How to transfer to UCLA from another UC

<p>Hi, currently i am a freshman entering UC Davis in the Fall. Although I was denied admission to UCLA back in March, but the deferral never diminish my intention to attend UCLA. Now, i wondering, what classes should i take at UC Davis next year, what kind of grades/GPA should i achieve, and how should i plan out my path to transfer after freshman year. My intended major for UC Davis is undeclared/exploratory, but i have an intention to study in Mechanical Engineering. Please give some advise on what i should do on next year. </p>

<p>I have taken AP calculus BC
AP physics C
AP Econ (macro and micro)</p>

<p>Speak to an academic adviser the moment you enter Davis.</p>

<p>Academic advisers are pretty useless IMO. Also keep in mind that it's rather difficult to transfer from one UC to another.</p>

<p>please do not go to UC davis viewing it as a temporary step to UCLA. you'll diminish your experiences there, and hype up your views of UCLA as someplace amazingly better when really, that's arguable.</p>

<p>it is going to be difficult to transfer from davis, so if you have your heart absolutely set on UCLA and davis will never be where you want to stay, i'd reconsider. but if you are happy enough at davis in the meantime, keep your mind open to staying all 4 years so that you won't be crushed should UCLA reject you again.</p>

<p>What are his other options, yahooo?! :rolleyes:</p>

<p>community college for two years
transfer to ucla</p>

<p>this path has a MUCH higher probability of success than the inter-UC transfer</p>

<p>Well it's rather too late for me to enter a CC now, so my college advisor is pretty useless in this case huh. Well, the thing is, i've never been to UC Davis(like step foot upon UC davis), but i have been to UCLA. I just love the environment surrounding UCLA, and besides my brother lives near UCLA, so that is a plus.</p>

<p>Chances of transferring from Davis to LA: 10%
Chances of transferring from CC to LA: 90%</p>

<p>I transferred.</p>

<p>And why would you go to a school you've never even been to?</p>

<p>it's never too late to sign up for CC. you can sign up for CC the day that CC starts. you can always pull out from Davis, just send a formal letter to admissions and kiss your SIR fee good-bye.</p>

<p>I would say go to CC and then transfer to UCLA...your chances go up tenfold</p>

<p>ah i see, but if i do that(transfer to CC and revoke my admission) my parents are gonna be devastated</p>

<p>that is a problem, i can see that.</p>

<p>but really, tell them 1) you ARE going to college and 2) you are going to save them a butt-load of money.</p>

<p>first off, i'm still incredulous that anyone goes to college anywhere without having seen the place first. </p>

<p>so, since you've never even seen davis, i wouldn't recommend at this point going to a CC and trying to switch to UCLA. going to davis sight unseen is risky enough, but discarding it sight unseen is just as bad. </p>

<p>i predict that after your first year at davis, you'll be happy enough to stay there. and if you aren't, that doesn't mean UCLA would be the only place you'd be happy, either. so stick it out, speak to counselors, and don't burn any bridges.</p>

<p>After staying at UCLA for 2 years I realized that I should have gone to UCI...undergrad really doesn't matter that much and I would have saved a ton of money (I lived 5 minutes from UCI), so I agree with the above poster that you should visit Davis first. Attend some lectures, talk to people and then visit UCLA and compare them and decide where to go. Just because UCLA is better in rankings doesn't mean that it's also a better college.</p>

<p>Jacker, there's a lot to consider and not a lot of time left to do it. Also from your post it looks like you may not have spent a lot of time investigating your options; for example you can't transfer to ucla after your frosh year at Davis because ucla (and in fact all UC schools) only accept applications from frosh or junior transfers.</p>

<p>It's true that the success rate for xfers is higher from CC's than from other 4-year schools including UC campuses. If you decide to go that route you can either enroll for 2 years at a CC, or spend one year at Davis and the 2nd at a CC. According to what I read (but you better confirm it, it's your future at stake) in order to be considered as a CC applicant you just need to have completed the most recent year before applying at a CC. The tradeoff to going to a CC is that you won't get the same experiences as a student living on/near campus.</p>

<p>Since your brother lives near ucla you should spend some time reading the website of Santa Monica CC. One plan would be to go there and live with your brother or in the area and apply as a transfer from there. SMCC is also one of the schools that has an honors program that enhances your chances of admission to ucla; while ucla does not have a guarantee program, if you complete the honors program with a good gpa the odds are something like 90% of getting into ucla for Letters & Science (but not engineering). See <a href="https://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/Adm_tr/ADM_CCO/tap.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/Adm_tr/ADM_CCO/tap.htm&lt;/a> to see about this and the other CC's that are part of the program.</p>

<p>Obviously you face tough decisions, and and the end of June not a lot of time to make them. I agree 100% with Liyana that to enroll at Davis with the intention already of leaving will diminish the experience. As you meet people you'll be thinking "these won't be my long-term friends because I'm leaving", you won't be joining clubs because why get involved when you have plans to leave,and so on. My advice would be that IFyou go to Davis go there with the intention of taking part as fully as you can.</p>

<p>Jacker2011, if you have questions about the Davis area, feel free to PM me (I live in Davis). In my opinion UCD is a wonderful school and the town, while, it can be terribly dull, is very college-student friendly since it is basically a university town. Also, the campus is expansive and beautiful, though you can't match the architectual beauty of UCLA, in my opinion.</p>

<p>yea, Santa Monica city college and UCLA have a really strong connection.
so many people tranfer...you're almost guaranteed to be a accepted as a tranfer if you get good grades at SMC. If you are DYING to get into UCLA, you should pull out of Davis.</p>

<p>You aren't "almost guaranteed" a spot anywhere. Transferring to UCLA and Cal is a game of russian roulette. Especially if you're a communications, business economics or psychology major.</p>

<p>Some people are let in, even though they are grossly under qualified. Some are rejected, even with a 3.9 GPA, awesome EC's and a job.</p>

<p>Yes, there is a likely chance, but those that depend on chance are often disappointed. Just realize that some people have to be rejected and it could be you (not trying to say you'll fail, but it happens, people get rejected).</p>

<p>SMC and UCLA have ties, this is true. However most SoCal CC's have the same acceptance rate to UCLA as SMC, that being ~50%. The only reason SMC is linked with UCLA is because they have the most applicants.</p>

<p>But still, this is all MUCH higher than transferring from UC to UC. In a UC to UC transfer, they don't really see why you should go from one UC to another when many other students aren't even in a 4 year university and are dying to attend one.</p>

<p>well, the thing is, i wanted to try out Econ at UCLA(in fact, i applied as an econ major back in november), but it never worked out for me<em>rejected</em>.</p>

<p>I am not dying to go to UCLA* it's just a want/a craving?, I have two fields for me to choose
Econ, which i have some interest in because i had fun learning 1 year of AP Econ in 1 semester
or Engineering, where i am familiar and somewhat okay at physics and math.
I didn't want to go to UCLA because of the fame, in fact, i chose to go to LA, because i wanted to live in a different environment than North Cal<em>San Francisco</em> and be independent<em>although my brother lives in Santa Monica which is quite close to SMC and UCLA</em>. AND I never thought UCLA has a good engineering school(sorry if my assumption was wrong) so i applied to UCLA under Econ Major. </p>

<p>so i come into conclusion that, i will still try to transfer after freshman year(i can do that right?). BUT , i will enjoy my experience at Davis<em>even if i didn't get accepted as tranfer</em>, i mean i got to treasure that spot that Davis gave me. Not a lot of people in this world can go to Davis.</p>

<p>haha, about not visiting UCD. It's actually my brother who resisted to drive me to UCD on opening day/admitt day..he claims it's a waste of time and i will see it in August orientation anyway.</p>

<p>LAST WORD..THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU FOR CONTRIBUTING YOUR PRECIOUS TIME(/OPPORTUNITY COST<em>if any</em>jk~~)</p>

<p>
[quote]
so i come into conclusion that, i will still try to transfer after freshman year(i can do that right?).

[/quote]
No, you can't. As said before, the UC schools only accept apps from frosh and junior xfers. You can find that right on the admission site of any UC school.
[quote]
SMC and UCLA have ties, this is true. However most SoCal CC's have the same acceptance rate to UCLA as SMC, that being ~50%. The only reason SMC is linked with UCLA is because they have the most applicants.

[/quote]
While true overall for the applicant pool from CC's, some CC's offer participation in the TAP program which is an honors program. For those who complete the program with a decent GPA, the xfer success rate is around 90%. See the most recent (2008) rates at <a href="http://www.ugeducation.ucla.edu/tap/adm_stats.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ugeducation.ucla.edu/tap/adm_stats.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I don't know if the only reason SMC is linked is the number of kids who apply. There's something to be said for proximity. With the schools so close together the counselors at SMC know their counterparts at UCLA and can pick up the phone to get questions answered quickly and directly. For example if you're wondering whether it would be better to take course A or course B, or if they can waive some rule for you. Looking on the SMC website I saw that this fall the person who makes the transfer decisions will be holding a workshop at SMC. And so on. The same tight links exist for other UC/CC pairs, such as SBCC and UCSB. But to be sure you can apply and transfer to UCLA from any CA CC.</p>