Hello, I am a CC student in the state of Florida right now, and I am interested in transferring to UC Berkeley. IMO, I think my GPA is pretty good. I mean, if you completely ignore the grades I got in my first year, I am at a 4.0 GPA. I also taken hard classes such as both differential and integral calculus, chemistry, and other rigorous accelerated courses and got an A in all of those classes. I also compete in the state-wide Math Olympiad event, where I dedicate a good amount of time to every week. I also volunteer 4 hours per week in my local hospital. I want to transfer as an engineering student. My question is, with a GPA that is a 4.0 based on the last year and a half of my college, over 120 hours of community service, a state contender of the math olympiad event, and close connections with a teacher who works at admissions with UC Berkeley, will I have a good shot at getting in?
Will you have 60 semester units/90 quarter units at your CC by the end of Spring 2016? Have you checked to make sure all your classes at your CC are UC transferable? UCB only accepts Junior level transfers.
I already have over 60 semester units right now. I’ve been here now for over 2 years. Next semester will be my last semester until I get my A.A. degree. I might end up doing a little more, however, since I need to fulfill the pre-reqs to getting into the school of engineering.
If you have any specific transfer questions, I suggest you post on the UC transfer thread. @Lindyk is a very knowledgeable CC poster whom could give you good advice.
Can you afford the out-of-state price? There is no financial aid coverage for the additional out-of-state tuition.
Cost shouldn’t be too much of an issue. I heard UC Berkeley is actually quite cheap. Someone told me the tuition per semester is less than $20K.
Yes, the tuition is below $20K/semester but you think that $40K/year is cheap???
The tuition for in-state students is around $13K/year but for OOS students, it is an additional $23K/year for a total of $36K/year. You also have to include Housing/Meals/Travel expenses. Expect to pay around $55K/year with little to no financial aid. Check the link for the UCB website… Note on the bottom that that non-residents pay the additonal tuition fee of $22.878.
It’s fine. I’ll find a way. I just really want to get in the school. I’ll just use student loans to get me through the year and pay them back. Afterall, the fields of science pays well, so I’ll be able to pay back whatever I owe once I get my degree.
You do realize that as a Junior/Senior, you personally can only take out $7500/year. Where will the other $47500 come from? Sorry but you are being very unrealistic about the cost situation especially since transfer qualify for even less FA than in-coming Freshman. $110,000 in debt for 2 years, call me crazy…
$55k per year, OOS status, Berkeley, No financial aid, Loans.^^^^^^ This does not bode well for you.
If you get in, if you are even given a loan for that amount, the payback starts immediately for some loans. You often don’t have a choice. How will you pay it back while you are in school?
Priority goes to the thousands of CALIFORNIA community college student transfers because remember that Berkeley is a state funded school for state residents.
^Yep.
Here is the UC transfer thread mentioned in an earlier response: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/
Oh and Berkeley won’t ignore your first year of grades.
You don’t get to pick and choose what grades they will accept.
Additionally, “close connections with a teacher who works with admissions at Berkeley” won’t work for the integrity of the adcoms on campus.
You need to look at your instate options.
California schools typically have better schools than Florida. Wouldn’t you guys agree? I am willing to move to California if that is my only option left. As for my grades in my first year, well, let’s just say that I didn’t do too well and got 5 C’s on my transcript before taking school seriously.
Plus, like I said, I have a father who is rich. He can afford to pay my tuition by pocket if he must. My overall GPA is not bad. ATM, it’s around a 3.31, and my last year and a half at my institution has bee na 4.0. I would upload my transcripts just to show you guys because it actually looks very good. I mean, I don’t think they will care that I got a C in a class like college algebra or environmental science, when I got an A in both differential and integral calculus, chemistry, and physics. That is why my first year is irrelevant and those C’s are irrelevant. Not everybody who first gets into college are geniuses.
It is very difficult to get in-state residency, especially coming to California for your educational needs. So add that to your housing costs. If your parent doesn’t mind spending $110K then go for it.
You obviously don’t know much about Berkeley.
They get tens of thousands of applications without C grades. “I don’t think they will care that I got a C in a class like college algebra . . . .” That shows your naivety about Berkeley. Every grade is counted. At Berkeley, the kids going in are like “geniuses”; that’s the attraction of Berkeley to some. Berkeley is very elitist in how they admit.
The fact that OOS community colleges don’t have articulation agreements with Berkeley is an even harder barrier.
Apply, but have your backups. Those C’s are going to count.
I know Korean girl who got accepted into UC Berkeley. She said she never got a C grade and only got 1 or 2 B grades in high school. She said the school is full of very smart and intelligent students. To me, I think that fits my description. I am very smart and intelligent, and I was even told by kids in ivy league schools that I am smart and intelligent. Plus, I did have some problems in my life when I was young that prevented me from getting to the same level every other kid with higher opportunity than me got. I was diagnosed with autism when I was young, so I had to spend almost my entire pre-college life in a special needs school, which is quite parallel to real school, then my father convinced me to do virtual school, which is an online high school that provides high school courses online. That was a huge mistake, and I regret allowing my father to let me do that. He did it because he did not want me to get bullied when I went to public school.
That is why on my first year, everything felt soo…strange. I was literally dropped in the middle of an ocean and was left to learn to swim by myself. My first year was rough. Yeah, I got a lot of C’s on my first year and I was forced to change my learning style. After I learned how to study effectively and be a better student, I never got anything lower than an A. This makes me smarter than the Korean girl who never got lower than an A in her entire high school career, because even though she is a cutie and got good grades, she never took classes as difficult as mine. Plus, she has a father who has a PHD and a mother with a bachelors degree from university. My father is clueless and only has an associates degree in some state college in NY. My mother…well, she never even went to college. So both of my parents were oblivious in terms of education and what is best for me.
I was never given the opportunities most other kids were given because of how I was born and the unhealthy educational background I was given. If I could control where I was born and what family I could belong to, and what disabilities I could disable, I would be born in that Korean family without autism so I could discover how it is like to have the same opportunities and chances that everyone else around me has.
I always admired Asians because of how well they do academically. I even do research in my library about their culture, history, and philosophies. I became greatly admired by Asian culture and education overall, and what drove them to be very smart people. It is of no surprise to me why half of UC Berkeley is Asian. They are extremely smart and educated people. Both their parents and the central government in Korea plays a large role in the development of kid’s education. They obtained the highest PISA score internationally last year in 2014. I always believe how we could benefit as a nation if we adopted Asian teachings and values. It could very well be the key to solving the education problems we have in the USA.
This relates to me because once I adopted Asian teachings and values, I felt as if I owe credit for my recent academic success to their teachings. Before, I was taught to disregard education by my father since he does not adopt Asian teachings. He claims that he respects the people of Asian descent, but how can you respect a group of people when you have very little respect for the thing they hold most sacred? Article after article, it is clear that Koreans along with every East Asian society values education and in their society, both family and central government plays a large role. I believe that you cannot respect Asian people if you do not respect education, as the two are synonymously related. Even though a lot of Asians I spoke to would disregard these facts for why they are academically successful, you cannot deny that it is these values that not just Asians, but every single person who follows these values end up getting the best education in the world.
I would very much love to be presented an opportunity and chance to get into UC Berkeley or any other ivy league school. I would give up every single hobby I once held dear to me, even give up the comfortable lifestyle I had so I can prove to these schools that my first year was a fluke and that I am not the same as I was before I embraced Asian values and teachings. Once I visit UC Berkeley next month, I will talk to them and ask if there is any kind of test I can take to prove my worth. I know companies like Google would rather have someone who graduated from UC Berkeley to work for them in engineering than someone who did not come from a school as good as UC Berkeley.
Plus, I think aunt bea is naive on how important essay questions are in applications. You can be a 4.0 student, but if your essays are weak, they won’t accept you. On the other hand, a 3.3 student could be accepted because he has a very powerful essay that explains what the school offers that he wants, and how he would die if he didn’t get accepted into it. Those essays are what they want to see, so it’s not like they are going to turn me down just because I have a gpa lower than 4.0.
For reach schools, and they are huge reaches given your poor performance at CC …
You need to work to make a really compelling essay out of your autism and deprived childhood education and how you overcame them, you might get some traction from that. Becoming an adult and rejecting the values of your parents, if they do not work for you, is a good thing. The asian thing might turn some people off, lots of non-Asians respect education and hard work. This is just simple-minded thinking that is not appropriate for a serious college student. All the high achievers you would even need to have around you, from all kinds of backgrounds, will be at UF or any ABET accredited school.
I don’t think Berkeley in particular will really care about your past, since you are out of state, but some of the other schools might. (see some ways to make a good list below).
You really need to target University of Florida, which is the #43 rated engineering school in the country. Sure, apply to Berkeley but poor grades in a CC in any class will be a huge red flag. Your competition have 4.0s if they are out of state CCs. Californians have some leeway, you do not.
I would work way down the list of Florida schools with accredited engineering programs as safeties. They are most likely to give you credit for your CC courses, are affordable, and any school with ABET accreditation will give you a fine engineering education that can take you anywhere you want to go.
If you have a specific engineering field in mind, which would be expected for an enrolled student in a 4 year school, you can peruse the list of good colleges in that field. There are private schools … but they also will notice your low freshman grades and be really worried. If you can pay the $55K at Berkeley, that would be similar to RPI, UR, etc.
You need to educate yourself on various engineering fields and what schools offer, their websites are a great start. I would also visit any 4 year engineering school near you, ask for a tour, and start talking to people about what they are working on, etc. You may want to attend there, or UF, or you may get a great opportunity elsewhere.
Stop comparing yourself to others and get those dang As in hard classes and just keep moving up the educational ladder. If you are really good at your 4 year school, you may end up in a really top notch graduate school.
I absolutely refuse to go to a Florida institution. Even lesser schools in California such as UCLA or UCSD have much better stats than even UF. In my heart, I feel like I am a California resident trapped in a Floridan shell. Every single UC school has better engineering programs and I want to learn from the best. I will even stay at my current institution even longer up to 3 years and get all A’s and raise my GPA up to a 3.6 if I must to complete all of my engineering pre-reqs if that will give me a better chance at getting in. Plus, I believe in miracles, as I have history of fighting statistically improbable battles, and won. I just refuse to settle for something that will not make me happy when I can keep trying to apply to universities where the odds are against me and have a miracle happen, which is to be accepted.
Engineering is impacted, aka very hard to get into, on every UC campus. If you don’t want to be really disappointed, make yourself a more realistic list of schools, and then add a few reaches to see what you can do.
That state right up north from you has one of the best engineering schools in the country (#4) and is not impacted, does not really discriminate against folks from out of state, has reasonable tuition, and is a school for well, engineers, so it has 80% of 25000 students in their engineering program and graduates 2000 mechanical engineers a year. UCB while it is big, has only 13% engineers, 600 graduates a year in ME.
Georgia Tech obviously.
Florida will give you the most chance, I don’t know what you have against UF, since #43 is fantastic (there are 300 ABET accredited engineering schools in the US, all would give you a good engineering education).
Most people settle, and you won’t be settling at UF.
You will need to prove that you are one of the best to learn from the best, and … well, go for it.
Community college As are not really proof … sorry.