Looking for some advice, is transferring from community to a UC the right decision for me?

Hello, I’m looking for some advice on whether or not transferring is a good option for me. I didn’t get accepted to the UC’s that I wanted to attend, I was very interested in Davis, but I did get accepted to Riverside and Santa Cruz. They are both colleges that I think are great but not where I see myself going and think I could probably get into Davis through the TAG program if I spend two years in community college.

I have also been hearing due to COVID-19 many fall classes will be conducted online, in which case it might be better financially to enroll in community college as well. Is this likely to happen?

Some background info:

  • My high school GPA is 3.7 (unweighted) and my SAT score is 1490.
  • I am planning on majoring in computer science.

Some questions I have:

  • I have heard it is difficult to transition from community college classes to UC classes, will this make my time at a UC difficult and leave me behind the rest of my peers?
  • How difficult is it to maintain a 3.5 GPA at a CC? How about in the Honors program? (If I do end up deciding to attend community college, I will enroll at DeAnza.)
  • Some people have told me it is possible to transfer from Riverside to Davis, although I think my chances of getting accepted through that path is much slimmer. Would this be a feasible option as well?

Hey! You remind me of myself senior year. I had similar stats to you, and I was looking to go to UCLA or UC Berkeley. I did not get into either, but got into the rest of the UCs. I wanted to go to UCSD, but my parents told me to stay at CC and reapply. So, I did what they said and stayed. It turned out to be the best decision I have made… I took 19 units in the Fall semester, 24 units in the Spring currently, and am going to be going to UCLA as a junior transfer next year. I ended up saving 80K and skipping a year of college essentially. I think CC is a great option for you. I personally found my CC to be significantly easier than high school, and I think most likely you will too. However, if you are set on computer science, you should know that transferring is pretty competitive for that major. You should try to aim for as close to a 4.0 as possible, while participating in meaningful co-curriculars as well. I am in the honors program at my CC, and I have a 4.0 I am sure you can do the same at De Anza as long as you continue to work hard in school…

As for enrolling at RIverside, you could certainly do it it is an option. However, CC students are given priority when transferring, although I must add that UC to UC transfers are pretty common too. With fall looking like it will be online, I personally would go to CC if I were you and work really hard. You seem bright (judging by your stats) and if you have enough AP credits you can certainly try to transfer in 1 year of CC, although 2 years is the more common route taken. Hope this helps!

Hello! Transfer who was just admitted to Davis here.

Something that I think is greatly lacking in high schools is a comprehensive overview of the benefits of going the CC route over the direct-to-four-year route. When I was a senior in high school, there was no real discussion of not only the ability to start over grades wise when you attend a CC and transfer, but the other positives of it-- things like being given time to hone in on what it is you really want out of a higher education, the cost of college being greatly reduced, the ability to take many of your GE and major courses in a less competitive environment, and the benefit of receiving part of your education in a much more diverse (race, class, sex, gender, etc) classroom environment.

  1. I have multiple friends who have transferred from CCC to UC Berkeley, and none of them were ever in danger of falling behind due to lack of preparedness. Finals are hard and more high pressure than they were in CC, but other than that, you have the same need to self motivate, the same need to push yourself to receive the results you're looking for. The thing I would most watch out for is the difference in quarter/semester systems. Transferring from a semester system to a quarter system and vice versa can be challenging, in that the turn over rate for classes is much different between the two. (I'm doing this this fall and I'm less than excited).
  2. If you want to know how difficult it is to maintain a 3.5 GPA in CC, you can look at me as an example. I have a 3.38 right now-- but I've also gotten multiple F's (that were retaken for passing grades), have dropped an embarrassing amount of courses, and have taken many gaps in enrollment. If I can get an alright GPA considering all that, I feel confident that the vast majority of people would be totally able to maintain a 3.5+ GPA given less complicated circumstances than I was in.
  3. Transferring from UC to UC is quite hard to do, but it is doable. As far as I've been able to tell, from the time you start at your initial university, it needs to be your life's focus, and everything you do for your first 1/2 years (depending on when you want to transfer) needs to be shaped around your goal of transferring to your goal university. I also have a friend who actually literally transferred from Riverside to another UC. It was a really, really hard two years, but he was very happy in the end.

A lot of this is just what I’ve seen happen with people I know/things that have happened to me. So take that as you will.