Hello! I recently applied to several UC campuses in hopes of transferring next fall, but I can’t help but feel like I am not a competitive applicant for several reasons. I apologize that this is long, but I haven’t been able to find any threads from those with a similar experience.
For starters, throughout high school and my first few years at CC, I had severe depression from a combination of things. Not to get too personal right off the bat, but my father was diagnosed with a terminal illness and I was sexually assaulted by a stranger in my sophomore year of hs. I felt that the latter was too personal and complicated to put in my application (in less than 350 words), but it has affected me and my academic performance nonetheless.
The big “turning point” for me was moving out of my parents’ house and becoming independent because I was finally able to visualize a future for myself after all that had happened. The downside is that in socal, I have to work nonstop in order to barely afford living on my own with roommates. This leaves me very little time for EC’s and such.
As far as stats go:
GPA: 3.53 (I had poor grades during my first few years of college, but as of recently I have straight A’s and make the dean’s list every semester)
Major – Computer Science
No Educational Prep Programs or Extracurriculars (I tried to start a CS club at my school but was rejected by my potential advisor who then decided to advise the same club proposed by a man)
Volunteer experience – I volunteered in 2015 for an educational environmental event as a coordinator
Work experience – For 3 years, I’ve been working at a small restaurant as a waitress. We don’t have a formal “manager” position but I am pretty much the closest thing to being that since I’m frequently there and in charge of maintaining and closing the restaurant.
Awards – I won several awards in high school for the OC academic decathlon. I had nothing else notable to list unfortunately, so I listed these.
IGETC – completed
I had a counselor review my essays who said they were strong.
Prompt 1 – (Preparation for major) I wrote about my newly found passion for CS and how in under a year, I’ve worked on whatever project I could get my hands on for the sake of challenging myself. I’ve built 2 small phone apps, contributed to the development of an indie game, etc
Prompt 2 – (Leadership) Talked about my leadership experience at work
Prompt 3 – (Creativity) Talked about the connection between using tech knowledge in my artistic hobbies and artistic knowledge in my field of study.
Prompt 4 – (Significant barriers) Mentioned my hardships above and how moving out helped me overcome it all.
Overall, I don’t think I come off as academically impressive but my hope is that my essays show that I’m passionate about CS and that I’m capable of persevering through hardship. Does anybody have any input in how colleges weigh academic achievements vs. real world experience? I applied for UCI’s TAG and have a good chance of getting accepted through this according to my counselor, but what are my chances at other UC’s like UCD, UCSC, UCLA, UCB?