Hello, I am currently a freshman finishing my spring quarter at Cal Poly Pomona. My grades in high school were not that great, so I wasn’t accepted into any of the colleges I wanted.
I want to transfer to an UC for my junior year, but I heard that it is nearly impossible. I will most likely have a GPA of 3.88 by the end of my freshman year and the highest I can raise it if I work my butt off sophomore year and get straight A’s is a 3.90~3.93 GPA. I’m not sure if I will be accepted with this GPA compared to everyone else.
I have two plans in mind. One is to transfer to a CC for my sophomore year and transfer to an UC for my junior year. Second one is to complete my sophomore year in my CSU and apply to transfer into a private school. I read everywhere that it is easier to transfer to a private school from a CSU than to transfer to a UC from a CSU. Does anyone have any experience or advice? Please help 
My stats for now:
Dean’s Honor - Fall and winter quarter, mostly likely spring quarter as well
Most likely President’s Honor
GPA: 3.88
What is wrong with CPP?
You can get an idea of how competitive admission to the various majors at the various UCs is for junior transfer admission at https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major .
Private schools vary in transfer admission selectivity. USC takes lots of transfers, but mostly from community colleges (like UCs and CSUs), according to http://admission.usc.edu/transfer/prospective/transferprofile.html . Stanford takes very few transfers, apparently heavily from non-traditional backgrounds.
Nothing’s wrong with CPP, it’s just not what I expected from college. So far, I have only had one class that I truly felt like “This is college!” Most of my classes felt like I was still in high school and made me regret not trying hard enough in high school. I wanted to try apply to other schools, but I don’t really know what my chances are and how likely I will be accepted.
Thank you for your advice I will certainly keep it in mind!
as an adult you’re starting to realize there is no one right answer in many cases. So nobody can tell you what you "should’ do, the best anyone can do is explain options and choices and then you have to decide.
There is definitely a preference for CC xfer students to UC schools. In fact several UC’s even offer a guarantee of admission called TAG. You may be eligible for it if you go to a CC next year, something you’ll need to look into if interested. But people do xfer from CSU; you can use the links already given to see the GPA range of those that succeed.
The flip side is that going to a CC means walking away from friends you may have made and probably living at home. Furthermore there can be an issue getting the required classes at a CC, something that can be solved by enrolling at more than 1 CC and shuttling between them. You also need to figure out what classes at CPP will transfer to see if you are really going to have the required 60 UC units to apply; one way to do this is use ASSIST to see what CC classes map to what you’ve taken and then see if those CC classes are approved for UC.
This is just a start. The CC’s have regular transfer information sessions, perhaps one near you has one this summer you can attend to get further info and perhaps talk to a UC rep.
You might want to go sit in on a class at a UC. Even some of the UC classes fail to provide the “Aha, this is college!” experience you’re looking for.