Hello,
I am currently a college freshman/ sophomore, I recently attended a UC, but left due to health reasons. I am now planning to go to a community college, and am wondering if I should exclusively apply to privates in California and out of state, or stay the extra time at SMC and apply for both privates, out of states, csu’s, and ics (specifically UCSB,UCI,and UCSD)
What are your goals? What can your family afford?
I want to major in communications, get a masters afterward, my family can afford all of it.
Are you asking if you should wait until you will have Jr transfer so eligible for CSU/UC or apply earlier to other colleges that will accept applications with less units? How many units do you have from UC and do you have any CC done yet? If you took a leave for medical reasons, are you not able to re-enroll?
I can at my UC, but I would rather not go. I had 24 transfer units, I will have 18 more CC units by the time I apply. Should I say in the comments that the reason I left was for depression and anxiety or to be closer to home because of the heart condition I have? I’ve had two surgeries for my heart condition, but I plan to say I overcame it somehow (I don’t know how)
The two surgeries fixed it, but the reason I left was for depression, I went to therapy and fixed that.
And will that hurt my chances?
If you have a medical excuse about your heart then just stay with that. I would not use depression/anxiety as it is not something that can help you in any way and yes it might hurt your chances. No one will be able to evaluate your stability and you can’t reliably be a self reporter either. I’d steer clear, there is no upside.
So, what should I say is the reason I left? I changed my major, left after winter quarter, but did not sign up for community classes in time? I didn’t take classes at my local community this summer because I wanted to boost my resume. Would you use the heart condition? My parents wanted me closer to home, as they were not comfortable with me having such a condition and being far away. Will they look down on that?
If so, are my chances of transferring to a four year university totally ruined?
I would talk about the heart condition and leave it at that. You could just say truthfully that it made more sense to be closer to home. No need to mention depression.
Ok thank you 
Do any of you know what a competitive gpa for U of San Diego, Chapman, U of Laverne, and LMU is?