Is this course load too heavy for a first time CC student?

Transfer Students
1

<p>So I'm in a bit of an interesting situation right now. Because of AP courses in high school, I'm about halfway done with my IGETC. My first day of CC starts tomorrow. </p>

<p>I want to transfer to Cal Poly, and as I was looking through their website and transfer requirements, I noticed that not only do they ask for IGETC, they have about 12 to 15 required units in various classes: the website says "Courses listed in bold are required for selection to this major. You will not be competitive in the selection process without them!"</p>

<p>Despite some last-minute crazy scrambling this summer, I was set with fifteen units for the fall term at my CC, and this term would clear all but four of my IGETC required classes, so next term I would take the remaing twelve units and some supplement classes to make my application look good. However, upon finding this out about Cal Poly, I kinda panicked. (Yes, I know I should have looked into it earlier, but it was a crazy period of time.)</p>

<p>Basically, if I continue on the route I'm on, I'd need to take fifteen units this term and 21 next to meet both my IGETC and the Cal Poly "required classes for my major". But, I could potentially late-add into one more class and make it an even 18-18 unit year. My parents don't agree with me taking 18 units, however, saying it would be too difficult. I told them it is the difficulty of the classes that matters, not the number of units.</p>

<p>Here's my potential 18 unit schedule:</p>

<p>Intro to PoliSci
Macro Economics
Introduction to African American Literature
Speech
Sociology and Social Problems
Drama (which is an online class and doesn't even begin until late september.)</p>

<p>I personally think I could do it, but they are a little skeptical of my abilities and want me to take an easier course load so my GPA will be higher for transfer apps in november. Is that too difficult of a schedule, in your opinion?</p>

<p>I know it was long, I have a bit of a penchant for long a$$ posts on here :( Sorry, but thank you in advance if you read all the way through! You have no idea how much some advice would help!</p>

2

<p>What do you want to major in?</p>

<p>SLO is reallllly impacted and hard to get into for many majors.</p>

<p>I had a close friend who had a 3.9/ 2200 SAT’s got into Berkeley and UCLA, but was wait listed at Cal Poly. He was an engineering major, though, and that is the most impacted major.</p>

3

<p>If you’re not working then it’s manageable. The best advice would be don’t have a social life and stay on top of things. Also, when you’re at the 21 unit mark its REALLY easy to fumble things that is where you might run into issues. </p>

<p>When you’re at over 16 units it’s easy for grades to snowball and tumble really fast. It happened to me (large time gaps, procrastination here & there, difficult classes) etc etc and my GPA suffered more than it should have. </p>

<p>The only class you may have a bit of trouble in it seems is macroeconomics. I had a more difficult time with it than microeconomics (which i loved more) but I still got a B. Not to mention my professor, whom i had for both micro/macro, scaled the class to make macroeconomics harder than micro.</p>

<p>Also, your pre-reqs are more important than your general education with transfer. Getting GE certified or IGETC is important but make sure you have your pre-reqs done by spring before you transfer out. If not, that is grounds for disqualification.</p>

<p>Hope you have a great first day of school, enjoy your time as much as possible … meet the professors for office hours (They are there for you!) and meet some new people if you can. Study hard and move on to bigger and better things.</p>

<p>cheers.</p>

4

<p>P.S. apply to UC’s & CSU’s also … poly techs are pretty full right now and even when transferring in classes are hard to snag so hopefully you can get into a better ranked UC provided you wish to attend it!</p>

5

<p>Take the 18 unit schedule. It is totally doable. Especially with no math or science course that would be heavy on HW/studying. You were already successful in a lot of AP courses so I think you’d be able to handle it. Personally my AP courses in HS were way more work than my CC courses. Worse case - you can always drop a course before the deadline if you feel too over whelmed. Go for it!</p>

6

<p>15 units are doable, and will not kill you. You can also have a bit of free time even for socail, ECs, work, etc…You just have work for it. I did 15 last semester and plan to this semester as well.</p>

<p>Anything more then 15… it is doable but it gets risky. I would say i would not recommend it at all except your line up doesn’t look too intensive. There is just so many little variables that can snag you in the butt part way into the semester. Sickness, family, friends, multiple tests/papers do at the same time etc…</p>

<p>I think you should also ask yourself if you would rather not just spend a little more time at your cc, have a better chance of getting good grades AND the time and energy to toss some ECs onto your app?</p>

<p>Chance me please? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1195609-georgetown-transfer.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1195609-georgetown-transfer.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;