Hey, so I am a California CC student who will be applying to transfer this semester.
My schools are UC Davis, UC San Diego, and Cal Poly SLO.
My stats:
Major: Civil Engineering/ Structural Engineering
GPA: 3.74 currently, hopefully end of this fall will be 3.82
IGETC: No, but I’m an engineering major, so heard they don’t care about that.
ECs: Intern at a State civil engineering firm (SWRCB-DDW), PALS tutor and MESA tutor (math, chem, physics),
Engineering club, Bike Club.
I’ve done a lot of research, and they should all be matches, just want other people’s opinions Thank you in advance!
SLO simply doesn’t admit many transfers. Applicants from their local CCs get preference and significantly skew the GPA. As hard as it is to wrap your head around, lots of transfer applicants are accepted by UCLA and rejected by SLO every year.
With a 3.74 and the right classes, you are a strong candidate. Be sure to use the TAG framework/process to guarantee your spot at Davis.
@NCalRent, I’m the guy who you so bluntly put it “it boggles my mind why you wouldn’t take the classes needed to be TAG eligible.” <–which I will have all of them finished by spring, just don’t have my second semester English finished already (planned for spring), but would’ve had it finished IF I would have known about it, but since my counselor didn’t say anything, and it was just put in place last year, I didn’t do. Sorry, engineering major, trying to put off english as long as possible, and it came back to bite me in the butt. The policy, in my opinion, is ridiculous, and doesn’t make any sense.
@NCalRent are you sure about SLO and transfers? My daughter from Bay Area got accepted. But it was in communications. It may be different in other majors.
If your out of their local service area, your probably on the outside looking in. If I remember correctly the non-local transfer admits into civil engineering were 3.85+.
Ditto to what Ncalrent and Sdgoldenbear said. It’s incredibly impacted for engineering there as it is, being a transfer makes it even harder. You could get in, bug I wouldn’t put bets down. Nothing against you, it’s just how it is there.
ok, just i know lots of my friends got in to slo engineering last year with the same or lower stats,including 2 biomedical and a civil (civil had the lowest gpa actually). but i know from previous experience to not put all my eggs into the SLO basket. @SDGoldenBear is it safe to assume you go to UCSD? If so could you provide more information for that school, I keep researching it and it gets better and better
Like @Orangered123 mentioned, I go to Cal but I’m from SD and have a number of close friends who attend UCSD (even a couple are who are in the SE program there). My old HS is one of the largest feeders to UCSD and is only 2 miles away from campus.
UCSD is a great school. It’s an expansive campus so you will get tired of walking from place to place, but at the same time there is no shortage of places to explore with La Jolla, UTC, and the Torrey Pines State Reserve all nearby. It’s very similar to SLO in that regard albeit less “natural”. The six colleges idea inspired by Oxford / Cambridge is a hit or miss (and as a transfer engineer you’ll probably want to go to Muir or Warren) but it’s a unique way to branch out to other subjects you normally would not take. It’s also pretty much a necessity to either have a car or be friends with someone who has a car as (IMO) the best part of UCSD is having all of San Diego within reach. Parking does suck though. Also worth noting, like Davis, UCSD has a large foodie culture with hot spots in nearby Mission Bay, Gaslamp Quarter, and the Asian restaurants on the Convoy strip. It always seemed like a significant portion of campus ended up going to those areas on Friday nights.
As far as SE is concerned, it’s a very tight knit community and given the difficulty of the material means you’ll be hanging with other SEs a lot (almost exclusively even). UC “Socially Dead” does tend to apply more to engineers but if you join one of the professional organizations it’s impossible to not get involved in something. My friends always seem to have some project going on when I visit. SCSE seems to be the most involved but I’ve seen that the MESA umbrella orgs (NBSE, SHPE, etc.) are also active.
One thing to really consider between SLO vs UCSD is what type of engineering you want to do after getting your degree. Unfortunately UCSD is an structural specific program which means you will have limited exposure to the other Civil sub-fields like water resources or transportation management. A CE degree from SLO would probably be easier to leverage into a good first full-time job.
@NCalRent that is really cool, where did you get that! And @SDGoldenBear thanks for the info! Yeah, I am hesitant about the specifically structural sub division, as far as job market goes, but structural is my passion, so i’ll have to decide. First have to get in though
