Chance @ UC Berkeley

<p>I understand that it is apparently difficult to get into Cal if you're an out of state transfer. However, I'm extremely driven to accomplishing this. Here are my factors:</p>

<p>I'm a current student in Florida. I'll have my AA (general) in June 2012. Right now I have a 3.51 GPA and am a member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society. The three classes I am taking know I can almost guarantee I will get A's in. </p>

<p>My big worry is that I don't have recent volunteer work history. Since I've been in school I've been pregnant and then my son suddenly passed away so I really haven't been in the frame of mind to leave my house unless necessary. I also work full time and have another child. </p>

<p>I'd like to not get my hopes up about being accepted but I really do need this.
I want to major in Sociology and have taken two sociology classes and am now taking Statistics. Any suggestions would be appreciated!</p>

<p>Well first off, I’m really sorry about your unfortunate situation. Hopefully everything goes better from here. And I think you shouldn’t worry too much about not having too much volunteer work recently, you work full time and you have a child to raise, no school is going to expect you to do too much more. </p>

<p>My biggest concern about your record is that you only have a 3.51 GPA. To get into a school like Cal, generally you are going to have to have at least a 3.7 GPA to have a real chance and since you’re a sociology major probably at least a 3.8. The only people I know that have transferred into schools of that caliber with less than a 3.7 are natural science majors. Social Science majors, especially ones that lean toward humanities, generally have to have near perfect GPAs to get in. However, you do have a very unique situation and I’m sure Cal will consider that. It is possible that you could get in with something around a 3.6 simply because they felt that you performed admirably under your circumstances, you never know. I can’t really say what your chances are at UCB simply because you have a unique situation. I think if you can ace the essays, you will have a realistic shot at Cal. Good luck!</p>