<p>Hi i'm currently a senior in High School and i decided to just goto community college with a 3.4 weighted GPA with 22 ACT score. I thought it would be a good plan to save more money and get better chances to goto my dream school, UC Berkeley. Since i know i'm going to community college, what should i do right now to at least bring up my chances? Do i still have to try to get good grades and good SAT or ACT scores? Should i still do more service learning hours? Should i still apply? What do you suggest me to do for betterment in the future?</p>
<p>High school stats really don’t matter in UC transfer admissions. Most of what you do now will be considered irrelevant when you apply in ~2 years.</p>
<p>In transfer admission, the biggest concerns are typically GPA and pre-reqs. You’ll need to have a major in mind when you eventually do apply, and you can look up the requirements on assist.org when you’re ready for those steps. You could look into what sorts of majors you might enjoy. But high school GPA and test scores aren’t really considered at all, and I’m pretty sure they care more about your recent ECs. Of course, having more volunteer hours and such certainly won’t hurt your chances, so there’s no reason to stop with that. Grades, well, you probably shouldn’t let them slip, and chances are the information from class will come in handy later on in school as well.</p>
<p>Should you still apply: Well, that’s up to you, really. If it’s truly a “save money” issue and you wouldn’t want/be able to attend UC anyways, I’m not sure where applying would get you. If it’s more of a “I want to bring up my chances” thing and less about the money, apply to any of the schools you would want to attend (as opposed to the CC/transfer route) and see how it goes. If you’re still debating which path to take, it might be best to apply anyways, just so you have some options if you’re dreading CC when decisions roll around.</p>
<p>For UC transfer students, GPA is most important. No need to concern yourself with ACT/SAT anymore because those aren’t considered. EC’s are a good way to show leadership, but are not as important as they are for freshman entry.</p>
<p>You never know what universities are looking for (especially Berkeley with it’s holistic review), so definitely apply. You might be pleasantly surprised! Apply to several UCs to give yourself some options. But if you ultimately decide to go the CC route, it’s an excellent way to knock off GEs and lower division work at a low cost. You can also avoid all the “weeder” classes that way.</p>