Finishing Up First Semester at UC Berkeley

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

<p>First of all, this site was a tremendous help to me when I was applying and during my time at community college so I hope to give back some value with this post. My major at UC Berkeley is Sociology.</p>

<p>UC Berkeley has been an amazing experience to say the least, the professors are brilliant, the students are bright, and the work-load is not that bad. I am taking four Sociology classes this semester, two 4-unit classes, one 5-unit class, and a 1-unit p/np transfer student class. </p>

<p>I study pretty much every day and study at least a few hours, on weekends I will go to Doe Library and study for about 5 hours straight. At community college I would barely study at all, maybe a few hours per week; however, at Cal, studying is a much more salient part of my life and has truly payed off. I have straight A's, and when the grade distribution comes out for the tests I take in my classes I am consistently at the top of the class. Something that many GSI's (Grad Student Instructors) as well as I have noticed is that transfer students perform considerably better than students that were admitted freshman year.</p>

<p>I live off-campus so I can't speak about the dorms, but from what I hear people like them overall. </p>

<p>Back to academics, I have learned more at Cal in this first semester than I learned my entire 2 years of community college. Community college classes scrape the surface, while classes at Cal truly get in deeply to the topics of concern. So far in just one of my classes we have read a entire books by: Karl Marx, Max Weber, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Mannheim, Sigmund Freud, and Emile Durkheim. If you come to Cal you have to love reading or at least be disciplined enough to be able to crank out the readings as well as understand them. I know people that have fallen behind on the readings and have never caught up--this is a dire mistake many make, I have noticed. </p>

<p>Furthermore, really take classes seriously at community college because now I am in the process of getting my applications ready to apply to law school and the work I did at community college will have a significant effect on my future admissions. If you are thinking about grad school do well the first time on a class because for Grad school both grades will be incorporated to GPA calculation. Also, for some Grad school programs W's on your transcript can hurt you significantly. So, really take notice of what your are doing at community college and how it will affect you later on down the road. </p>

<p>If you guys have any questions let me know and I will do my best to answer them.</p>

2

<p>For grad school, or in my case, med school, does academic renewal hold any bearing? I received 2 F’s my first semester of community college, but received AR for both of them due to a considerable improvement in my academic performance. I also received a D, but I will be retaking that class next semester. </p>

<p>I’m also very interested in UC Berkeley, and if I attend I will likely either be a Phil major whilst taking premed classes, or a psychology major (depending on whether or not I complete the remainder of my psych prereqs in my first quarter at UCB if I were accepted). I attend College of San Mateo, so it’s pretty close by, and I have a 3.57 UC GPA with great upward trend, and applying as a Philosophy major. Do you think I have a solid shot?</p>

<p>Thanks for the help.</p>

3

<p>hey emil…we seem to have the same level of involvement in this whole process. did you submit your app yet? i submitted mine. if you wanna exchane PS’s to get a compairison then lets do it. think it could be interesting.</p>

4

<p>I’m really glad to hear that us Transfer students fair well GPA wise. Du you know how compeditive the psych major is as far as getting a near 4.0?</p>

<p>Also, how are you finding the social life as a transfer student?</p>

5

<p>Have you heard anything about how hard Philosophy is? I’ve heard mixed things.</p>

6

<p>sarah, I actually haven’t submitted my app yet, but will be tonight or tomorrow. I’m trying to refine my PS’s as much as possible, while also making sure I have certainty about the classes I’m taking next semester before I submit my app. Either way, my PS’s are basically done, and yeah I’m in for exchanging PS’s. I’ll PM you my first one now. The second one is on my home comp.</p>