<p>I've got a rather unconventional academic history, and I really am unsure about my chances for Berkeley. It's really important to me that I transfer there, but my college resume has been so bizarre that I have no idea how I'll be viewed as a candidate. I'm hoping some outside opinions will help me focus myself. </p>
<p>Okies. Here's what I've done: </p>
<p>High School: 3.4 gpa, one AP course, 1920 SAT, 100+ hours of community service, various extracurriculars(music, athletics, clubs, ya know)</p>
<p>One year private liberal arts college:
The school had no grades, just written evaluations, which were all outstanding. I co-authored a paper on language change that was presented at University College Dublin January 2010.
I also took two upper-level courses at a nearby university and got a B+ in both. One was a graduate/advanced undergraduate course in syntactic theory. In my transcript, I believe it went down as a graduate class. </p>
<p>After a year, I had to leave that college due to family issues, and I transferred to a local community college. I'm majoring in Mathematics, and have a 4.0 gpa, am in Phi Theta Kappa as well as an honors program at the school. </p>
<p>At Berkeley, I want to major in linguistics, and minor in either Celtic Studies or Classical Languages. Does the major you indicate affect your admission chances? </p>
<p>I'm graduating with honors from the community college, and now I want to transfer to Berkeley. Can I do it? Will my credits from the university my first year mean anything? Has anyone here done anything similar? Please help me out.</p>
<p>If you are transferring as a junior, your high school statistics will not matter. </p>
<p>And after running a table through the UC Statfinder, it shows that of the people with 3.8-4.0 GPA’s who applied to Berkeley as linguistic majors in 2009, about 60% were accepted. You have a very, very high chance as long as you have done the prerequisites.</p>
<p>However, I’m not too knowledgeable in regards to how your one-year of private university will affect the admissions decisions.</p>
<p>To cello: Koreo is correct about your high school grades - they won’t matter for transfer. You won’t be applying directly to the Linguistics or Celtic Studies. You’ll be applying to the College of Letters & Sciences. You won’t be able to actually declare a major until your first semester of your junior year.</p>
<p>A question about your Lib Art college. Did your cc translate the grades when you submitted your transcript to them? If not, I would recommend contacting UCB’s admissions office first. They may request your previous LAC to assign you letter grades (the LAC will have the ability to do this). Your cc grades are perfect, so that’s a bonus. Work on your personal statement. 4.0’s aren’t a guarantee in L&S (as a lot depends on the academic community that the admissions committee is trying to build that year). But with your background it sounds like you should be capable of writing a very competent statement.</p>
<p>p.s. If you get in, go directly to Kathryn Klar’s office in Dwinelle. She’s a long-time lecturer in the Celtic Studies department and is a linguist as well (Modern/Medieval Wesh, Old/Middle Irish, and various California Native American dialects).</p>