I’m a student at a community college, and I have applied to transfer to UC’s in Fall 2019. My top choice is Berkeley, for obvious reasons.
I thought that I’d taken all the classes required for my major (Integrative Bio), but I just checked Assist, and it looks like I have to take Differential Equations.
Apart from this, I think I’m a pretty stellar candidate; I have a 3.94 GPA, I’ve been involved in a lot of organizations on campus and I think I wrote pretty good essays.
Do you guys think I’ll get rejected from Berkeley because I didn’t take Differential Equations?
Edit: I probably won’t be able to take DE next semester, because I already have 18 units of classes, on top of a bunch of extracurriculars.
@BBoy99 It doesn’t say it’s needed to apply. I mean, ideally, the more completed the better. No one here can tell you but assuming you have most completed, I’d say you’re likely still in the running. I would suggest you add it for summer 2019 in the January TAU. If you get in, you can ask if you still need it or if you could do it at Cal. By adding it you’re showing commitment to getting them all complete.
Another possible issue is how many major required courses you have for spring. If you have a lot not yet done, that could flag you.
@Ohm888 Thanks for the reply. May I ask which website you used to check whether I needed DE? I used assist.org, and it stated that it’s required for admission.
I have 2 major classes left for spring; Organic Chem 2 and Botany. Hopefully, that doesn’t strike them as “too many” left.
That’s where I went. Look at very top of that page. It says “complete as many as possible” and then below it it lists the courses definitely required to apply. DE is not in it.
@Ohm888 You’re right, I should have clarified; they ask that you complete any 2 Math courses from a list of: Calc 1, Calc 2 & DE, Calc 3 or Linear Algebra & DE.
I finished Calc 2, but I don’t plan on taking any more math courses until the summer. As such, I’m missing at least 1 Math class.
If you think you can do calc 1 in a winter intersession, you could throw it in. You won’t get units because it’s out of sequence but you will get subject credit. So if it’s easy to do, it could be a way around the math issue.
@Ohm888 Nah, I took Calc 1 and Calc 2 at my college; I got A’s in both.
Every other school I’ve applied to (including Cornell and Vanderbilt) says that Calc 2 is the last Math class that I need for entrance into a Biological Sciences major, so I assumed the same for Berkeley.
@Ohm888 Apparently Calc 2 at Berkeley corresponds to Calc 2 and DE combined at my college. I don’t plan on taking Calc 3 or Linear Algebra (2 other options that Berkeley allows you to take to satisfy the Math prerequisite.)
And yeah, I already paid the application fee, so I might as well see how this turns out. Hopefully, I’ll have plenty of other options though, so I’m not too worried.
Can you link to the ASSIST page that suggests that you need differential equations? For UCB IB, it typically says that you need two math courses from UCB MATH 1A, 1B, 53, 54, 55. Normally, calculus 1 and 2 at a semester system community college articulate to UCB MATH 1A and 1B.
For Lake Tahoe, you need MAT 105, 106, 107 (3 quarters of calculus) to cover UCB MATH 1A and 1B. For Mission, you need MATH 3A and 3B (2 semesters of calculus) to cover UCB MATH 1A and 1B. You do not need differential equations, unless you want to cover UCB MATH 54 (which also needs linear algebra).
I attended LTCC and Mission College for a couple of semesters, but my main college is American River College, in Sacramento. I took both Calc 1 and Calc 2 at ARC.
Here’s my suggestion FWIW:
Put DE in for summer 2019 when you update your grades in Jan.
Then in additional comments write:
“I thought I had completed calc 1 and 2 but just found out one UC wants DE as part of calc 2 fulfillment.”
The ball’s in their court. They’ll give you a pass or they won’t. If they do, you will likely get a provisional contract that will say you need to complete DE in summer.
Your other options would be to take multivariable calculus or discrete math, if either of those interests you more than differential equations. Or if one of them is easier to take scheduling wise.
@Ohm888 Dang, that’s even worse than I thought. I’ll make sure to do what you said, and explain my situation on the TAU. I’m also part of the Transfer Alliance Project, so I’ll get in contact with my advisor ASAP, and see if she thinks they’ll give me a pass.
@ucbalumnus I really wanted to avoid taking Multivariable Calc, but it looks like there’s a section available at a time that I’m free. I would prefer to take DE over the summer, but I’ll check with my TAP advisor, to see whether she thinks Cal will give me a pass. If not, I’ll probably take multivariable Calc next semester.