<p>hello all. long time reader, first-time poster.</p>
<p>so i messed up in cc. i had a 1.86 for the longest time. i also quit for 1 year to work (was in really bad financial problems/family problems). i am back now and i just finished summer school with a 4.0. i know that will raise my gpa to a little bit under 3.0. </p>
<p>i was a mech engineering major before i came back. i switched to poli sci and my plan is to go onto law school after getting my bachelor's.</p>
<p>now... i know this is so so bad but i am thinking of switching back to engineering. i love science, i don't know. i know that my math prereqs are going to pile up, and it will take me even longer to transfer at this rate.</p>
<p>i am hoping to transfer to UCI (mainly). i know my GPA sucks, but i've cleaned up my bad habits and i am planning to get 4.0s for the rest of my semesters.</p>
<p>now i ask you, is it a good idea to switch back to engineering and take longer to transfer? another question, if my GPA is significantly raised from the 1.86 i had in the beginning, will UCs/Cal states accept me?</p>
<p>any advice is very appreciated. thank you all.</p>
<p>To have a 1.86, you must have had some Ds and/or Fs. Retaking those classes or getting academic renewal for them will remove them from your GPA, which should raise it dramatically (should be at a 3.0).</p>
<p>Your chances of getting in depend on when you plan on transferring. Just a 4.0 for summer and fall might not be enough to get into some UCs (though if academic renewal raises your grade significantly, you’d probably have a good chance). Cal states will definitely accept you…providing you don’t apply during one of their “frozen” semesters. </p>
<p>Since you still seem unsure of what you want to do, you should stay at the CCC and finish math prereqs and continue to get great grades so you’ll have a year and a half of As. That will surely get you into UCI.</p>
<p>It depends on your personal goals. If it’s going to take 5 years at a CC, I’d say it’s not worth it. If you’ll have spent 3 years at a CC total, I’d say it is. </p>
<p>My friend got denied at CSU Long Beach with a 3.2 for MechE but accepted at Cal Poly Pomona. If you can get a 3.5+ GPA and get all of your prerequisites done for your MechE major, then I’d say you’d have a decent shot at the UC’s. I don’t know how many credits you’ve taken, so yeah. I’d say you have no chance at Cal Poly but a decent chance at the rest of the CSU’s if you have a 3.2+ for engineering. Engineering is an impacted major at many CSU’s. A 2.7 will get you into the MechE program at CSUN. It will not at Cal Poly Pomona or Long Beach.</p>
<p>If this is truly what you want to do with your life, do it. But I’d advise dropping your political science degree cause those are a dime a dozen for law school admissions and if you don’t crack the top 14 schools it is not worth it to go to law school (cost-wise). You could end up with a useless degree and no job.</p>
<p>sorry i don’t know how to quote messages on these forums…</p>
<p>shannon13: yes i didn’t mean just from getting a 4.0 in summer, i mean from summer on… or however more units i need to transfer. i am on the fence, particularly between law school and becoming an engineer. it would seem that the safest way to go is to become an engineer for my undergraduate degree, then decide later on if i still want to go to law school. the only down side to this is that i would be stuck in CC for another year at least (for math and physics pre-reqs). do you think it is worth taking a longer time?</p>
<p>Caldud: that is my biggest problem with pursuing the engineering degree. i don’t think it will take 5 years, but it might definitely take 3-4 years. i’ve only taken 30 credits (since i stopped school for a year or so to work). i know for a fact that cal poly slo’s mechE major is always impacted. if you were on the fence like me, would you go for the mechE major instead, then later on decide to go to law school afterwards? (keep in mind it will take longer to graduate)</p>
<p>I don’t know how good you are at math and physics. However, engineering is a GPA killer. Unfortunately, there isn’t much wiggle room in admissions to compensate for this or the fact that other universities such as UC Berkeley have a much more rigorous class than State U.</p>
<p>Therefore, they created the LSAT as an equalizer. So, getting a high GPA is paramount to law school admissions as well as a really high LSAT score. It is simply not worth it to attend law school if you can’t crack the Top 14. However, you may transfer from a Tier 1- 4 law school and up if you are at the very top of your class your first year. LSAT won’t matter much after 1L. Many people major in something easy and those who are smart get into wherever they want with a high LSAT score. Those who major in something easy with a bad LSAT score will keep you from getting into virtually anywhere. Patent Law is a good resource of income for technical majors and won’t put you in as bad of a position as stuff like criminal law. </p>
<p>Engineering is a sought after field for patent law. Your engineering background will be very useful. As for me, I had to take 24 units worth of physics to qualify for the Patent Law Bar. Law school is 3 years long, so it isn’t that bad. Since you’ve only got 30 credits or so, I’d say that’s about a year’s work. Spending 5 years in college is not that bad for an engineer. 6 would be pushing it and then more school. You would have to weight the pros and cons. You’d have to get a master’s or higher in engineering to advance up to good salaries but the starting salary for engineering ain’t too shabby either (60K). Law absolutely depends on what school you go to and how good you are. You could be making big bucks or you could be making an OK salary without much mobility due to location. Remember, for law schools, your school’s name brand is EVERYTHING unless you want to be stuck in a specific state for the rest of your career. You can always go to law school afterwards, but I’d say since you’ve got 4-5 years of education left you have plenty of time to think about your goals. I have only around two years left (will be applying to law schools, graduate schools, etc next year). </p>
<p>Get into the BEST engineering program you possibly can if you want to pursue it. It is not uncommon for people who have majored in engineering to end up doing something else with their lives. Plenty of my engineering friends have gone into law, medicine, and some into physics graduate programs.</p>
<p>Law school is a commitment, though. Expect massive amount of debt and unless you’re successful, it is kind of hard to be a lawyer. You could always get your master’s in engineering or PhD if you wanted to go that route for better pay.</p>
<p>Like you (OP), I went back to school with a totally different major and faced a mountain of prereqs (remedial math, awesome)… the thought of having to take basic algebra and geometry en route to calc 2/LA/DM totally sucked ass, and you’ll be faced with even more math crap as a ME major, but if it’s what you really want to study, go for it. One day you’ll be sitting there doing diff eq hw thinking “wow this totally sucks” but you’ll realize it wasn’t that long ago you were thinking “wow this totally sucks” doing trig hw… " a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step blahblahblah"…</p>
<p>Besides, lawyers are a dime a dozen… tell someone at a cocktail party you’re an engineer and they give you the “oh my god you must have gone through so much math, you poor ■■■■■■■” face…</p>