<p>Hey everyone, today I've been applying to the community college that I will attend for 2 years. Yes, a community college, however it will give me an opportunity to study hard and work towards getting into a top tier UC. My goal is to work my a** off and maintain a 4.0, job, possibly an internship to create options for where I attend. Being that you are all experts, please provide some insight on how I can best prepare and what I can do to set myself apart from everyone else. Thank you, all advice is appreciated!</p>
<p>As a third year Mental Health major, I offer you three pieces of advice:</p>
<ol>
<li>Eat healthy- The cafeteria might make nice pizza, but that doesn’t mean you should eat it with every meal. </li>
<li>Exercise- You have no idea how hard it is to keep motivated in college. </li>
<li>Sleep 8 hours a day- Good for you overall health, helps prevents stress and keeps you thinking clearly. </li>
</ol>
<p>With your plan, I doubt those three will happen. You have a good idea, but I think you need to scale back a little bit. High school may be easy and community colleges have a certain reputation, but that does not mean you’re invincible. If you want a 4.0, don’t expect to work more than 20 hours a week. Don’t expect to live off campus either unless you’re with your parents. Internships are brutal when you already have a job and most companies do not pay their interns. </p>
<p>Personally, I hate the idea of a 4.0. To me, that says the person did not make enough mistakes in their coursework to really learn anything. But that’s just my opinion. </p>
<p>Ryan, it’s good to strive for a 4.0. Indeed you should try to get as many A’s in community college to get into a top-tier UC (BTW, even a second tier UC is still very, very good). In addition, look into the transfer requirements for the colleges you’re interested in; take 5 classes a semester (or 3-4 a quarter); go see your professors during office hours so that they get to know you, see that you’re smart and interested, and will have things to say about you in their recommendation letters if you apply to universities that require those, but mostly because it’ll help you do very well- when you read to prepare for class and when you listen to the lecture, write down questions as they pop up in your head, so that you can ask them during office hours; take classes from full-time professors (with titles such as Associate, Assistant professor, or the Department’s chair…) to make sure they’ll be around to write your letters of recommendation, which adjuncts may not be, will be able to recommend you to jobs in labs or to TA for someone, etc.; get involved on campus; join study groups. It’d be normal for you to spend at least 1 hour doing homework for each class hour, and it could run higher depending on class (at UCLA it’d be 2-3 hours hw per class hour, so 1H is really an absolute minimum you can’t get under if you want to stay competitive). </p>
<p>hopefully you are planning on attending a CC that sends lots of kids to the UC system. No doubt many factors play a role including student motivation, but I think you could make a case that the CCs that send a lot of kids have advisers that can make sure you are doing the right things.
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