international student transferring to CA university - bus/econ

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hello,
in 2012, I came to United States from Czech republic to study as a foreign exchange student on high school in Torrance (Los Angeles County), California. After a year, I literally fell in love with America and local educational system and decided to stay in the US for at least another 4 years of college.</p>

<p>This fall, I am going to attend El Camino Community College. I chose community college for many reasons.
1. it's cheap
2. I will live with host family close by (free housing)
3. I believe I can perform better than I did in highs chool and transfer to a better university (my GPA was around 3.7, but I didn't really try my first 3 years in my country)
4. I missed CSU and UC deadlines for fall 2013 (I decided to stay in the US in 2013)</p>

<p>For my first year, I chose pretty general course that cover requirements for all majors I am thinking about. I will be taking 16 credits - precalculus, macroeconomics, managerial accounting, and english (reading and composition).</p>

<p>For my transfer universities, I am pretty sure I will be transferring to CSU, because UCs are just way too expensive and ROI is very low for me.</p>

<p>I want to major either in economics, business economics, or different types of business and management (not sure which since my knowledge of this topic is not that broad yet). I am pretty interested international business, since I am an international student and my dad, who has a company I may run in future, owns truck transportation business (export-import) between Russia and Czech republic, and he also runs wood production company. I would be interested of developing his company by getting connections in the US and maybe expanding somewhere else than just Russia. I am also interested in economics, since it is better to have economics undergraduate degree for possible MBA school. The problem is I am not sure if I want to stay in the US after college, get MBA, or even work here. Would international business major be worthless in case I stayed in the US, worked, or got a job? What do you think of this?</p>

<p>My top choice schools and majors are (1. = top choice, 2. = after top choice, ...):
1. Cal Poly SLO - business administration (not sure of concentration, but probably management, finance, or accounting)
2. SDSU - besides business administration, I am interested in their International business connected with regional studies and language (Russia and central Europe) and one semester abroad. Since I already had 2 years of Russian in HS and my dad runs business with them, it doesn't seem like a bad idea. But again, I am not sure whether to stay in the US and start from scratch or take charge of my dad's company and stay there. I like life in California better, but I think it is better to start with 12 trucks than nothing. On the other hand, average salary in the US is 55,000 dollars/year and while in Czech republic, it is only about 12,000/year.
San</a> Diego State University | Admissions
International</a> Business | San Diego State University
3. CSULB/CSUF
4. UCSB - business management, UCLA, UCB (Haas), UCI, UCSD - but only in case I got some form of scholarship, my dad all of a sudden became a billionaire, and I also got in.</p>

<p>My other career choice would be either (with some luck), working for the BIG 4, or starting my own business - since I was a foreign exchange student and I have some experience with it, I would like to make on company for helping students from Czech republic study in the US and vice versa, which is also some kind of "international business".</p>

<p>Also, are my chances as a transfer student higher, lower? I may think for reasons for both. Higher, because we pay more money and lower, because there is probably limited space.</p>

<p>So these are my thoughts for what to do in my future years. Anything can change (especially after I know I changed my life from scratch during this 1 year abroad). I will be applying to universities in approximately a year, but the sooner I start, the better. What are your thoughts?</p>

2

<p>I went to West High in Torrance! Small world huh? I went to El Camino College after and am an incoming transfer to Cal (Berkeley, not SLO) this fall majoring in econ.</p>

<p>It sounds like a good plan but try and figure out where you where you want to go and what you want to major in sooner rather than later. This is because each school has slightly different course requirements for transfer and the general education requirements for CSUs and UCs are different (although you can do both). Try to prioritize classes for your major over general classes. I would also highly recommend looking into the honors program (HTP) and joining the student government there (ASO). A lot of international students have transferred from El Co to good schools, I know of a girl who got into Cornell this year. Don’t stress too much, get good grades and thats that. PM me if you have any questions</p>

3

<p>mike011x: wow, congrats to transferring to Cal, that’s a great school! What classes did you take? I am doing IGETC for both CSU and UC. I wanted to go to HTP, but they discouraged me, because I was mainly considering CSUs and they don’t value HTP as something better. And my grade would just suffer. Do you know anyone who transferred to Cal Poly or SDSU?</p>

4

<p>Thanks! I took a bunch of courses so its really hard to just list them all here, the most important thing is to use Rate My Professor! And never ever take Batemen for math 190 (Calc 1). Also note that there are two routes you can take for Calc, math 160 and 161 OR math 190 and math 191, the former being business Calc. Business Calc is accepted at a few UCs but more so at CSUs, check on assist.org to see which one you should take. CSU admissions are based on grades rather than extracurriculars so it makes sense, but if you think you might be going to a UC, do HTP. A few of the honors classes aren’t even that hard, bio 10, sociology 101, etc.</p>

<p>I know of two people who go into SLO for engineering (ridiculously hard) and one person who got into SDSU, I’m sure there are more but I don’t know them personally.</p>

5

<p>If you want to work at a Big 4 I highly recommend UCSB, their economics and accounting program is top notch and the Big 4 heavily recruit from there. Most UCs only have an accounting minor if they have one at all. El Camino College is a good school, there are a lot of former or concurrent professors from UCLA, USC, Cal, etc there.</p>

6

<p>Yes, I used it and I think I have pretty good professors. I had to take 2 night classes because all good professors were taken, but I don’t regret it. Why is Bateman bad? He seems like the best professor on Rate My Professors. Do you know my professors?
Pre-Calculus - Anthony Hoang [Anthony Hoang</a> - El Camino College - RateMyProfessors.com](<a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=487655]Anthony Hoang”>Anthony Hoang at El Camino College | Rate My Professors)
Economics 1 - Farshid Tahernia [F. Tahernia</a> - El Camino College - RateMyProfessors.com](<a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=225215]F. Tahernia”>F. Tahernia at El Camino College | Rate My Professors)
Business 1A - Norbert E. Maler [Norbert Maler</a> - El Camino College - RateMyProfessors.com](<a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=312455]Norbert Maler”>Norbert Maler at El Camino College | Rate My Professors)
English 1A - Stephen Waterworth [Stephen Waterworth</a> - El Camino College - RateMyProfessors.com](<a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=171192]Stephen Waterworth”>Stephen Waterworth at El Camino College | Rate My Professors)</p>

<p>By the way, do you have any contact for the guy that got to SDSU? Do you know what his GPA and major was?</p>

7

<p>Batemen is a great teacher, he’s so good that if you fail then you’ll still learn. The problem is that his tests for math 190 are so hard that more than half of the class drops and pulling a B is impressive. From what I’ve heard, his work background is impressive but he got sick of the bs so he started teaching. He’s a Stanford alum. Imagine this sin(x^2), take the derivative. Pretty simple right? This is Batemen’s test (sin(cos(tan(x^2 + 3x * sprt 7x))))/(3x^2 + e^x^2) except more complicated. I’m not even joking. You can do every problem in the book and still pull a C in his class. </p>

<p>I don’t know your professors. I took Carter for Econ (chill, relatively easy A), Lau for BUS 1A (like Batemen but totally reasonable and you can totally pull an A if you do the work), Crotwell for English 1A (AMAZING TEACHER), and Barajas for math 180 (chill, doesn’t care if you don’t care, good teacher otherwise). </p>

<p>My suggestions for your future professors (seeing as you’ll be soon be taking a “part 2” of most of these classes) is Carter for Econ 2, Crotwell for English 1C, Hull for BUS 1B, and anyone but Batemen for math 190.</p>

8

<p>Wow, who do you recommend to take for Calculus then? If you drop the class, will it count in your GPA? Will you get any refund? Can you take other class instead and still get credit?</p>

<p>EDIT: by the way, since El Camino doesn’t offer Russian courses, can I enroll in SMC or Harbor College and get my Russian classes there? I mean for transferring to SDSU International Business with Russian and Central Europe concentration. Will they count towards my transfer credit?</p>

9

<p>You can enroll in classes at other institutions, just make sure that they will articulate to the schools that you want to transfer to and will satisfy IGETC at El Camino.</p>

<p>There a deadlines to drop a class without it showing up on your transcript as a W (you took the class and did it for a few weeks and dropped it) and getting a refund (amount depending on when you dropped it). I took Meyer for Math 190 and 191, she’s not the best teacher, let me just be clear about that. If you need someone to teach you then don’t take her, if you can self study very well then she’s great. Her tests are easier than most professors, but I guess that may be to compensate for her students resulting performance. I also took math 160 and 161, once I decided to SIR (accept Cal’s acceptance offer) I dropped math 191 because they accepted the two former classes. Honestly, just take math 190 and 191 and work hard, you should be able to pull an A in 190 and AT LEAST a B in 191.</p>

10

<p>Okay. By the way, is there any “easy A” teacher for Math 190/191? I know those are hard classes any my grade will probably suffer since I am not particularly good at math. I haven’t done topics taken at calculus in high school.</p>

<p>And just one more question. You can start applying to universities after you 1st year at ElCo, right? Is it better to take major prep classes during that period? Different colleges have slightly different requirements (for example, some require Law 4, some Law 5, some computer science etc.). My idea is to take classes that satisfy requirements for all of them first 1 year and then, depending on where I get to, take school-specific classes last semester prior fall enrollment. Is that good reasoning?</p>

<p>Right now, I expanded my college choices for:

  1. Cal Poly SLO
  2. San Diego State University
  3. Arizona State University (easy to get into, but very good business program in honors college)
  4. University of Arizona
  5. UCSB, UCSD, UCLA, UCB, UCI (if enough money)</p>

<p>Do you know any other universities in/out of state that are for reasonable money, with good academics especially in business, and accept IGETC?</p>

11

<p>I think there is some Asian professor that is suppose to be good but I’m not sure of their name. Might be Ngyuen (I’m Vietnamese, not being racist here lol). I would recommend asking around during your first semester but there is not “easy A” professor.</p>

<p>You can apply after one year (in your 3rd semester) if you will have 60 units at the end of your second spring. It should look like this: enter fall 2013, spring 2014, apply fall 2014, complete 60 units by the end of spring 2015, and transfer to another institution fall 2015. You can transfer after on year (apply after your first semester) to certain schools (USC, possibly SLO) but you may have to send in your SAT scores and they will consider your high school grades. That sounds good but you should also prioritize your major classes over IGETC classes. Find courses that overlap.</p>

<p>USC has a good business school but it can be rather expensive. The thing is that some privates such as USC don’t consider residency so you’ll receive a comparable financial aid package given that the only difference is residency or lack thereof. Pepperdine is also suppose to be pretty good. I’m not really familiar with schools other that the UCs and USC.</p>

12

<p>Thanks! Who do you think is the best of Math 180 and Business 1A? I am not sure about math, but if I can choose between Koch and Lau, whom should I choose?</p>

13

<p>I really can’t speak to who is the “best”, only to who I’ve had. It depends on your studying and learning style. Like I said, Lau is tough but if you do the work then you can get an A no problem.</p>

14

<p>Thanks. What do you think is the easiest way to receive priority registration? Join ASO?</p>

15

<p>By the way, I forgot to ask you… How the heck did you get to Berkeley? If I got there, I would probably got scholarship from organization from my country. The question is: how? Are you super-intelligent? What was your GPA? What were your EC? Any other tips how to get there?</p>

16

<p>Either ASO or HTP. HTP will let you in as long as you meet the requirements, don’t worry about the essay too much. ASO currently has many vacant positions if you want to join. </p>

<p>I would like to think that I’m smart, but there’s always going to be someone out there that is smarter. I’m pretty sure I got in based off of my extracurriculars and personal statement, keep in mind that people with 4.0s get rejected for Econ so having just grades isn’t guaranteed to get you in. </p>

<p>My extracurriculars: Pres. of Political Science Club, Secretary for Poli Sci Club my first year, Businsss Division Council Memeber, Commisoner of Finance, Alpha Gamma Sigma Honors Society (not that hard to get into, you only need a 3.0 GPA), worked full time since high school. </p>

<p>Personal Statements: In depth essay on being Commsioner of Finance (Planning and Budgeting Committee, etc) and working as an Assistant Manager. I also moved out an lived on my own since I was 18. </p>

<p>Tips: Get goods grades. There is a STRONG correlation between GPA and admit rates, if you have to go to class and do your work anyways, do it well. Get involved with clubs and ASO. As for the personal statement keep in mind that it is meant to show a different side of you that is not present elsewhere in your application. Don’t list a bunch of your extracurriculars (because they have that already) but go in depth and talk about how it contributes to you as a person. If it doesn’t make you a better person and you don’t care about it, dont talk about it. Your audience will never care more than you so. Just work hard and get your **** together if it already isn’t, UC Berkeley is a good school and you have the opportunity to go there.</p>

17

<p>Yeah, I am not sure about HTP since:
a) I have already registered for classes
b) It would hurt my GPA for transfer to CSU</p>

<p>I may join ASO though. Is it hard to get elected for ASO straight from high school? Does it consume a lot of time - do you actually have to work hard there to keep the position? Who should I talk to? They have Director of Finance - VACANT, do you know anything about that?</p>

<p>Btw, do you know any other students that transferred to out of state universities? I am interested in universities in Florida (1st - nice weather and cheap tuition for somewhat good academics), Arizona (2nd - articulation agreements and good weather and academics), Nevada, Washington, Oregon, and New York. </p>

<p>I think I do have **** together. I slacked off my senior year, but now I am motivated and I watch Khan Academy math videos to review math this whole summer plus I read books like “The secrets of college success”, “How to Win at College”, and “How to Become a Straight-A Student”.</p>

<p>Is it hard to get straight As? I consider myself pretty intelligent, bus sometimes lazy (when I lack motivation). Now I have the motivation though. Do you think that if I study 2 hours for each 1 hour in class, I have mostly As guaranteed in ElCo? I have no clue how hard ElCo is.</p>

<p>Did you have any “study spot” at ElCo? Where did you study? The library is pretty noisy, but I heard they opened some new building with places to study recently.</p>

<p>CLASSES:

  • Do you recommend going to math lab and writing center? Are they helpful? I should be done reviewing pre-calc by the end of summer, so I SHOULD pull an A. I am afraid of Calculus though. Should I take statistics next semester, since it is easier and won’t hurt my GPA or not take a gap and go straight to calculus? Would it look better for colleges or it doesn’t matter in what order you take the classes?
  • I am not really afraid of English, since I am supposed to have the “easiest” English professor at ElCo (Waterworth), he has good rating though and good sense of humor and a lot of class discussions which is what I like - in HS I spent debating with my Econ teacher usually about 30 minutes and my classmates used to love me since they didn’t have to do any work haha
  • I am not afraid of Econ either since it is just review and little extension of what we did in high school where I had 98% and didn’t really study.
  • I am afraid of Business though. I think I am one of the hardest, if not the hardest, ElCo professors now - Norbert Maler, for subject which is the only one out of 4 I know nothing about. He is supposed to be good but the class is challenging. From reviews I think Lau and Hull are easier and also very good. Do you think it is possible to go to their class and ask the if they have free space the first week of classes? Do you have to pay again if you drop the same class and just change the teacher?</p>

<p>Sorry for all those questions but I am really curious! :slight_smile: If you want, add me on facebook and we could chit-chat there (if you don’t mind). Facebook</p>

18

<p>HTP isn’t that difficult if you choose the right classes and you can still get in for the next semester. El Camino isn’t really that difficult at all, if you can handle West High or any Torrance High School then you should be fine unless you’re just super lazy. PM me your email and I’ll get you in touch with the incoming Pres. of ASO. ASO will take up time, but it should not interfere with your school work if you know how to manage your time well. I don’t think the Sen. of Business position is open but you can alway go for something else. You’ll just have to fill out an app and go through an interview. The interview isn’t really that difficult.</p>

<p>Honestly, I procrastinate all the time and can be pretty lazy, but at the end of the day my **** gets done when it needs to be done. You seem to be on top of your stuff you I’m guessing that you’ll do well. My “study spot” was always the North Wing of the library (where everyone is really noisy to the point where they started cracking down last spring). If I ever really needed to study then I would either go upstairs or put my headphones in.</p>

<p>“How to Become a Straight-A Student” is a fantastic book and it makes a very important point: work smart, not hard. I don’t mean you shouldn’t work hard, but why work hard when you could do it a more efficient way with better or comparable results? I studied in Boston this summer and did pretty well (98 and a 95 on my first two midterms, haven’t gotten my final grade yet) applying more or less this methodology. </p>

<p>I know of people who got into NYU but I think they decide to attend somewhere else. We also send so many transfers to ASU that they send a rep to our school (which is unusual because it’s a state school). </p>

<p>I used the math center a few times and they are actually pretty helpful. I never used the writing center though. You will be fine, if you want to get straights A’s then you can. It’s not as hard as you think, but if you think you can just cruise by you won’t get a 4.0 (although some people get close to it). I’ll add you on FB.</p>