Does anyone else feel like majority of transfer students here are grossly subpar??

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
781

<p>The fact that you like to learn doesn’t really defend yourself against any of the recent insults; sure you like to learn, but that doesn’t mean you actually know anything about academics or the academic system especially here at Cal. You’ve never taken one of our exams, attempted any of our problem sets, or been graded by our system.</p>

<p>Almost everything you’ve posted has been yours or the opinions of others. I didn’t make the connection between the two because there was none. </p>

<p>What you said here
“What I have witnessed is that many of BOTH frosh and transfers from California were slowing down the classes in comparison to those not from California due to preference.”</p>

<p>is pretty much equivalent to</p>

<p>“I think both sides should just agree to this: there are a lot of sub-par transfer students and freshmen admits at Berkeley.”</p>

<p>which is what I said earlier; I don’t even know why you’re making a personal attack on me. </p>

<p>And no, I didn’t get a C in reading comprehension. I’ve only taken the R1B requirement here, and I got an A.</p>

782

<p>He’s making personal attack on you b/c he is an inferior transfer who thinks he is just as good as all other freshman app that were accepted. People, let them enjoy. They are just inferior students from CC getting their 2nd shot at improving their academic history. Let’s just leave them alone…ha</p>

783

<p>What’s the definition of “subpar” in this context anyway? Let’s be honest. The average transfer student is simply not as smart as the average freshman student here. I can say that from my own experience with a lot of transfers. Transfers make up for it by working a lot harder, resulting in an comparable (though slightly lower) GPA. So yes, most of them are “subpar” intelligence wise. It’s just too easy to get into Cal as a transfer, almost anyone who is a little hardworking, but not necessarily smart, can do it. I think Berkeley should make transfering a lot harder. I doubt that transfers are looked down upon in Stanford, where the transfer rate is ~2%. These 2% must have achieved extraordinary things.</p>

<p>That being said, intelligence is overrated. I would rather employ someone who is hardworking, has some life experience and is easy to get along with than someone who arrogant and doesn’t know anything about the real world, but is a little smarter. When I spend time with people who came here as freshman I often wanna bang my head against the wall because of their naive point of view, which comes from living in a bubble world their whole life (high school with E-parents, and then the time at Berkeley).</p>

<p>I’m thankful there are a lot of transfers at Cal. Many of them may not be the smartest, but they are definitely more enjoyable to hang out with and have interesting stories to tell. (Freshman mostly talk about their clubs and frats both which are totally irrelevant in the real world)</p>

784

<p>I think as freshman admits, we should just be happy that we don’t have to take 2 years of painfully easy CCC courses. </p>

<p>It can be hard to understand that there are students that aren’t doing something Math, Science, or Engineering related, but you can’t think that because they’re choosing a different path (not necessarily easier), that they’re getting away with less effort. I would rather just take the most challenging courses, and know that I’m working hard, rather than worry about other people getting away with less work or an overall easier experience.</p>

785

<p>Uh, meakame, I would read your post but it’s too full of **** and thus takes too much effort. ;/</p>

<p>Anyway, from the bit that I did read:</p>

<p>You really did only read one sentence and thus made the rest of it (that brought up the points you mentioned) irrelevant. I understand that I should have separated it into paragraphs but to be honest I wasn’t doing much proof-reading and wrote it fast, I didnt even realize how long it was until I posted it. I have no problem if you decide to skip over a post because you dont want to read it, but then don’t edit my words to one sentence out of context and one that was meant as a “side-note” compared to the rest. </p>

<p>thank you.</p>

786

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<p>no, I will not read your essay.</p>

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<p>i read until here and realized that you’re an idiot who isn’t even worth arguing with.</p>

787

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<p>tl;dr</p>

<p>i think you need to go back on your meds.</p>

788

<p>Oh my god don’t you guys have any finals to study for?</p>

789

<p>@kmazza: your writing style is terrible, it’s not that we got a C in reading, but that you got a C in writing :stuck_out_tongue: Stream of consciousness lol.</p>

790

<p>lol seriously…I only see one english course on here</p>

<p>

<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/998992-chance-ccc-transfer-ucsb.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/998992-chance-ccc-transfer-ucsb.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

791

<p>Who gives a **** what these freshman think? Either way we are graduating with a higher GPA by skipping over weeders, and getting that job/graduate school/med school offer that you didn’t.</p>

792

<p>paniikd, that you have to result to calling my post **** doesn’t help your argument.</p>

<p>I’m sorry for misrepresenting your views. I was expecting your post to be summed up into a conclusion at the end. Evidently, your writing style is different from mine: you put your content in the beginning while I close my argument with my main points.</p>

<p>And I don’t think my last paragraph qualifies as ****.</p>

<p>Anyway, I hope you have a fruitful two years at Berkeley and graduate with a GPA to die for.</p>

793

<p>sorry who is ‘we’. Are you his evil twin brother or something? I’m a reader not a writer. I can comprehend what I read but do struggle expressing myself. I kept pushing myself though and never wrote BS papers and strive for clarity as best I can. I know there are grammatical errors in my writing but the substance I wrote about typical exceeded anything I’ve read by a Californian in college so always got a good grade on my papers. That is what matters to me over your opinion and immature snide remark. </p>

<p>@ramblinman. I totally agree and what I’ve been saying. That many frosh and transfers I’ve met in and from California seek the easy path instead of challenging themselves. I’ve said over and over again that such people think they are getting away with something when they are only fooling and cheating themselves. An A from one teacher could be a C from another teacher and believe me many Californians due to the poor quality of HS education and towards education as a whole are barely C students. This has become a national problem over the last decade so not just isolated to California anymore. </p>

<p>I get a kick out that frosh from here think I’m trying to get a 2nd chance. I don’t even care about Berkeley that much. I may look at it as one of the top public schools in California and the US but as far as an institution nationally and internationally I consider it pretty average. I think the school is ugly personally and consider the majority of the student body in general to be quite average but do like many of the instructors. I have similar sentiments about Stanford undergraduates too but the 10-20% cream of the crop will rise while the rest help pay and when graduate hope they can market the name of their school over what they actually may have learned. </p>

<p>I also find the notion that every CCC class is easy from the same people who didn’t even attend or only sought out easy teachers for GE AS ADMITTED BY MANY HERE.
I admit I never wanted to kill myself to the point of being buried in work all weekend every weekend. I still have a life and on the weekends can let it go so can just laugh, chill with mates and be myself. I like balance in my life so would choose a hard class, a challenging class, a medium difficulty class, and a fun or GE requirement class. </p>

<p>That said I also did not seek out easy teachers and will give an example of a teacher I liked that I sought out. Its too bad he and other hard teachers are gone now since so many Californians whine and moan when actually have to think and do work. He was a black militant (raised by radical 60’s socialists) from Berkeley who first went to CSUEB for Geology which is a EXCELLENT program at that school no matter what you snobs think about the institution. He then transferred to UCLA grad school to earn his Masters degree then a triple PhD in physics, planetary geology, and I think math but forget. He is a hardcore proletariat that doesn’t like the new leftist bourgeoisie and thinks many of them in academia today are a total joke. They are always offering him lots of money to publish but he tells them straight up how he feels and that he has a life and refuses to play the game of wearing a mask, sucking up and patting each other on the back for very minuscule accomplishments. He earns about 300k a year so would bring me out for a beer because liked me. The class was Earth History (with a lab) and the first day I was in the classroom I was front and center and started saying stuff like 'but the bible says…" He didn’t know me and thought I was serious at first when I am good at sparking a controversial issue that people will feel compelled to start to chime in on in the classroom. He just smiled and it set him off to go into militant mode where he crushed all the Xtians heads and opinions with science and facts to back it up all in the first week haha. </p>

<p>He was a funny guy and very casual off work but when on the clock would say everything in military time haha. The method that he kept attendance was with quizzes every non lab class. I’m not talking about easy questions or T/F or multiple choice either. Each quiz was at least 5 - 10 short essay questions and because he is a socialist militant he did not add up points but deducted them from what one should know as a graduate student haha. </p>

<p>He was straight up that he was going to break us in to prepare us for grad school and that was the level he was going to teach at. The curve was 85% or better was an A, 75% or better was a B so California students were like that’s cool, this will be an easy A haha. Now beyond what any Cal snobs may think here, History of the Earth (with a hard ass lab no less) is not what I would consider an easy class to begin with. We used a thick ass senior level UCLA book which we had to read in its entirety within the first 8 weeks! He gave one 100 point midterm during the 4th week for the first half of the book and another one during actual midterms which were extremely difficult. </p>

<p>His deal with the class is that he has free reign to choose anything from the book whether discussed in class or not and would pick out crazy science stuff! Many of the students whined a lot but he was like a rock and would say but its in the book you are required to read and know. He understood his tests were difficult so also would give 4 100 point homework assignments of 5 essay questions. Sounds easy huh…well not the way he graded which was by deduction of any fact omitted, extra points off if one even attempted fluff or BS. It took me some time to study grad level material, make sense of it and write 2 or 3 paragraphs each to his standards. I studied and worked my ass off to knock his socks off and was the only one to get 2 100 point hw papers which he showed to the class as an example of what he wanted.</p>

<p>Next came the term paper which he wanted scientific journal style that would qualify as something to be published with proper indentations, borders, bib, word count etc. When it was due and were turning it in he would check the word count counter we needed to show and pull out a ruler to measure the borders and indentations. If it was more than say a mm off that could have been caused by the printer he would put a big red slash across the paper, hand it back, and say do it again haha. That was just his class and his lab was practically like a whole other class and also taught grad level!</p>

<p>The class started off with 45 students, was half that after midterms, and halved again close to the end with about 9 students completing the course. Some were close to feeling like they were going crazy with how difficult this teacher was and how some of us laughed about that. He was no joke and and an excellent instructor and a few of us were there to learn so had the attitude of learn to sink or swim you mollycoddled Californians. Some students straight up said I can’t handle this anymore and dropped and the ones that stayed were in such dread of his tests that they actually studied haha besides the fact we had to know the book like the back of our hand hardly half way through the semester! </p>

<p>The kicker was his final though which everyone who stayed was studying their arse off for because were condition to his method of punishment and reward. On the day of the final he said you either get the full credit of 100 points or zip, zero, zilch and that one either understands the material by now or they don’t. Everyone was completely caught off guard with the final which was one page with one question at the top…What is Earth History? He gave no hints and just said write everything you can as precise as possible and that he is very well aware of who we are now and if we got it or not. I got the 100 points which secured my B but there were no A’s, only a few B’s, lots of C’s, D’s, F’s and W’s. That class rocked!</p>

794

<p>no, I’m just expecting that you will lash out at anyone who criticized your writing, which is still ridiculous. Try coming back in a few weeks and rereading your own posts; you will probably also find them quite inane. Though it is a lot better than paniikd, who can’t even be bothered to write in paragraphs.</p>

<p>If you don’t like your writing being criticized, don’t criticize other people’s reading abilities.</p>

795

<p>That’s awesome that you had a great Earth History teacher, kmazza, but what does that have to do with anything pertaining to the topic?</p>

<p>Furthermore,</p>

<p>“I can comprehend what I read but do struggle expressing myself.”</p>

<p>Right, so your reading comprehension insult was pointless because you’ve admitted you don’t have the best communication skills. </p>

<p>Think about your comment with this situation in mind, please: If during a peer review, someone commented on your writing, said that it was incoherent, and asked you to clarify, would you insult that person and accuse them of having poor reading comprehension?</p>

796

<p>Yes, that is true as I’m looking for a English II teacher I like who has a good selection of reading material. I want it to be a fun class that isn’t boring or PC. Realize me and many of my friends in Cambridge were prohibited from watching TV and playing video games so only had a bed, a bookcase, a turntable with a huge classical music and rock collection available to me. When I was young I was trained by a Harvard professor on different methods of speed reading while comprehending the material so exceeded 10k+ physical books thus far and can’t even imagine how many now with all the journals and google scholar material I’ve read. I really don’t understand why you keep attempting to put down the choice of UC transferable classes I took to be honest. They are pretty standard across the spectrum within US educational standards. I didn’t want too obscure of classes so would be clearly understood what they are whether I go to a UC, CSU, LAC or uni in Australia, Canada, or Europe. I’m fully open to constructive criticism but that is not what I am witnessing here.</p>

797

<p>eyeheartphysics, I am pretty aware when someone is trying to insult me as you and others have been trying to do here on CC. I ask for clarification of what I am not aware of and do my best not to assume anything. I’ve actually agreed with you on many points but yet you persist to ignore what I say in exchange for trying to find a weak spot in my writing in attempt to humiliate me. Please be honest about this so we can make some progress is all i ask.</p>

<p>Giving you the benefit of the doubt I will assume you possess intelligence since was born with a brain that has capacity for reason and a mind that has potential for rational thought. When I claim someone is being ignorant, I am not calling them stupid, but in regards to ignoring stuff. So yes, I can only deduce that either your reading compression may be low or the possibility that you are just purposely feigning ignorance picking and choosing what suits you as you please.</p>

798

<p>I’m the one that brought up the similarities in our viewpoints, and you’re the one that insulted me. All I did was ask for clarification and you assumed that I was insulting you. </p>

<p>And again, you admitted that you’re not very good at expressing yourself. So why do you find it hard to believe that I’m the one who can’t read, and it is not you who cannot write?</p>

799

<p>meakame: this is the last thing I’ll say, because this whole thread is getting ridiculous, but your comment its self was not “****” in the sense that it made sense, however your argument was simply ■■■■■■■■ because you chose one sentence of the whole to comment negatively on without reading the whole post. Oh and I’m sorry that I didn’t formalized my content enough. If I knew there were writing requirements on this thread I probably wouldnt have joined as a member. Do you want me to put my name and student ID number at the top right corner as well? Would that help you to understand my words better somehow? What about double spacing? Like I said, your comments were moot because you didnt read the whole thing and thus you hold no merit in trying to criticize my points. You don’t have to read it, of course, it is long, if it was someone else’s I’d probably skip it too, but you decided that I was just wrong from the get-go and picked on one sentence to pry on that was meant as a sarcastic or cynical sign-off just because you wanted to attack my views. I actually don’t mind people disagreeing, as you can see through my past posts, but i want valid arguments not personal attacks. </p>

<p>Well, I’m done with this particular thread and I wish you all well in your college/post-college careers (seriously), even those that have proved themselves fascists like saaky, I hope you use your math/science degree to invent a one use time machine in order to find your place in 1933 Italy where you belong.</p>

800

<p>The senses are limited but from what I do know from experience and knowledge I have the suspicion at the moment that you are merely creating dramatic illusions…basically lying now with a hint of martyrdom. I am getting tired of loaded questions and even being put into a defensive position. Please respect my presence here on this open forum and lets contribute in a positive manner. I would like to rise above the lies and petty insults as do not seek to harm another. I find being honest to be rather revolutionary and would love to see students such as yourself prove to yourself and others in the future who may read these posts that you can indeed rise above the mucky muck. Sound like a good plan?</p>