<p>Hello everybody, I come to you with probably a very played out question, so if I sound like a broken record, forgive me. Firstly, I am about to be a sophomore at San Francisco State. My first year was so so. I wasn't the most social guy out there and I commuted 3 days a week first semester and 2 days a week second semester. First year my overall gpa was a 2.9 and I dont know my major completely but I am looking into creative/film writing, psychiatry, paralegal/law. I would love to transfer to Davis or Berkeley and I really would want to transfer there. My biggest dilemma is the sole fact of staying at sfsu or going down to the nearest and spending time there to transfer. Fees have increased at sfsu as well, but if I can work and get some loans it will not be too much of a problem. Most of the older people who I've asked(almost and post grads) say to stay at sfsu and if I can transfer do it if not it's okay, but then again why not set myself up for the best opportunity to get to a uc. If you guys can give me every tip you know in the book how to set myself up to transfer from a csu and a jc to a uc that would be great. I realize either way it will take an immense amount of work. Feel free to give me any type of advice that will help my decision.</p>
<p>wall of text makes me sad =(</p>
<p>Truthfully if you got a 2.9 at a csu i don’t know how well you can handle a UC.</p>
<p>To transfer to a UC you stand no chance with a 2.9 from a CSU your best bet is to go to a C.C and get a 4.0 and balance out your gpa near a 3.5 if possible. </p>
<p>How many units have you already taken at SFS? Thats probably the biggest determinant</p>
<p>If you are asking whether you should try to transfer directly from SFSU to UCD or UCB or drop out of SFSU, go to a CCC and apply from there to UCD or UCB it really depends on how important it is for you to go to a UC and how much risk you are willing to take. Right now you are at a four year college which can grant you a BA or BS and while you are not excelling you are making satisfactory progress towards graduating. However, if you really want to transfer from SFSU to UCD or UCB it would probably not be possible even if you had a 4.0 GPA. The UCs do not welcome transfers from the CSUs and give them the absolute lowest priority for admission. On the other hand the UCs encourage transfers from CCCs and give those students the highest priority in the admission process. Your only realistic route to a UC is dropping out of the CSU, going to a CCC and applying as a CCC transfer to a UC.</p>
<p>The risk is that CCCs are two year colleges and can not award bachelors degrees, only associates degrees, which is a big step down from a bachelors degree. If you do not do much better at the CCC than you did at SFSU you are very unlikely to be accepted at a UC, particularly competitive ones like UCB or UCD despite applying from a CCC. You would need to pull your GPA up to at least 3.4 to have a chance at any UC. </p>
<p>If you did not get accepted at a UC you could reapply to SFSU or another CSU and complete your four year degree program there but I would not take it as a certainty you will be able to do that. Due to state budget cuts, the CSUs have had to reduce the number of students they can accept at a time when they are receiving a record number of applications. For example CSULB received 70,000 applications last year for only 6,000 positions. As a result, many CSUs are rejecting transfer applicants from CCCs with GPAs well above the published minimum GPAs needed for eligibility to transfer to a CSU. The situation is much more likely to get worse than it is to get better. If you could not transfer from the CCC to a UC or CSU your only route to a four year degree would then be trying to transfer to a private four year college.</p>
<p>You need to think this through very carefully before making a decision.</p>
<p>I have completed around 30 units. You both make excellent points, I know dropping down would be a very big risk and I’m not dead sure if I would pursue that decision. I was wondering if I did want to transfer from a csu how could I set myself up for transfering. Even if I got within the 3.6-3.8 range and worked, interned, and a few clubs, and a really good personal statement, with even all that would it be near impossible. I really would love to be at a uc, but dropping down and not getting in and not being able to go back, that option slightly scares me.</p>
<p>Transfer directly from a CSU to a UC almost certainly isn’t going to happen even with a 3.8 GPA, great ECs and wonderful essay. The Whole California higher education system is set up to make it nearly impossible. The plan is to have as many students as possible go to CCCs for their first two years and then transfer to a four year school, either a UC or CSU. The courses at CCCs are designed to prepare students for transfer to UCs. The UCs are “research” universities and the CSUs are “teaching” schools and their courses due not articulate well. Once you make a decision to go to a CSU you are deemed to have made a an irrevocable choice on what type of four education you will pursue. CCC students have to transfer to get a four year degree while CSU students do not. The system is designed to encourage UCs to give top priority in admissions to CCC transfers. Transfer from a UC to a UC has a lower priority but can happen since all UCs are considered equivalent and work at one easily transfers to another. CSUs are not considered to be equivalent to UCs and CSU students are not considered to be prepared to make a seamless transition to a UC. They traditionally have had the the same priority as out of state four year colleges. However, with the UCs needing the huge tuition out of state students pay, a CSU transfer applicant would probably rank lower in priority than a transfer from an out of state four year college.</p>
<p>I have not been on CC that long but I do not think I have read of a single case where a student succeeded in transferring from a CSU to a UC.</p>
<p>There has been a few cases of successful transfer from CSU=>UC </p>
<p>Problem is you have 30 units completed at 2.9 you need to stay under the unit cap and your already 1/2 way through the minimun number of units needed to transfer. </p>
<p>You can’t reach 3.7-3.8 gpa at this point your best GPA you can obtain is a 3.5ish with a 4.0 on your remaining units. So if you are really hell-bent on a UC go to a CC first and do it quick</p>
<p>I successfully transfered from CSU Stanislaus to UC Davis with a 3.95 GPA and an equivalent of 123 transferable units. It is made extremely difficult to transfer from a CSU to a UC but it can be done, although a high GPA is a necessity. It is also necessary to ensure that the courses you are taking transfer by comparing the course catalog of your CSU to the catalogs of the UCs you are applying to when choosing classes.</p>
<p>For ^^^Lemaitre1’s benefit, I also transfered from a CSU to a UC this year.</p>
<p>I went from SDSU to UCLA with a 4.0 GPA (3.97 after the winter update) and a ton of work experience & EC’s. It was very tough though, and there was a tangible feeling of going against the grain.</p>
<p>Also, what Lemaitre1 said about differentiating a CSU from a UC isn’t true. SDSU has been ranked the number one small research institution in the nation for the last four years, and I’d be willing to bet that Cal Poly SLO/ Pomona, and possible CSULB may have research going on as well. (Source: <a href=“NewsCenter”>SDSU Research No. 1 for 4th Straight Year | NewsCenter | SDSU).</p>
<p>Second, he also said that CSU -> UC is considered the priority equivalent of an OOS university, which isn’t true. They’re considered on the same level as other California 4-year universities, and the impact of your school on your admission decision varies depending on your CSU as much as it does for other 4-year transfers. The statistics for CSU -> UC transfers are accordingly grouped together with all other California 4-years -> UC.</p>
<p>i.e., ~30 students from California 4-years transfered to UCLA this year, and anybody from a CSU is accounted for in this statistic.</p>
<p>Just wanted to do some clearing up, if anybody read through his wall-o-text. =)</p>
<p>^ i gotta disagree that CSU is on the same level as a UC to UC transfer</p>
<p>Mainly due to the fact that UC classes transfer very well from one another but not all CSU classes transfer like many out of states.</p>
<p>^peterr86, read a little closer. I said CSU -> UC is on the same level as other California 4-year’s to UC. Not UC -> UC. I know a UC is a 4-year lol, but you have to look at it in the context of UC transfers.</p>
<p>The best way to look at it is the way that some of the UCs break the statistics down themselves.</p>
<p>There are four categories of priority:</p>
<p>-CC -> UC</p>
<p>-UC -> UC</p>
<p>-California 4-year -> UC (Includes publics & privates)</p>
<p>-OOS Anything -> UC (I honestly have no clue whether they differentiate between OOS CC and OOS 4-year)</p>
<p>*Note, this is only for priority. I.e. within the California 4-year category, obviously a student from Stanford will be viewed differently than a student from SDSU. However, both the student from Stanford and the student from SDSU are supposed to receive priority AFTER CCC and other UC transfers. Of course, Stanford is an extreme example and may be treated differently depending on the admissions officer, who knows.</p>