Hello all! I was recently looking at some colleges to transfer to (coming from a community college), and I stumbled upon the University of California, Berkeley. I understand that UC-Berkeley is certainly a challenging school to transfer into, but does anyone have any additional information and/or advice for possibly transferring there, other than what their website already mentions (I’d be going to their Letters & Science for English; Currently, I have a 3.53 GPA and have had some of my English writings printed in my school’s literary journal; I’m also in the second semester of my Freshman year)? I really just wanted to get a better idea of what’s expected from them. Thanks for any information!
In what state is the CC that you are attending?
I’m at Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth, NH.
First, I am sure that UCB is not the only out-of-state university that you are considering, but the fact that out-of-state students are offered such little financial aid should always be recognized.
Secondly, a 3.5 is a solid GPA for the first semester. Hopefully, you will be able to perform better and better as the semesters pass and work your way into the 3.7-4.0 bracket by the next of next fall.
You can use Assist.org to outline the prereqs and general education requirements for the UCs. If you take general courses, then you should be able to satisfy the requirements for all of the schools that you are considering UC or otherwise. Make sure that you are studying foreign language as well. Especially considering that most English programs at competitive schools require foreign language as a general rule.
I am not sure how the rest of your ECs look, but having original work in a literary journal is a good start. I would see if there are any other writing/newspaper clubs at your college or in the area that you can take part in. If you rack up a few more ECs, grow that GPA a few points higher, and write good essays, you should have quite a few options available to you.
Side Note: If you already looking out of state, then I would definitely start looking into privates. Public unis are funded by state tax payers so out-of-state students often aren’t given that much financial help; but private schools usually have more freedom to offer aid as they please. Not to mention, without aid, most of these large public schools are equally as expense as privates. USC, for instance, is excellent for all kinds of writing. There are a number of other privates on the east coast that have great programs as well.
Thanks for the response, as well as the excellent assistance you’ve helped me with. Although Cal is certainly “up-in-the-air” with me, I’ll definitely take your suggestions and apply them to the other colleges on my list. Once again, thank you very much TheVisionary for your help!