Looking for some advice/opinions

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>I'm trying to transfer by the spring of 2011 and need some opinions/advice, because I'm not sure if how I'm approaching my situation is really the best way to handle things. </p>

<p>I was a pretty decent student in high school--3.7UW gpa, 1950 SAT. In my senior year of high school I applied to several colleges and was accepted to 6/7 of them. Living in a small city all my life, I intended to go away from school. However, at the last minute due to pressure from my family about leaving home and finances I decided against going away and decided to stay at home for school. In the end, I ended up attending the only local university, something I had never expected for myself. To say the least, I wasn't happy with working so hard in high school to try to get somewhere I wanted only to end up staying at my last resort school. It was wrong of me to start my first semester of college, already with the intent to transfer. </p>

<p>Currently, I'm beginning my junior year as an electrical engineering major in college. For the past two years I've tried very hard to like my school, but I realize as much as I try, it's just not happening. There are several circumstances that make me unhappy in this situation--where it's not what I expected for myself to begin with, class sizes are huge, and as a commuter school where I commute for over an hour just to get to school, it's not the college experience I pictured either. </p>

<p>I know that I'm hardworking and a good student, but I'm afraid that my transcripts won't reflect that. I think that to an extent, my unhappiness with school has affected my academic performance--my current gpa is about a 3.3, not so stellar in terms of trying to transfer. I've already applied to several schools in order to transfer for Spring 2011. I realize where I stand academically and am not trying to go to a top teir school--I'd just like to go to a small private school with a good electrical engineering program. However, I'm not sure what I would do if I weren't accepted to any of these schools. My alternative, if I weren't accepted to anywhere I apply to is to go to a community college in California (I'm not from there) and try to transfer to USC or Cal Poly SLO (my two top choice schools). However, my counselors and friends advise me against doing something like this because I'd be throwing away two years of my education to "start over" for something that isn't a sure thing. I realize that this is probably an impulsive and drastic move, especially considering I already have two years under my belt, but I haven't taken any upper level engineering courses as of yet, and I'm unhappy here. </p>

<p>If anyone has any suggestions of where else I could possibly apply to for spring admission, or what else I could do, any advice will be welcome. Thanks! :)</p>

2

<p>As far as I know, attending a cc in Ca is not going to be look favorably by Cal Poly, but a UC will, Cal Poly is part of CSU, not UC.</p>

<p>I think you should concentrat on improving your gpas and hit better schools in your graduate studies. with your current grades, its hard to be accepted by elite colleges and you will ended up transfer into a similar level college which you will be unhappy with as well. </p>

<p>But you should try it anyway.</p>

3

<p>For the CSUs, you would <em>not</em> be considered local aka “a transfer student from a California Community College/CCC” until you have taken MORE units at a CCC than your OOS colleges. If you have 60 OOS units, you must take 61 more units at the CCC before you qualify as local and thus transfer preference. This is critical for OOS students because a 3.3 for an OOS transfer student is not high enough for most of the CSUs now. </p>

<p>For the UCs, you run into unit maximum problems from your OOS 4-year institution. The rule is basically if you have 4-year college credits… once you hit a certain number of units (either 4-year or a 4-year plus CCC credits) you are completely barred from applying. The number is around 86 units TOTAL.</p>

<p>Your 3.3 isn’t high enough for the UCs from what I can see, and you are probably getting close to being permanently barred from admissions from ALL the UCs by hitting that 86 semester unit mark. The UCs just don’t like dealing with transfer students beyond the start of their Junior year, and definitely not a Senior transfer. It takes some digging to find the unit max for each UC, but it is in the fine print and the rule is aggressively maintained.</p>

<p>The CA publics are no place for OOS transfers these days – and if your GPA is modest or low, forget it entirely.</p>

<p>Look at privates or other states at this point.</p>

4

<p>Hold on…the UCs and CSUs are anxious for full pay OOS students right now. While the grades are low for Cal Poly, Riverside would be possible. Are you willing to pay $50K/year?</p>