Highschool Failure- UCB/UCLA?

<p>I am a junior in highschool and im really nervous. I have screwed up thus far and i have decided to choose the community college route. I am really unsure on the chances i have in transfering to UCB or UCLA because those are my dream schools. I would love for someone to answer my questions. I am VERY nervous as you can probably tell..</p>

<h2>Thanks!</h2>

<p>According to the information that ive gathered on these forums,</p>

<p>TAG counts for all UCs except for UCB and UCLA.</p>

<p>TAP counts only for UCLA.</p>

<p>Let's say that i screwed up highschool and i want to go to a community college in order to transfer to UCB/UCLA:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>should i/can i still enroll in TAG just incase i do not make it to UCB/UCLA? </p></li>
<li><p>would the AP courses that i took in highschool count towards the prereq classes i must take in community college, thus making my course load lighter during my stay at community college?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Also, can someone explain how easy it is to be GURANTEED into the UCs that offer TAG?
For example, if i keep a 3.0 gpa and adhere to all the agreements that comes along with TAG, would i be admitted into the university automatically? OR, is the minumum gpa a 3.0 and i must get a higher gpa to be competitive? </p>

<p>If there are people who transfered successfuly from a California Community College to UCB/UCLA could please explain your process and tell me how easy/hard it is to get in? What was your gpa? your major? etc..</p>

<p>

Yes you should/can do TAG. Apply to UCLA/UCB and have guaranteed backup(s).</p>

<p>

You can use your APs for the 60s/90q requirement - check with campus for unit credit.</p>

<p>Note that the max credit you can transfer, CCC + AP, is 70s/105q, but you can take as much as you want/need at a CCC. Any courses after 70 units will transfer but you get 0 credit for them. For instance, if you take A1 after 70 units, it won’t count, but you can take A2 at a UC.</p>

<p>While UCLA for example doesn’t give GE credit for History APs, the IGETC does. A nice loophole that allows your APs to count toward GEs</p>

<p>AP credit for IGETC is the following:
AP Exam | Area it counts toward</p>

<p>Art History* | 3A or 3B*
U.S. Government & Politics | 4H and US 2
Biology | 5B with lab
Human Geography | 4E
Calculus AB | 2A
Italian Language & Culture | 3B and 6A
Calculus BC | 2A
Japanese Language & Culture | 3B and 6A
Chemistry | 5A with lab
Latin Literature | 3B and 6A
Chinese Language & Culture | 3B and 6A
Latin: Vergil | 3B and 6A
Macroeconomics | 4B
Physics B | 5A with lab
Microeconomics | 4B
Physics C mechanics | 5A with lab
English Language | 1A
Physics C electricity/magnetism | 5A with lab
English Literature* | 1A or 3B*
Psychology | 4I
Environmental Science | 5A with lab
Spanish Language | 3B and 6A
European History* | 3B or 4F*
Spanish Literature | 3B and 6A
French Language | 3B and 6A
Statistics | 2A
French Literature | 3B and 6A
U.S. History* | (3B or 4F<em>) and US 1
German Language | 3B and 6A
World History</em> | 3B or 4F*
Comparative Government &Politics | 4H</p>

<p>*AP exams may be used in either area regardless of where the certifying CCC’s discipline is
located. </p>

<p>I would take some classes at a CCC now when in HS. Keep in mind HS doesn’t matter so you can set your priority to the community college classes.
You can always take some easy IGETC classes or English classes, which will lower your load and may enable you to transfer in 1 year. If you go year round starting next spring (with dual hs/ccc enrollment) you should be able to transfer in 1 year after HS. What is your major?</p>

<p>

Check [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://assist.org), in the by major category one of the first options should be TAG info. You are guaranteed admission if you meet the requirements. The minimum you need is a 3.0 as part of the criteria.</p>

<p>In order:</p>

<ol>
<li>Yes. TAG everywhere you can. I TAGged Irvine, Davis, and San Diego. -you may want to TAG more schools.</li>
<li>The AP classes do help you place out of prereqs, however they might not help you lighten your courseload since you can’t take less than 12 units in a semester and be eligible for TAG. They would help you lighten your courseload, however, if you want to take a single year in CC (like cutting your courseload down from 20-17 units a semester or something.)</li>
</ol>

<p>The TAG really is a guarantee, however if you cut it too close (maybe like 3.1-) they might not accept your initial TAG agreement, and if you break the conditions of admission (which are pretty easy to not break) they will revoke it. Overall, it basically means you’re in.</p>

<p>If you are willing to make the sacrifices in social life and time that Community College requires, you are absolutely capable of going to UCLA and Berkeley. Before choosing a class, scout all of your potential professors on Ratemyprofessors.com and find their grade distributions on campusbuddy.com and pickaprof.com (these aren’t free anymore, but are like $15. Bummer, but still worth it.) Using these tools, you can raise your GPA very easily- which is important, since its the most important part of your application. Do all of your homework, go to class, and make it apparent to the professors that you are trying. If you do this, I can almost guarantee you that you will get in. </p>

<p>I got into Berkeley and UCLA as an Econ (or Pre-econ) major with a 4.0 CC GPA. It is not hard to get in as a transfer, it is not that hard to get a 4.0 GPA in CC, and assuming you work hard and use efficiency tools like teacher scouting, Berkeley and LA are well within reach. Good luck.</p>

<p>@ collegehopeful18 </p>

<p>Which site do you think is more resourceful/worth the money? Campusbuddy or pickaprof? Thanks.</p>

<p>When I was in CC and they were free, I always used both (because the information sets from the two sites were frequently somewhat different) but liked Campusbuddy better, mostly because it subdivided between +/- (ie: %A+s, %As, %A-s) grades when pickaprof (now Myedu) didn’t and still doesn’t. I’d buy Campusbuddy first I guess, but the $9 and $10/year each of them cost makes it really cheap to buy both. I’d consider it a low price given the amount of time one saves by taking professors with better grade distributions.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I’ve never heard of those sites until now so I was just wondering how those sites exactly help with raising someone’s GPA?</p>

<p>If you pick a teacher that gives 40% As, then you have way more of a cushion and therefore allocate less time to studying. Your chances of getting an A are way better than with a professor with 15-20% As.</p>

<p>Ahh I see I see, I might consider those site then. Do they have grades for every teacher for every community college? I go to American River College if that helps.</p>

<p>They don’t have every teacher because some are too new or they havn’t taught particular sections before, but they do have most teachers.</p>

<p>“If you pick a teacher that gives 40% As, then you have way more of a cushion and therefore allocate less time to studying. Your chances of getting an A are way better than with a professor with 15-20% As.”</p>

<p>That could be the stupidest advice I have ever heard.</p>

<p>get a 4.0 in CCC and you will have a good chance at all of them. If you want to do UCLA tap you need to go to a CCC that has Honors.</p>

<p>with a 3.3 in highschool overall… how do you think i will do in community college? i mean i pulled out a 3.0 sophmore year and most likely 3.6 this year with 2 Aps. my goal for colleges are the UCs and i dont know if i can get into any of them except for merced and riverside. Seeing that i was a walking zombie during school hours and a nocturnal owl at night, i think the college class schedules will favor me. i wont have to wake up at 6:00 every morning which would give me alot more rest. i believe that my sleep is my main problem. if school started at 9 or 10 o clock i would be alert and a great student. i worked too hard in highschool and went nowhere just because of sleep loss. any thoughts?</p>

<p>bump…can someone answer this question ^?</p>

<p>hell, take night classes and get as close to a 4.0 as possible. that’s what I did - I’m also a night owl. I’m still taking night classes and I transferred to USC last year.</p>

<p>Warrior, trust me, dont sweat at all about the difficulty of community college… I finished high school with a 2.9 g.p.a and finished community college with a 3.5… I never studied in high school… literally I studied for 1 class freshman year… and I studied for about 30 minutes before most tests in community college (I attended Moorpark College). Anyways, now I am in the middle of my first semester at UCLA (history major) attending my dream school when Ive put in probably half as much effort as I am guessing you have. </p>

<p>Basically what I am trying to tell you by my story is… Community College was a walk in the park, I did bad in high school but in 2 years Ill have a degree from UCLA when those kids who took a ton of AP classes and studied non stop in high school will have a degree from Irvine… or Santa Barbara…</p>

<p>Dont go to Merced or Riverside… due your dues at CC and prophet : D</p>

<p>“Anyways, now I am in the middle of my first semester at UCLA (history major) attending my dream school when Ive put in probably half as much effort as I am guessing you have.”</p>

<p>i guess you weren’t paying attention at orientation either, you’re on the quarter system not the semester.</p>

<p>don’t listen to this hack…put in effort…a major like history requires no effort because a 5 year old could get into UCLA by taking the three required prerequisites</p>

<p>My bad on saying semester and not quarter… i have been on a semester system the last 9 years or so … it has become natural to say semester and not quarter… anyways, ya history is one of the easier majors … however, I dont believe the OP ever stated what his or her major was… and sure there are 3 prerequisites which are required, however, you still need to fulfill the IGETC agreement which is obviously more than 3 classes… so, to say a 5 year could get in… clearly implies that you are an idiot and fail at using sarcasm</p>

<p>In terms of the difficulty of classes… there isn’t much of a difference at the community college level between a Science and a History class… I would say the difficulty of a class depends more on the professor opposed to the actual course material… In fact, I did better in my Psych, Anthro, and Bio classes at the CC level then I did in most of the history courses I took. </p>

<p>All in all, I never said don’t put in effort, all I said was you shouldn’t stress about the difficulty of CC…especially if you’re in your Junior year of high school!</p>

<p>yes, as a junior in high school the op shouldn’t be worrying about cc classes. but once he/she gets there, they should be serious about their education. </p>

<p>and yes the class difficulty does depend on the professor. but if you think that history 1a is generally harder than linear algebra, organic chem, or biology of genetics classes you are in another world. Classes do depend on teachers but a majority of the time, a 3 unit history class will be easier than a 5 unit science class.</p>

<p>^ I am going to assume that you are not a history major and therefore assume that you think history courses simply require a person to memorize names, dates, battles… and be able to fill in the correct bubble on a scantron. Although in HS and many CC history courses this was all that was required, some history professors actually require their students to work and think. History at the upper division level as well as some of the CC level classes becomes more so about how well you can write and understand key repeating themes seen across different civilizations.</p>

<p>The big thing here is the writing aspect… some students who are whizzes in Math or Science can not write a decent critical paper, yet they have no problems at all with linear algebra. The thing with History courses is that, in my experience, the difficulty of the course depends more so on the professor than the actual subject matter. </p>

<p>Anyways, what I am trying to say is what one person finds difficult is completely relative for we all excel at certain subjects and CC is more about the professor you choose than the actual class.</p>

<p>very true, my experience in history was one of memorization. I see where you’re coming from. But I still stand by the fact that the actual subject plays a bigger role than the professor for which courses are more rigorous. Why else would every college campus have the general consensus that BPC are more rigorous than history, psychology, and philosophy? the professors would vary in difficulty, no doubt. But the material that needs to be learned is generally more confusing for BCP.</p>