<p>So with our decisions not to far away I wanted to know some of you guys stories. I think one advantage of being a transfer and applying to UC's is that they look at the whole person and not just our GPA's. While grades are very important I just want to know what makes everyone truly awesome.</p>
<p>Not to sound like a debbie downer, but I think the UC’s that utilize the holistic review (Cal, UCLA?) system are really the only ones that look at things other than your GPA and pre-reqs…</p>
<p>In the case that I am wrong, that would be awesome! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for everyone regardless. :)</p>
<p>I was a HS dropout and juvenile delinquent. I joined the Coast Guard @ 17 right after I got my GED. I started a family and got a job in hospital maintenance after the CG. I work full time and go to school full time. I tried volunteering with various clubs at my CC but I found the experience to be rather lame so I started volunteering on my own by speaking to kids who got kicked out of HS and go to alternative schools.</p>
<p>Realized I didn’t put anything down. </p>
<p>I’m 29. Went to school in Atlanta right out of high school. After my freshman year things got rough for my mom who is a single parent so I couldn’t afford school anymore. Worked full time to try and save money to go back to school but day to day expenses living in my own wasnt letting me put away the kind of money I needed. I decided to join the Navy and served for 7 years. Honorably discharged with some medals and commendations under my belt. I’ve been able to see the world and expand my mind way beyond what a kid from the ghetto is expected to do. The military gave me an excellent work ethic and I won’t fail or give up on anything that I want out of life.</p>
<p>@javyUCB I know UCSD and UCI use holistic as well</p>
<p>Actually transfer admission is pretty academic achievement oriented. Even Berkeley looks at academic preparation first and foremost (but personal circumstances disclosed in the personal statement can sway the admission decision). Berkeley and UCLA are essentially the only two campuses that will look at the personal statement for transfer admission evaluation. But, all UCs look at the personal statement for scholarship award consideration.</p>
<p>I got this information when I attended the UC Counselor Conference back in September 2011. Spoke to the admissions rep from each UC campus while I was there.</p>
<p>^Ms Sun, Thank you for the clarification!</p>
<p>Thats good info for sure. I would think they would look at transfers as more of a whole than freshman. I mean coming out of high school it should be cut and dry straight academics and test scores. I think every transfer student has a story for why they’ve come to the point as a junior they are ready for University life. There are reasons for why we aren’t already at a 4 years. I would think (not saying freshman aren’t important) that our essays would play more of a role in the app process than a freshman.</p>
<p>My personal statement was garbage =/</p>
<p>@allfields Was it that bad?</p>
<p>I don’t know. Nobody else read it.</p>
<p>You know how they say it’s hard to judge you’re own writing.
But personally I thought it was just eh…</p>
<p>haha. I did mine the day of App deadlines. I had my friend who goes to UCSD tweak it a little, but i hope it was good enough. I felt like they didnt give us enough words. haha</p>
<p>I totally wrote my personal statements at the last minute. Fortunately, however, I’d been considering why I love my major so much for 2 years at community college, so it wasn’t that difficult to articulate my ideas and passions.</p>
<p>I wrote mine the day of as well :}</p>
<p>@AllFields, i didn’t have mine read by anyone either. Idk if it’s good or not >.<</p>
<p>Well here’s hoping that our personal statements came out better than we thought they did ha</p>
<p>hear hear!</p>
<p>I did mine a week before realized after I wrote them an hour before the deadline that overall it was a 1000 words and was forced to cut up my essay in 35 minutes lol. Sad moment for me lol. I wrote 2 essays 1000 words for both lol.</p>
<p>I started mine months early and had a few people read it. I put in effort at cc so why not put effort into the essay? I’m honestly surprised that some people started on the day of. I had kind of a weird story. I lived in three countries by the age of eight and I have younger triplet siblings. Not long after my family moved to the states, one of them went deaf and another was diagnosed with autism. I basically just talked about how that time in my life led to me picking psychology. For the second prompt, I wrote about experiencing deaf culture for the first time (since my brother uses technology to get by, not ASL) and really loving it.</p>
<p>I agree the word count was hard to work around. I think I fit the prompts well, so I’m mostly happy with what I wrote, but I’m a bit worried I didn’t write clearly enough.</p>
<p>Don’t stress about the personal statement too much. I’ll tell you what I heard at the last counselor conference:</p>
<p>The UCLA rep went on a rampage about this one applicant who wrote one paragraph for his personal statement. She was clearly upset about it and said that it showed he put in very little effort. But my interpretation is that he must’ve gotten accepted to UCLA on his stats alone and that is why the UCLA rep was extra upset (and also because she refused to comment when asked whether he was accepted; you would’ve thought she’d be glad to tell everyone he wasn’t accepted so all of the counselors can use that story as a cautionary tale).</p>
<p>So, if you have the stats, then the personal statement is really just gravy. But remember that the personal statement is the place for you to explain any personal situation or extenuating circumstances if your stats are not up to par. All of the UCs will glance at the personal statement for explanations of academic issues (excessive Ws, gaps in education, inconsistent performance, long absences, etc.), so it’s not like the personal statement is tossed into the trash.</p>