<p>So here's the deal...I'm a few years older than most of you. I live and work in West Hollywood. I have a 3.45 GPA and was just denied from UCLA as a Poli Sci major. I was accepted to UCSD and UCI but I really don't want to move out of LA.</p>
<p>Should I just go to CSUN or wait a year and apply to UCLA next year as an Anthropology major? I actually regreat not applying this year as an Anthro major, but it's too late :/</p>
<p>If you go to a CSU it will be even harder to get in… I’m a little older to (23) and if I don’t get in where I want to go I’m just going to head somewhere else and make the best of it, there’s always grad school.</p>
<p>^cant u appeal as an anthro major?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t. Going to a CSU would make chances of transferring to LA significantly lower.</p>
<p>I was asking if I should just trasfer to CSUN or stay at SMC, wait a year, and then apply to UCLA again next year.</p>
<p>I would just go to UCI or SD and get this over with. There’s always grad school and it’s not worth losing a year of your life just so you can try UCLA again…what if you get rejected again? If you don’t want to move out of LA no matter what, go to CSUN. One way or the another, be a college grad in two years esp since you’re older than a typical college student alrdy. </p>
<p>Btw, I’m a non traditional student myself…</p>
<p>I hate to break it to you, but at a 3.45, you’re not exactly “borderline” either. 3.8 is considered the magical cut off, but there are some denials even above that.</p>
<p>The way I look at it, next year there’s going to be yet more competition.</p>
<p>I would reconsider not moving out of LA. Out of curiosity, why do you not want to move? UCI isn’t far from LA? Although, if I were you I’d go to UCSD without a doubt. It’s a great school and SD is beautiful. Also: since you are older, you probably would like to get out of college more quickly than the rest of us. So why waste another year at SMC? Make the best of the situation and go to UCSD or UCI, I doubt you’ll regret it. Both are good schools.</p>
<p>For someone like me, even if I don’t get into UCB going to a UC at all is something I wouldn’t have thought possible during high school. I was definitely a screw up LOL</p>
<p>I’m so glad I wasn’t cursed with this crazy obsession a lot of you people have with UCLA or Berkeley. Quit your freakin job and go to school da mn it!</p>
<p>haha cooldude6 I agree</p>
<p>Just thought I’d add this in. Yes, where you go is important but it isn’t the central thing. I think what you do in college matters more than anythig else. I’m old enough to have plenty of friends that finish college alrdy. Two of them went to CSUN for undergrad and grad school and are currently enjoying a nice career in physical therapy and academia respectively. One I know went to CSUN for undergrad, went to work at some law firm for a few years and is currently going to UCLA Law school. Lastly, a friend of mine went to UCR for business and is currently holding a well paying position in Wall St and attending NYU for MBA. </p>
<p>Make the best out of the situation that you’re in. It would be foolish to wait another yr just to try this again. Anyway, good luck</p>
<p>hey SMCGuy, I’m a longtime lurker and created an account just to throw my two cents at you! Don’t you feel special?</p>
<p>I’m in kind of a similar situation. I’m an anthro major, as well as an old, old student (33, y’all) and was just turned down by UCLA, where I really would prefer to go. However, when I started griping to my LA friends about it they told me that UCSD is a better school overall so to go there if at all possible, advice that would have given me food for thought even if UCLA hadn’t made the decision for me first.</p>
<p>So here’s my advice. I wouldn’t even bother with Northridge. If it is possible for you to relocate to San Diego to go to UCSD or UCI, don’t bother waiting another year. You have your whole life to move back to Los Angeles, and it’s so easy to put off college for another year, and another, and another. I had a fabulous career doing what I thought I wanted to do for the rest of my life, which made it easy to justify not getting that degree, but now I’m burned out and my industry’s shot, I still don’t have a degree and my experience in the real world counts for very little without it. I also regret putting off college as long as I did because a 33 year old college student is more difficult than being a normal-aged college student in some ways. It’s even tougher than when I was a 29 year old college student. I could have given birth to some of my classmates, dude.</p>
<p>If you were to go to UCSD or UCI, it’s possible to go a couple days a week if you don’t want to relocate. Pack them all into two days, do your classes on WebCT (instructors are web-friendly in varying degrees but most seem to put up their lecture materials after each class) tell your instructors that you have to do take-home work. You can even take the Red Line from West Hollywood to the train station and just take the train down. I did a lot of commuting between San Diego and Los Angeles for several years (job vs. boyfriend) and ended up taking the train a lot; it was great, staves off driving-related burnout, and if it’s for school you can write it off :)</p>
<p>So you have plenty of options. You really don’t have to be in San Diego to go to school here. LA and San Diego, to say nothing of LA and Irvine, are closer than you think. To put it into some perspective, it takes the same amount of time to drive from downtown LA to Irvine as it does to drive from Pasadena to Santa Monica. Less time if it’s raining.</p>
<p>Hmm, I don’t know about UCSD and UCI, but so far at UCLA I have had no web classes. Sure, some material is available online, but no lectures or anything. And trying to jam pack all your required classes into only a few days a week is easier said than done. Plus, there is something to be said for being close to campus (this is coming from someone who has been commuting to school from 40 miles away for the past 4 months).</p>
<p>Go to CSUN, or move.</p>
<p>@SMCguy Sorry I wasn’t clearer, I meant I wouldn’t go to a CSU and then try to transfer afterwards. I would just wait a year in CC if you want UCLA that bad or go to UCSD. I’d rather go to SD than wait another year though.</p>
<p>I’m sorry that you didn’t get into LA but I would just go someplace else and make the best of it… do you REALLY want to spend another year at a JC??</p>
<p>I’m 21. Rejected two years in a row for architecture. Gonna wait another year and try again</p>
<p>Sophie: Really? Hmmm. That does make it harder. I’m at UCSD part-time right now and so far my classes have been really well integrated into WebCT. I can duck out of class without feeling too bad about it because I know I can catch up online. </p>
<p>I did it tho - at community college so it was less intense, but I did it, and without the benefits of WebCT. I took 14 units at San Diego City College while I was working 4 days a week in Los Angeles, so I had 2 10-hour days at school and then did all the rest of the schoolwork when I could. I have a friend who does something similar; he lives in SD where he and his wife just bought a house, and commutes to UCLA for grad school.</p>
<p>I dunno. I guess in the end it’s whatever works for you. I would probably not do it again because I was so exhausted at the end of the semester and had no social life beyond drinking beer in front of my computer, and it’s not ideal, but I did just want to throw that out there.</p>
<p>I have a friend who commutes to Irvine from West LA two or three days a weeks and she’s managing it pretty well . . . the drive isn’t bad, especially if it’s not during rush hour and if you have a book on tape or something.</p>
<p>If you can appeal, try appealing now as an anthro major. last year some people got into a non-competitive major through appealing after having gotten rejected from a competitive major.</p>
<p>if you decided to try for next year and you plan on applying as poly sci as well, don’t waste your time. i’d only reapply if you apply for a major with a higher acceptance rate. you can always take poly sci electives on the side of your major at UCLA</p>
<p>WOW!! So much good advice and much needed motivation! Thanks everyone! I’m submitting my letter for appeal today. If I don’t get into UCLA on an appeal then I’ll probably go with UCI or UCSD =)</p>