I am a student at a California Community College in SoCal and for my first two years of college I had a lot of responsibilities that took time and focus away from my studies. I am a ComSci major and this summer term I am getting back on track. Most of the classes I tool my first two years were transferable but, the English and Math courses weren’t. I have dreams of attending a great school here in California or really anywhere. I still dream of USC, UCLA, UCI, UCB and other similar schools. I know that my record will show a terrible start in my first two years and although USC doesn’t honor retakes I still think I can write a good enough essay and show that I want to be a part of the Trojan family enough for me to make a good case. UC’s on the other hand do replace the grade the class that is retaken with the old grade so I know that my transfer GPA will be higher when I go to apply to UC’s but USC is still my goal. I am going to retake the all of the transferrable classes that I didn’t do well in so I am just really ready to do this all over and do it right. I am involved to only on campus here at Cypress College but I am also heavily involved in my community. I know USC likes to see upward trend and I am confident that although I messed up terribly in the beginning that I can still be a great addition to the USC campus and Trojan Family. For a lot of people a familiar phrase they hear is the “University of Spoiled Children” but to me, USC symbolizes the “University of Second Chances”.
UCI is a great option because they honor TAG so that is my backup and I am going to hope and pray for UCLA and Cal.
Anyone offer any advice that can be beneficial to my pursuit?
Possibly tips for essays, tips about what kind of community service to participate in?
Yooo fellow Cypress College Alum here. I don’t know the gap between you doing poorly then improving but I was pretty close to what you have
First 4-year school:
Withdrew in first semester
First CC:
1 semester 3 D’s and a F, one pass with a .5 credit class
Second CC:
2.2ish gpa in 3 semesters
I went 3.5->2.2->1.1
4 Year gap military
Cypress College:
2 years 3.87 GPA
Applied as a Business Major
Accepted: UCLA, USC, UCSD, UCSB. What’s funny is UC Riverside didn’t accept me as a business major.
Waitlist: UCI
Rejected: Cal
Going to UCLA now. While at Cypress I’d recommend getting involved and doing well in your classes. I was a student ambassador for 1 year and a supplemental instructor another. Kill it on your essays and you’ll be fine.
Pull yourself back up. Only aim for A’s especially in 5 credit classes (they hurt a lot). Community service in my opinion is def not important to transfers. GPA is. Essays are important and can help if you write about your struggles, and how you overcame them to become the person you are today.
Thank you guys for responding so quickly. It’s good to see that a lot of people are encouraging and not just shooting me down. I appreciate all of the advice and input!
@Ohm888 Ya the military definitely helped but I think that the colleges are looking for a point at which you pivoted and turned things around. I could attribute it to the military. My advice is to find that turning point.
@robert199722 check your PM i’ll post things I thought were helpful for me below for everyone else.
So there are 4 essays 1 has a mandatory prompt the rest you can pick from 7 prompts. I’d write about why you didn’t do so well your first two years. Second write about what you did in your time off what you learned, and how you resolved to go back to school. These two should be your absolute best essays. The 3rd essay I’d write about something you love, something that you think makes you stand out. That’s what I did anyway. Good luck!
You have to think like the college: why should they admit you? Why you and not someone else? What will you being to their school, campus life, class discussions?
Wishing and wanting is of zero interest to them.
So,now on, make yourself the kind of candidate they want.
I really feel that I wasted these first two years and now that I recognize what needs to be fixed and how to fix it I know that I can do a lot better. I am not performing to my full capabilities and I know that I can bring something valuable to a university once my grades are where they need to be.
Absolutely man, just gotta change your mindset and stay motivated. I failed a bunch of classes my first year of community college, and ended up retaking them and eventually got accepted to UCLA. Just believe in yourself, even if nobody else does!
@robert199722 I would say there were two main things that held me back. First was alcoholism in my family, the second was my procrastination or maybe it was my escapism. I hated my life and I did whatever I could to escape from it whether it was playing games or just not being home. I should’ve channeled that into doing well at school and escaping that way but I wasn’t patient or mature enough back then to do that. Also working a terrible job is a huge motivator. Fear of becoming a failure for the rest of my life, seeing my friends succeed while I failed, all those things kept me motivated my first semester back. When I started getting good grades though, that was all the motivation I needed. I was addicted to seeing good grades and I worked even harder than before. Fear got my foot in the door but success is helping me walk through it.
You don’t have to attend USC, UCLA, UCI, UCB or similar schools to be a success in life. It seems to me that you should be striving to attend a good university, and there are a lot of them. There are many good CSU’s for example. You need to pile up A’s in community college one semester at a time, and see where it leads you.
Just make sure to spend most of your time on studying and only studying. Work, and a bit of family or free time is a bonus. This may sound cheesy, but practice really makes perfect. Even if you’re done with the homework, keep practicing and maybe even skip to the next lesson and get ahead if possible. Anything really is possible, only and only if you are willing to put in the work.
Don’t let the past haunt you. You know who you are. I respect people who are smart, but those who aren’t naturally gifted but try harder than the smart person, I respect them much more.
I did my first semester of community college this past spring and I did poorly because I worked a lot, got sick, and of course didn’t study or work hard enough. I have Questions bellow to ask.
Are taking morning, afternoon, or evening person next or this upcoming semester? I took morning classes this past spring semester and I did poorly due to that because I don't get enough sleep if I have to get up in the morning due to my noisy parents who stay up late, I'm kind of a night owl, and I often would snooze my alarm clock in the morning due to tiredness.
Do you have a planner or calendar on your phone that sets reminders? Even if you know what to do and can remember everything you have so many tasks it can be hard which one to choose if you have fifty things to do at once.
Is your home a quiet or good place to study? If not I would study at the library and/or campus.
4.how is your diet? Are you a soda drinker, meat eater, or fast food eater? If you are I would cut those things out or go with them in moderation, water should be your primary drink, and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Do you exercise?
Does your school have a tutoring center? if so how has your experience been with them? I encourage you to find a tutor that works for you because thats what I had to do and some tutors don't help the right way or are rude.
If you do work during the semester, make sure your school work and understanding the material is your #1 priority. I plan to only work on the weekends as this will allow me to focus on stuff during the week and still have money if I work on the weekends.
Does studying with flashcards work for you for your concept based classes? If so, I would do that and start making them as soon as possible (not two days before an exam). For math and other classes that use it, be sure you do all homework and re-do them if you don't full understand it, do extra problems, if you ever do poorly on a quiz or assignment then re-do the problems you did poorly on with a tutor as soon as possible, and take advantage of tutoring, professor office hours, and online resources such as professor Leonard on YouTube or Khan Academy. For English and classes where you do Papers, make sure you do atleast part of them with a tutor and have them proofread before you turn one into a professor.
8.make sure you have access to a support on campus if you have anxiety, depression, or something happens.
Turn off social media, things that give distracting notifications, and emails that you don't need to read.
If you have a disability then please make sure that your accomidations are in place through the disability services.
I hope this gives you a little hope. I’m going to UC Berkeley studying economics mid August (community college student from Irvine Valley College for 3 years). My first year, I ended up with a 1.2 GPA and was om academic probation for a while, but from then, I had an upward academic trend which is somehing UCs definitely want to see. Those who said community college and involment doesn’t matter are WRONG. Yes, GPA is important, but it’s not everything. UC Berkeley and UCLA look at your application holistically meaning they consider GPA, involvement, essay, etc (the other UCs only look at grades and trends). But don’t do it for the application, do it to be a better person. Getting involved has helped me significantly and gave me so many connections and network to the outside world. Being book smart is one thing, but if you don’t have the skills of being street smart, then honestly you’re not gonna get anywhere. I’m not the brightest when it comes to school (my GPA at CC came out to be a 3.6) but I was offered a marketing internship for Google - that’s from networking. If you really want to go to a UC, then set that goal because it’s not impossible. I was in your position and lost hope for awhile but I started to push myself to the highest potential. Yeah, you can go to a CSU, but if it’s not something you want, then don’t settle for less. I didn’t think it was possible but I got into UCI (Paul Merage School of Biz), UCSD, UCSB, Chapman U, USC, and UC Berkeley (I applied as econ and not school of haas which is my biggest regret). I also got rejected from CSULB hah I still do not understand why I was rejected to this day… hopefully this gave you some hope. I can send you my insight answers/application if you want.
@princesssssstiff may I ask, are you going for a B.A or a B.S in Economics? I was curious because if your going for a B.S then you would have to take more math likely up to calculus I or II and if you are doing that then I was hoping that you story would give hope as I’m wanting to go into a STEM field which requires a lot of math. I know there can be a lot of math involved in Economics especially if your going for a B.S and I know Economics isn’t as math heavy as Engineering or computer science.