<p>Since there are HUGE grade inflations at most community colleges, how do UCLA and UCB differentiate between who's more qualified and who's not, when most applicants will have extremely high GPAs?</p>
<p>I keep hearing that all you need are good grades and your major requirements finished, but is that really all there is? </p>
<p>In high school, you have the SAT, recommendations, and ECs to set yourself apart, so I don't know how to make myself the most competitive for UCLA and UCB, when the guidelines are so simplistic. :/ </p>
<p>Is there some unwritten guideline out there that I'm not following?</p>
<p>My English TA told me it's better to purposefully take harder professors who never give out grades higher than a C, and although your GPA will get lower, if you talk about challenging yourself in harder classes in your essay, then you will be more competitive than others with 4.0s. Is this true?</p>
<p>First of all, do not listen to your TA. For one thing, although the professor you choose can actually be difficult, there is no way for you to substantiate that the class was actually more difficult than others. Perception of difficulty is subjective. Besides, such an essay topic is not creative and mundane. As far as "most applicants getting extremely high grades," what do you mean by "extremely high grades?" and if the high grades you are referring to are 3.5 up trust me there are plenty of applicants out there who have 3.0 and below. </p>
<p>You are right. Transfer admission is much simpler than the regular freshman admission in the sense that we are to present ourselves with less information. The most important element is the completion of your prereq courses for LA and Berkeley. Then comes your GPA. Now, to differentiate yourself from others, you need to demonstrate your passion for your major through work ECs. Transfer admissions officers want not just good students but students that are passionate enough to dig deeper into their subject of study. In their eyes, you no longer have enough time to shop around. They want you to be sure and prove how sure you are. It is hard to show all this in a listing of your ECs. Thats when the essay comes in. For Haas, my dream school, the essay is 35 percent of the admission process. For many competetive majors, your essay can be a determining factor since many applicants tend to have high GPAs. </p>
<p>Also, take courses that can fulfill your academic curiosity, not just the classes you NEED to transfer. I am a business major. But I also took up to native speaker Spanish level, am taking French next semester, and took more than the required English courses. I am taking the survey of British Literature this spring. They want well rounded people and having versatile academic curiosity helps you. Show that you learn for yourself, not just to get into schools.</p>
<p>Your TA should be shot for dumb advice.</p>
<p>Psh, being shot isnt enough. The TA needs to be slapped a couple of times first. </p>
<p>Sam makes a great point. There is no way to tell if the class is "harder" or not even if it has a honors tag on the side. Getting a B in Honors is just as equivalent to getting an A in a regular class.</p>
<p>By "high grades", I mean most ppl applying will have 3.7s or above. (well that's what my English TA said). </p>
<p>Although I'm an English major, I've been involved in a lot of research at biomed schools. That won't...look bad, will it? </p>
<p>The research stuff is more of a hobby. Should I mention on my essay that since my goal is to attend law school, that my science background allows me to understand ppl (aka future clients) who do medical research, but who may have legal problems with publishing their stuff or performing their experiments, etc? But English doesn't really play into that, other than it helps me to develop arguments...I should save that essay for law school, right?</p>
<p>Stop listening to your TA. Most applicants do not have 3.7 or above. People on this forum have relatively high GPAs but that is because these are the people who CARE enough to ensure that they have a brighter future ahead of them. Fortunately for you, these people are only a small fraction of the whole applicants.</p>
<p>As far as your experience in science, if you did see some legal problems within the publication of their research, I would say it can be a good topic for your essay. I say it can be a good topic because quite frankly, anything experience can be a good topic as long as you know how to use it to your advantage. </p>
<p>Keep it mind though, you seem like a hard working student and English major is not impacted anywhere. Just stop listening to your TA and develop the habit of talking to your counselor.</p>
<p>lol thanks Samtheclever. You've given me more useful information than my counselors have, actually.</p>
<p>But about the research thing, is it wise to mention that on my essay, since it has nothing to do with having English as a major?</p>