<p>I know people always do these and there are probably plenty of people who can give similar answers, but I figure this website gave me tons of good advice and it's time to give back in any way I can.</p>
<p>Major: Psychology Schools: Applied to UCB, UCLA, UCSB, UCI, UCSC, (and SFSU, SJSU) - accepted to all CC: De Anza College
Units completed: 109 quarter units (~72 semester units)
GPA: ~3.92 after fall, ~3.94 by the end of spring 2012
IGETC: yes; Prereqs: UCB and UCLA - yes, missing calculus for the other UCs; TAG: yes - UCSB; TAP: no
ECs: club officerships, PTK, volunteering... nothing impressive Berkeley:
Units taken during first semester: 13
GPA: 4.0 Housing: Wada Hall (double) with partial meal plan</p>
<p>It's break now and I'm rather bored... so ask me anything!</p>
<p>So many, ha. I’ll have 100 by the time I’ll be at university. I was supposed to transfer last year but I didn’t apply to the UC’s and all the private schools I got into were +45k (I don’t qualify for aid.) Since last spring I’ve kept taking classes just to keep me enrolled, learn another language, and knock out requirements for grad school. I know the extra units won’t transfer but I need to keep myself busy since I haven’t been able to find a second job. + easy way to boost the gpa.</p>
<p>@Philosoup: Yes, you only need 60 semester/90 quarter units to transfer. During my first year at CC I had to take a break for medical reasons and I decided it would be better to just take an extra year rather than cramming everything I still had to do into my second year. So since I was at CC for 3 years (well, 2 years and 1 quarter), I picked up a few extra units along the way. I actually really recommend finishing a few extra units if you can, though. I was allowed to transfer 10 extra semester units (and those who are transferring with credit from 4-year universities can transfer even more) so I had 70 units at Berkeley to start with. This let’s you take a few less units each semester if you want to take it easy/don’t want to pay as much.</p>
<p>@mermaker: Well, there is a LOT more reading. I don’t feel like my classes at Cal were much harder than the tougher classes at community college, but I definitely had to read a lot more than I ever had to before. Classes were easier than I expected… or well, more manageable than I expected, at least. I was able to adapt to the pace with more ease than I expected. I think I expected to feel overwhelmed, but the level of the classes felt appropriately challenging and certainly doable with some hard work. I will be honest, I did study a LOT. I wish I could give you an accurate count of how many hours I spent a week, but… I studied for at least a while pretty much every day, and I studied A LOT when I had exams coming up. I hardly ever went to bars or to parties and I didn’t see friends as often as I would have at community college. I mean, you can definitely have a more active social life than mine and still do well, and I wasn’t a recluse, but in order to feel that my classes were easy I had to put in more work and manage my time differently. Of course, it all depends on the professor and the subject, and I’m a bit of a perfectionist so I’m sure I put in more time than was absolutely necessary to get A’s in my classes.</p>
<p>How is UC Berkeley about accepting out of state transfers? I’m a history major & Berkely is tied for #1 ranking in history. I’m currently in PTK & have a 3.88 GPA at a CC in Texas (STC).</p>
<p>@franko5150: I’ve heard the UC system in general is less likely to take out of state transfers. I haven’t met any out of state transfers personally, but I’m pretty sure people do get accepted from other states. I just think they’re much more selective in those cases, though… It’s pretty much their last priority, when there’s plenty of qualified people in California who get priority for California schools. It might help that you’re at a CC out of state, rather than a 4-year, but as someone who lives in California and only applied to California schools, I really don’t know what your chances would be. Sorry! :(</p>
<p>@wannago2college: I only took three academic classes and a decal (student taught P/NP course) this semester to get used to things. I’m registered for four classes next semester.</p>
<p>Now I think I remember counselors at CalSo (orientation) saying you may take only the exact amount of units you still need to graduate during your last semester, even if that makes you part-time. So because I transferred 10 extra units, if I remember correctly I suppose I could take 13 units (minimum to be full-time) for three semesters and 11 units my last semester… If you’re transferring with the standard 60 units, however, you’ll need to do 15 each semester on average. I don’t think it is possible to be part time and finish on time unless you’re transferring from a 4-year school with loads of extra units or something. Because of that, I think there are a lot of reasons to study full-time… in terms of campus fees, rooming, etc, the faster you finish, the better. It’s not like CC where it’s not a huge expense to take an extra year. I’m not sure what your reasons for wanting to go part-time are, but I reckon it would come out more expensive than doing it full-time. The TRSP Center (Transfer, Re-entry, and Student Parent Center – [TRSP</a> Center @ UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://trsp.berkeley.edu/]TRSP”>http://trsp.berkeley.edu/)) might be the right place to ask, especially if you’re thinking about going part-time because you’re a student parent or anything like that.</p>
<p>thanks for the reply! I am actually transferring in a couple extra units, but will be taking 2 classes this summer, and 4 classes next summer, so I really can go part time the whole 2 years during fall and spring</p>
<p>@wanago2college: I just noticed your location–You’re doing these classes at UCR, right? Or at least some of them? That should work, then, I think. My roommate did two years at a OOS four-year school and one year at a CC and was able to transfer over 80 semester units, so I know with 4-year school transfers they let you transfer more than 70 units (but I don’t know how it works with intercampus transfers). I would ask the TRSP Center about how many they will let you transfer, though, just to be safe. It would be very annoying to do all those summer classes and end up not transferring units because they cap how many you can have. Good luck with four summer classes, wow!</p>
<p>Edit: I forgot, have you checked about the unit cap for transfers? I know 4-year school students who went to CC had a unit cap issue where if they did too many units they were not allowed to transfer… if that’s still in place, and you’re doing all of your units at UCR, that could be problematic for you, depending on how many units you’re aiming for. I found this on another post at college confidential. I don’t know what the source for this might be, so I would e-mail admissions or TRSP and ask, if I were you.</p>
<p>UCB: Each of the individual colleges and the Haas School of Business establishes its own unit limitation policies for students who have attended a four-year institution before enrolling at a community college: College of Letters and Science: A student who has accumulated more than 80 transferable semester units from a four-year institution is considered to have excess units and will not be admitted. A student who has completed 80 or fewer UC-transferable semester units at a four-year university and then transfers to a community college will not accrue excess units and will be considered for admission.
Students who have only attended a community college will be granted subject credit, but not unit credit, for appropriate two-year college coursework taken in excess of the community college 70-unit limit; such subject credit may be used to satisfy/complete requirements.
College of Environmental Design: This college follows the same unit accumulation policy as the College of Letters and Science (see above), except that its limit on transferable coursework taken at a four-year university is 86 semester units.
Other colleges: UC Berkeley’s other colleges total both university units and a maximum of 70 community college UC-transferable units. The limits on combined transferable university and community college work are as follows:
• College of Chemistry: 80 semester units; applicants with more than 80 units require special approval.
• College of Engineering: 89 semester units.
• College of Natural Resources: 90 semester units. Though the College does not have a specific unit limitation, it carefully reviews applicants with 90 or more
10
semester units to ensure that they can graduate within a reasonable time.
• Haas School of Business: No maximum limit.</p>
<p>Good point. Thank you so much for bringing that to my attention. I was under the impression though that since we don’t list summer classes on our application (the summer right before you start your new school) it wouldn’t matter in terms of unit caps etc. Okay so 80 Semester units is 120 quarter units. And I will have 90 quarter units by the end of Spring. so I will be fine!! Whoo, big load off my shoulders</p>
<p>And another edit, I think it is a great idea to go part time during the year and take classes in the summer. What do you think? If I take a moderate load each summer, I can chill and really focus in on the classes I take during the year.
The way I calculated it, I can finish at berkeley with:
2 classes in Summer 2013, 3 classes Fall Semester, 2 classes Spring semester, 4 classes summer 2014, 2 classes Fall Semester, and 2 classes spring semester.</p>
<p>I could prob finish in 3 years but I just love undergraduate school so much, and want to do an honors thesis.</p>
<p>@wanago2college: I’m really not sure how it works with classes taken right before transferring, actually… 90 quarter units is the minimum required to transfer. So I’m assuming you’re saying you’ll take those 4 classes the summer after you hit 90 units. You won’t be hitting 120 though, I hope (or those are some horrifically high-unit classes…), so you should be fine no matter how they count it, I reckon…</p>
<p>It’s really hard for me to say if that’s a reasonable workload or not. Some classes are low unit (like psych classes, which are usually 3 units) while others are not (like language classes, which at their lower levels are 5 units). If all those classes you’ve listed are 4 unit classes then sure, you’ll get your remaining 60, but that’s worth checking… Plus you need a certain amount of units to be upper division AND outside your major, so I don’t know if you were taking that into account. Also workload heavily depends on how easy you find the classes in your major to be and which specific classes you’re taking at once, etc. You also need to consider whether or not you’re going to be working, doing internships, etc. Also, some classes aren’t always offered every semester. I’m not trying to be discouraging, but I do think they want students to study full-time for a reason. I would do a lot of research on your major/college and your graduation requirements and talk to a counselor.</p>
<p>Four classes in summer sounds like a lot to me, but I really don’t know how summer classes at Cal are. You’ll want to try to spread them out across the different sessions they have for summer classes ([Berkeley</a> Summer Sessions](<a href=“http://summer.berkeley.edu/about]Berkeley”>About Summer Sessions | Berkeley Summer Sessions)). I think most classes are offered in the two 6-week sessions, but I am not sure. Why do you want to do part-time during the year and take so many classes during summer? You get 17 weeks per semester (with 15 weeks of instruction) to focus on your classes during the year. Why go for 6 week summer sessions if the goal is to chill and focus on classes?</p>
<p>Well compared to community college classes at Cal are harder in that there is a LOT of reading, but I haven’t found the subjects to be harder so far. I actually think my lower division statistics class at community college was way harder than my upper division psychology statistics class at Berkeley was. Take what I say with a grain of salt though, I really made use of sites like [Schedule</a> Builder](<a href=“https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu/]Schedule”>https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu/) to see grading curves and [Ninja</a> Courses](<a href=“http://ninjacourses.com/]Ninja”>http://ninjacourses.com/), [Rate</a> My Professors](<a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/]Rate”>http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/), etc to see teacher reviews, and I can really only speak for the departments I took classes from (which were psychology and classics). I can’t speak for EECS, MCB, and other traditionally difficult departments. I think classes were not as hard as I expected, but I also came prepared to give up as much time as was necessary to study and I spent a lot of time studying and very little time going out. You’re already at a UC though, and I’m afraid I don’t know how to explain my reflections on the past semester in any other way than comparing it to community college. :/</p>
<p>That was very very informative. Thanks a lot for doing this. I am sure this will come to use for future students too. Ninja courses is very useful, had no idea about that.</p>
<p>I think I just fear the semester system. I had a hard time in high school because finals would be the accumulation of everything over so many months. But the quarter is so easy because it is 2-3 months, very fast paced and nice.</p>
<p>@wanago2college: Sure thing. Yeah, those websites are great. :)</p>
<p>I know what you mean, actually. I went to one of three quarter system community colleges in California. I was really worried about transitioning to the semester system. I didn’t find it to be so bad, though. For one thing not all classes are cumulative. I don’t know how common that is at Cal to be honest… it’s possible I just got lucky this semester, but two of my classes had non-cumulative finals. Even with cumulative classes though, the semester system is built on the idea that you have more time to go in depth. The amount of material you get fits 15 weeks of instruction, not 9-10. Plus we have dead week (the 16th week of the semester). During dead week there are no classes, there is no new material, and some professors hold review sessions. It gives you a good amount of time to go over everything you’ve covered and might have forgotten.</p>
<p>With summer classes… I can’t imagine shoving 15 weeks into 6 weeks. I’m sure they must cut some material to make it work, so I expect you’ll probably get less out of your experience if so many of your classes are done at the super accelerated summer class speed. I remember walking out of my last final this semester and thinking, “I don’t know why I worried so much. I’ve spent 15 weeks on this! Of course I would know the material really well.” I didn’t usually feel that way at the end of each quarter (it was more like, “I can’t believe how much I crammed!”) and certainly not at the end of a summer class. That’s the trade off. You take fewer subjects throughout the year but you really study them in depth.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t let worrying about transitioning to the semester system stop you from being a full-time student, if that’s what it is. Try it first and see if works for you. You can always drop a class if you need to, and you can take DeCals which are fun, easy, pass/fail, student-taught classes to add a few units (1-3 units) to your schedule. If and when you get in, I’d probably ask on the UC Berkeley forum about taking summer classes and how tough it is to take a few at once.</p>
<p>Oh no I did take UC berkeley summer sessions, three times in fact. Nutritional science 10, Phil 25b, and Astronomy 10. All were very easy. Phil was VERY difficult to understand, but the grad student that taught it took out 50% of the material from the original course. I think they were easy because it was all in a short amount of time. Can I really imagine reading every one of those philosophy books in the normal year that we only read 1-2 chapters of in summer sessions? No. But I will def take your advice and not fear it.</p>
<p>Do you get penalized for having under 13 units while full time? Bc if I try full time and don’t like it, I don’t want to be dropped for going under 13.</p>
<p>@qwert555: TAP does help. “Since its founding in 1999, more than 85% of TAP participants who applied to Berkeley have been admitted. (This compares to a campus admit rate for transfer students of 25% - 29%.)” So yes, it makes a big difference. A friend of mine did TAP and was admitted. She highly recommended me to look into it myself, but I didn’t meet qualifications (it’s meant for low-income and otherwise educationally disadvantaged students). I do believe it’s an invite-only program and not every community college participates. If you have not received an invite and think you might qualify, send them an e-mail or call them. It never hurts to ask. There’s a number and e-mail on this page: [Transfer</a> Alliance Project](<a href=“http://cep.berkeley.edu/TAP]Transfer”>TAP | Center for Educational Partnerships). That said, you don’t NEED TAP to get in if you cannot participate. TAP is great and you should do it if you can, but you can still get in without it.</p>
<p>@wanago2college: Interesting. I’ve heard nutrisci is pretty easy in general, but I don’t know about the others… I found the reading I had to be overwhelming at first but I mean… it was pretty manageable if you know how to focus on what is most important. You will read more during the year, but you will also have more time to do it. You know, I never asked what would happen if I go under 13 units while full time… Good question. Oh and wait, actually, what college is your major under? I feel silly for not asking sooner. Letters and Science, Chemistry, Engineering, Haas, and Natural Resources have minimum requirements of 13 units, but Environmental Design only requires 12. It might be a good idea to e-mail the college your major is under. They would know the answers to questions like these much better than anyone on this website, I reckon.</p>
<p>“Students with unapproved reduced course loads will be sent a warning via email for the first violation and will have their registration blocked for the second violation.”</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help. I hope I see you around UCB! I’ll yell out your user name everywhere :D</p>
<p>Oh- well, then perhaps talk to a counselor first and make a decision on whether you want to go part time or not, you wouldn’t want to get your registration blocked or anything. Good luck and I hope you get in. I’d call your name out too, but I might look rather silly standing around Sproul shouting “wanna go to college!” q: Best of luck!</p>
I’d call your name out too, but I might look rather silly standing around Sproul shouting “wanna go to college!” q: Best of luck!</p>