Hello!
Starting in 8th grade, I started actively thinking about what do I want to major at and what university I want to go to. My sophomore year I finally decided that I want to do international business and that a perfect college for me, in every way, is UC Berkeley. Both my freshmen and my sophomore year I had straight A’s and I took a couple of honors classes. But when it came to my junior year, the most important year, I pretty much ruined it. It was my first year taking AP classes: APUSH and AP Stats. I ended first semseter with a B for APUSH, but I thought there would still be hope if I promoted math as my strong subject… And then I ended second semester with Bs for APUSH and math analysis… And today I learned that I got a 4 for AP stats exam, so now there is no chance for me to get into Berkeley.
BUT, apparantely there is still a chance for me if I transfer. My weighted GPA is a little above 4.0, so I think it’s good enough to get into some college with 30~% acceptance rate. Besides, I feel like if I go to a community college, then my efforts to get all As were of no use. On the other hand, if I am in this position already, I might as well go to a community college to save some money. So is it more likely that I would be accepted into Berkeley if I transferred from another 4-year college, or does it not matter, assuming that I will have a high GPA?
PS: Is there a point to try my best/ exhaust myself trying to get all As my senior year, if no one ever looks at senior year grades?
I believe that @Gumbymom has said that UCs give preference for california community college students over transfer students from other colleges?
UC’s gives priority to transfers as follows: CA CC to UC, UC to UC, CSU to UC, CA 4 year University and then OOS.
Best route is CC to UC but having a high GPA can only help your chances. The problem with another 4 year university is that some courses may not articulate well with the UCB’s requirements while a CC transfer is a well known and proven path.
Even if you go to a less selective or non-selective college, having done better in high school will better prepare you for college work. You do want to do well in college, regardless of which college you attend. And if you attend a community college with intent to transfer, doing well there will make it more likely to be admitted to your transfer targets.
If you want to transfer into Berkeley – or any other UC or CSU – then your best bet is to do well at a California Community College. The California public higher education system is specifically designed to provide CCC alumni with a path to a 4-year degree at a UC or CSU campus. So if you go to a CCC, you effectively get a second chance at UC admissions.
For Fall 2016, Berkeley accepted 3,867 transfer students. Of those, 3,582, or 92.6%, came from CCCs.
Of course, transfer admission to Berkeley is still very competitive. Those 3,582 CCC transfer admits were selected from a CCC transfer applicant pool of 15,641, so the CCC transfer acceptance rate was only 23%. UCLA is also quite competitive, with a CCC transfer acceptance rate of only 29%. But all of the other UC campuses accepted CCC transfers at rates above 50%.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfer-admissions-summary
I would apply to Berkeley as a freshmen and also look for other schools that you would be happy at. If you are set on only one school and making that your only goal, you may end up disappointed. There are a lot of other great schools out there.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major can show you how competitive each major at each UC is for transfer admission. Note that the business major at UCB was highly competitive, with a 6% transfer admission rate and admitted transfer student 25th-75th percentile GPA range of 3.79-4.00. However, UCB business is competitive admission even for those who enroll at UCB as frosh (no frosh direct admission to business).
Wait, you have 2 B’s and you think your life is over? Do you think every student at Cal was a perfect 4.0?
Yeah, chillax.
Apply to a bunch of schools.
But keep in mind that entry to Haas is competitive after sophomore year of college.