p>
<p>Any other info people have would be awesome.</p>
<p>I started at a CC in 2008 and am applying to transfer for Fall 2010 to UCLA as well. I was working full time from 16 to present which is why I didn’t go straight to community college after the CHPSE. My college also doesn’t offer TAP, but depending on how many units you’ve completed it may make sense to take classes at a near by CC to get it since it would help, and Communications is so impacted. If that’s not possible, just focus on that GPA and your essay, since UCLA does read it.</p>
<p>I applied to communications as well for UCLA. they focus mostly on grades so it doesn’t matter if u dont have much work experience. my school doesn’t have some of the prereqs either, but we do have TAP.</p>
<p>When I went to the UCLA/TAP conference, they said that being in the Honors program will give you a leg up. The example they gave was of a student who was applying as a business major (also impacted), but had a slightly lower GPA (3.6) than was required. But because he was in the Honors program, he still got in. </p>
<p>I’m not saying the Honors program is a guarantee, but it is definitely a plus! Good luck!</p>
<p>^wow that guy must have been amazing! just b/c of TAP he got accepted to UCLA and they created a whole new major just for him (business)? and they even said it was impacted!</p>
<p>Ah, thats good to know. I’ve emailed the honors advisor at my school as well, and she replied with all sorts of statistics that point to the importance of honors. I guess I’ll just buckle down and try to do it
Thanks for all the answers, guys. If anyone has more info about the whole lack of 2 prereqs thing, or anything else, I’d really appreciate it :)</p>
<p>Hey, I took the CHSPE at 16 to go to the Sacramento CCs too. CSUS stopped concurrent enrollment (they had an open university program where you could take their classes during fall/spring semesters) due to budget cuts, but you can still do summer. I’d advise that. And make sure to check out all the CCs- I ended up taking classes from all 4 to suit my schedule. Also, CRC has a good radio program, try to get involved with that. I’m pretty sure BJ Snowden is in charge of the radio part, no idea about the TV, but try to take advantage of their RTVF classes. I don’t know if any of them are prereqs, but at least they’re related to communications so it’ll show that you’re really invested in comm as a whole.</p>
Where did you end up going to college?