I'm a Greencard holder from the Philippines

Applying to College
1

<p>Hey, so I have a very special situation. I'm really academically-competent back in the Philippines so I want to maximize my US college experience. But I don't know the system and everything. My objective is to enter a prestigious but realistic California public University and the counselors i see just keeps sending me everywhere cuz they don't seem to know what to do with me. ANd i'm annoyed because i am really academically-competent but I can't start. So will anyone help me? Here are pertinent facts:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I'm 20 years old. Completed 3 years and one semester of college back in the Philippines. Yes I was one semester from graduation. But I had to leave the Philippines. </p></li>
<li><p>After translation, my GPA is found out to be 3.23. WHich is weird cuz Ive topped the DEan's list twice with a GPA higer then 3.5 most of the time. With the given GPA, will I still be able to enter a good university? I really want to enter UC Berkeley but I doubt it’s possible. What are realistic CAlfiornia universities would accept me?</p></li>
<li><p>They suggested I got to a community college. But I don’t know which classes I need to take cuz of the classes which may have already been credited. SO is it legal for me to just start over and re-take all classes and start from zero? Will doing this guarantee a rejection from these colleges?&lt;/p></li>
<li><p>If I do decide to start over, will the universities want to look at my previous college transcripts? Will this tarnish my reputation or something? Cuz this doesn’t seem to be acceptable. IF the answer is that they will only consider my latest transcripts (which would be from the community college), can I declare all the extracurricular activities I had in my previous university in my application?</p></li>
<li><p>Since I didn’t attend high school here in the US, I do not know what my high school GPA is. SO what do I put in the application forms if they ask me about my high school GPA?</p></li>
<li><p>I have two failing grades in my previous college. Also a few Cs. Will this greatly affect my chances? But after that I had a lot of As and B pluses.</p></li>
</ol>

2

<p>Any school you are interested in attending, you need to contact directly, preferably their transfer department. They will know how to handle your particular situation much better than anyone on CC. Just be prepared to provide documents for everything - even if they are unofficial copies of things like transcripts. The more info you can provide the school, the better (and faster) they’ll be able to advise you on the best possible route. Some schools may even tell you they can’t help you, but School X can. Good luck.</p>