Chances of transferring into UCLA, UC Berkeley, UCSD, UCSB, UC Davis and LMU?

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

Hi!

I’m planning to apply as a transfer to UCLA, UCB, UCSD, UCSB, UC Davis and LMU. Please chance me!

Ethnicity: African-American
Residency: California

Intended major(s):

  • UCLA: Financial Actuarial Mathematics
  • UC Berkeley: Applied Mathematics
  • UC San Diego: Probability and Statistics
  • UC Santa Barbara: Statistics and Applied Probability
  • LMU — Applied Mathematics
  • UC Davis — Applied Mathematics

Also, would it be smarter to choose less competitive majors and then potentially change it once I’m admitted?

High School: Polytechnic School (Pasadena, CA)
High School GPA: 3.2 (unweighted) – upward trend from sophomore year through my freshman year of college
SAT: 1310 (may not be submitting for all schools if it’s not required)

High School Extracurriculars:

  • Varsity Football Team Manager
  • Judiciary Committee Member
  • Intern for 30th district Senator Holly Mitchell
  • Intern for 41st district Assemblymember Chris Holden
  • Black Student Union
  • Volunteer serving the homeless for all four years

College: Gonzaga University
College GPA: 3.85 (at the time of application)
Credits completed: 34 (at the time of applying after freshman year)

Courses taking next semester:

  • Communication 101
  • Religion 220: catholicism
  • Social Justice 101
  • Art Appreciation
  • Principles of Accounting 260
  • African Environmental History 397

Courses taken:

  • Health - A
  • Chemistry 101 (w/ Lab) - B+ in lecture and B in lab
  • Philosophy 101 - A
  • Psychology 101 - A
  • Writing 101- A-
  • Intro to Literature - A
  • Philosophy 201 - A
  • Statistics (Math 121) - A
  • Foundation of Health, Sport and Physical Education - A
  • World Civilization - A-
  • First Year Seminar - A

College Extracurriculars:

  • Black Student Union
  • Diversity Program Peer Mentor
  • Woldson Scholar

Recommendations:

  1. Chemistry Teacher (8/10)
  2. Academic Advisor and Teacher (10/10)
  3. History Teacher (10/10)

Thanks in advance!

2

The UC’s do not consider race/ethnicity in their admission decisions. Will you have 60 semester units by Spring 2020 when you transfer since the UC’s require Junior level standing for transfers? HS GPA, Test scores and EC’s are not considered in UC admission decisions only what you have done at your college. Your GPA looks competitive for the UC’s listed but always consider UCLA and UCB Reach schools. Although you are a California resident, since you are transferring from an Out of state 4 year university, you will have low priority as a transfer.

This data is from 2018 but has the UC Transfer GPA by campus and major.

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major

3

Thanks so much for the reply! Yes, I will have 60 semester units by Spring 2020. I really appreciate the feedback, and I will take all of those things into consideration when applying. Thanks again!

4

For LMU, you are a solid Match since they do consider LOR’s and your diversity. Best of luck.

5

Thanks!!

6

Your GPA is very strong and from that perspective I do not see UCB or UCLA as reaches.

However, big problem: I’m not seeing any math classes!!! Do you even know if you’re good at math?

You are applying this fall with essentially no math. Math is sequential. I don’t see how you can get in. Will you even be in calc 1 or pre-calc?

The UCs want to see most course requirements completed by fall when you apply. That includes a year of calc and at least linear and discrete.

Plus you don’t have the two required English.

  1. You need to go to assist.org and punch in any ca community college, the UC and major and try and match the courses they list and get most done by the fall when you apply. A couple can be left for spring. This is key.
  2. Also do not start taking upper division courses because they’ll start calculating the units differently and you can get above the unit caps if you’re not careful. You can take as many lower division courses as you wish as that will not affect admissions.
  3. Lastly, another crucial step — crucial — you need two English composition courses that fulfill the UC requirement. You only have one, Writing 101, which **does not **fulfill the requirement. Go to the page below. You need to match Berkeley’s R1A and R1B. English 101 at Gonzaga matches R1A. But there appears to be no R1B match, which means you need to grab one online from a CCC. You must have the equivalent of these two courses (which will also work for the other UCs).

https://admissions.berkeley.edu/transfer-courses-by-institution

It looks like you have the general GE, but I’m not sure how that stats transfers. You need a quantitative math and not all stats work. Another important part.

What you need to do is ask Berkeley to examine your transcript.

BTW, you look more like a law student than a math student.

7

For an applied math or statistics major, the typical expectation is to complete math courses like single variable calculus (or AP calculus credit), multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations by the second year of college.

If you took all of this as college courses while in high school, the courses and their grades do count for transfer purposes.