<p>Hey everyone,</p>
<p>I'm going to try to keep this as short as possible. I'm a biology student in Hawaii with AP credit from high school applying to most of the UCs for fall 2013. During my freshman year, I contracted a staph infection all over my body that lasted over a semester. At one point, I had to be hospitalized. I don't want to get into too much detail about it here, but you can take my word that it was pretty gruesome. Anyway, instead of just giving up, I tried to make the most of it and I finished my first year of college with 2.76 (I got a few C's, mostly B's, and a few A's. My professors were pretty indifferent, but that was understandable). I got better over the summer and have been getting A's and B's (I got a 4.0 over the summer at CSULB). If I can continue to do alright at my home institution this this semester, I will have a cumulative GPA slightly above a 3.0.... But this won't happen until after I get this semester's grades, so I'm stuck with my freshman year GPA.
So the point of this whole post is this:
1. Will the UC's still look at this semester's GPA and will it be included in the evaluation for eligibility? I need at least over 2.8 or 3.0 to apply at most places.
2. Would it be a good idea to incorporate this terrible experience with staph into something positive that I can write about in my personal statement? If so, any advice? (after all, this thing almost killed me :p.)</p>
<p>Yes they consider Fall Semester grades. You have the lowest priority for transfer admission to the UC’s, coming from an out-of-state (what I’m assuming is a) four-year institution. I don’t think a 3.0 really makes the cut tbh because it’s just so competitive these days even for CA residents. There’s no guarantee that your transferable GPA is actually above a 3.0 because the UC’s have no corse articulation with your home institution or the CSU system (i.e. you probably won’t get credit for some of your classes)…so you face a mix of problems that may include not having a high enough GPA as well as not having enough units to transfer. </p>
<p>You should definitely write about your…situation…but it might not help you that much. Biology is pretty competitive at many of the UC’s so the primary factors they will be looking at will still be your GPA and the completion of pre-requisite courses. In any case, the only UC’s that will actually read your statements are UCLA, Berkley, Irvine, and Merced. If you are hoping to get into any of the other campuses, the statements will be of no use to you.</p>
<p>Thanks for the honest feedback, Oceanpartier. Nonetheless, it can’t hurt to try. Just out of curiosity, do you think I could get into any of the lower tier UC’s? I do feel a bit lost. I wanted to transfer back to a 4-year institution in California, but things look so bleak now. I’m still just trying to make the best of a bad situation. I feel fortunate that I at least managed to get into a 4-year university. I was considering going to a community college and then transferring, but I’ve seen too many horror stories of people getting trapped in that system. At least here I’m in.</p>
<p>^Well, if you mean UCR, UCSC, and Merced when you say “lower-tier” UC’s, I’d say there’s a small possibility…with a higher chance for Merced. Merced actually considers the personal statements which IMO would be the strongest point of your potential application. It never hurts to throw an application out there though, so while I think UCR and UCSC are slight reaches, I would apply to them as well. To work the personal statement to your advantage, I would specifically write about UC Merced (talk about “Why UCM?”). I’d do this because it doesn’t really matter to the other two campuses what you write. If you want to save what might be a significant amount of money on the application process…I’d immediately remove UCSD (an absolute impossibility), UCLA, and Berkley from the list if you were considering those schools. UCI, UCSB, and UCD will be extremely high reaches…each is extremely competitive for sciences like Biology. It never hurts to try, yes, but at $70 a campus, you might need to consider if it’ll actually be worthwhile to apply to some of these schools…</p>
<p>I really wouldn’t rule out the community college path so quickly. It offers you the highest priority to transfer and with your AP credits, you might not have to stay as long as you’d imagine. A few well planned semesters + summer sessions could get you to a UC or CSU quicker than you think. You are also saving a lot of money…I mean if Hawaii isn’t where you actually want to be, (maybe I’m taking this out of context but you mentioned a “bad situation”?) you might as well save the money. You should not be afraid of being “trapped” in the system because this is a system that by all means wants to prepare you to transfer to schools like the UCs…the people who really want to do this and have clear goals usually make it out fine.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. You are probably the nicest, least condescending person I’ve seen on this forum so far xD. Thank you. I was looking into UCSD, but I have to beat the numbers game first. If I did go back to California and continued at a community college, would my freshman year grades still count against me when I apply? Or would it not matter as much as long as I am in that TAG program?
Also, I have nothing against UC Merced or Riverside, but I would be happier in a large city community. That is why I would have loved UCSC, but if they don’t read my personal statement, that might be temporarily out of my reach as well. Maybe I should be a communications major so I can get a 4.0… (I’m joking, of course… my current roommate is a com major and it looks a million times easier than anything that I do, but he’s doing something he loves :).)</p>
<p>I think the hard part is going to be convincing the parents that that leaving a four-year university to go to a community college temporarily is not the end of the world. It will be tough to sell.</p>