Hi all. Ive been planning out my next 2 years at cc and this is what my semesters will look like. What do you guys think? Im a little concerned about my last semester. Also is it possible to transfer to a state or uc during winter quarter / spring semester?
fall
That looks really intense! Does your school offer any summer or winter session classes? Maybe you could knock out some of those English courses over a summer or winter intersession? It would be better to give yourself as much of a break as possible so that you can take on such a demanding courseload and succeed. What is your major? That looks like a LOT of really specific classes and I’m not seeing any humanities, which are a requirement for the UCs.
I am almost completely sure that none of the UC campuses accept winter/spring applicants.
I’m guessing MechE or ElecE on a strict two year plan?
I’m not an engineer but from a math POV, I recommend taking Calc I over the summer before your first fall semester and moving up Calc II, Calc III, and DiffEQs respectively. Calc II and Electromag are the hardest for most people so making that change would help a lot in alleviating the difficulty surrounding those courses.
Intermediate English(4?) seems like a good choice for the summer before your second year as well, should that be an option, as it allows you to move up Linear and Materials.
I would reconsider the two year plan though as that is a very demanding schedule even with the proposed changes. (Two year Eng transfers plans are really geared for students that have prior credit in Calc and/or Physics.)
From my experience, Linear Algebra and Calc 3 were the hardest math classes (harder than DE). From my prospective, your Fall semester will be your hardest. Try to see if you can take summer classes. I highly would not recommend your course work in Fall. Also, it may be difficult to understand circuits without having Electromagnetism. Are you sure you can take Modern Physics along with E&M?
My advice is:
Try to take a math and physics class over the summer (if that’s an option)
If you know a bit of Calc 1, try to take Physics 4a in your Fall semester (you can usually clear the prereq. if the department knows you know a bit of calculus). By doing that, you can replace Physics 4B with maybe another one if your engineering class. That way, you can focus primarily on your math courses.
Stay for 3 years. 3 years + 4.0 GPA is better than 2 years 3.5 GPA
Overall, without a summer/winter session, to complete this in 2 years, you must take Linear + Calc 3 at the same time. I Think your best interest is to ease your Fall. That being said, I’m a physics major. Modern and E&M were my favorite classes but also the hardest physics classes. If physics isn’t your forte, it can be hard. They are a whole new level from your first physics classes. Differential Equations help with Modern Physics too, but is not required. Here’s a scale of difficulty in the semesters:
Fall- 5/10
Spring - 5/10
Fall - 9/10 (Can be 10/10 depending on your teacher)
Spring - 8.5/10 (Can be 10/10 depending on your teacher)
I think UCM does too, and maybe Davis, but don’t quote me on those.
@theKwekster I highly recommend taking two summer sessions (one before the first Fall semester), if you’re committed to transferring in two years. That way, you can have a slightly more lenient schedule. Also, for your first semester, I recommend just taking the first 3 courses if possible - those 3 courses alone will be difficult for an incoming HS student.
Many engineering transfers take 3 years in CC to maintain a high GPA. You can be seriously burnt out if you try to cram everything into two - but it can be done.
It is really hard for engineering majors to transfer in two years if your CC doesn’t offer winter/summer sessions. I was able to complete my pre-reqs in two years but I had to take classes during winter and summer. You can definitely follow your plan but keep in mind the #1 priority for engineering transfers is GPA (and pre-req completion) and by taking so many difficult classes in a single semester you are really risking ending up with a lower GPA.
@nidalee Im aiming for a 3.1 major GPA and 3.3 overall GPA. I just want to TAG to Davis, not really aiming for anything else. Would you think achieving this GPA is doable?
@theKwekster 3.3 GPA overall means basically all B’s and a couple A’s. This will all depend on you, but generally if you want an A on any physics/math course, you actually have to put about 2 hours per unit a week for each class outside of class. This means that for your Calc 3 class for example, put about 10 hours a week studying just for that class (whether that be homework or reviewing notes).
To answer your question, if you put in work, a B in every class is doable. If you want to know where your hardest ‘A’ would be, assuming all the professors are at relatively similar difficulty, the hierarchy would be, in my opinion, E&M > Modern Physics > Linear Algebra > Multi Variable > DE.
E&M + Modern Physics is easier to do in combination than Linear + Multi. That’s because the math subjects require you to know almost everything in previous chapters to proceed forward. If you miss a chapter in physics, you MIGHT be able to proceed further for certain chapters. They aren’t as closely linked.
I am an engineering student at a CCC. At first I wanted to transfer in 2 years, but I soon realized I would have to completely dedicate myself to school and only school for those 3 years. Instead I decided to create a 3 year transfer plan, and become more involved in EC’s with the extra free time I would have. I helped start a robotics club at my school and even got an internship for a semester. There a lot of opportunities out there, and from what I’ve seen, there are a lot more internships for electric/mechanical/civil engineers than there are for chemical engineers.
If you decided to do 3 years instead of 2, you can even take more GE classes, for example you can take an Art History class at your CC, which might save you time and money once you do transfer. I’d say, enjoy the time and freedom you can have at a CC, it seems once you transfer you won’t have too much of that.
Last thing, I’ve seen in some UCs’ transfer agreements that starting in Fall 2017 that a 3.4 GPA is the minimum required GPA to transfer. If I were you, I would monitor the transfer requirements with UC Davis or any other school you are interested in applying to, in case that they too make changes to their requirements in the coming years.
