Norcal Transfer Student

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hello everyone, I have not been to this site for quite some time, since high school actually, and now I am in community college looking for some additional knowledge about transferring and which colleges are best suited etc. I have been to the counselor many times, but it seems that some of them only say enough to do their job and get you out of the college, not really trying to fit actual needs and interests into finding the proper college. I was hoping that is where you guys could help out.</p>

<p>As for a little background, I graduated the year where the Governator took Gray Davis' place leading California. I had a pretty decent high school career, but things did not go as I had planned. As some of you may now, this severely cut into the California budget, affecting public education budgets as well. Acceptance rates dropped severely, and I did not get accepted into the UC's that I wanted to go to. Now that may or may not have been the case; either way, I made the decision to go to community college. </p>

<p>High school:
GPA: 3.5
Weighted: 3.8
Average of 3 Honors classes per year
SAT1: 1330
SAT2: 680 (for Math2c, Physics, Writing)
AP Exam - Statistics: 5
AP Exam - Physics: 3
Extracurricular: Webmaster for 2 clubs, President of business club, Track team 2 years</p>

<p>I worked very hard in high school (with the highest ranking on the California high school difficulty level) and when I graduated, ignorantly I felt that my hard work had not payed off, and my work ethic began to decline slightly. My first year in community college did not go as I had planned. I thought that since the high school I attended was so difficult, community college would be a cakewalk. Unfortunately this made me lazy, and even though I could have easily gotten A's in my classes, I settled for that B. My GPA in community college is around a 3.0 (3 quarters and 1 semesters, I changed community colleges after 1 year), with about 30-40 units left to transfer. However, I realized that I am ready to start working hard again, and I have no doubt in my mind that I can get A's for all my classes in the following semesters until i transfer. I want to major in Business, with less focus on economics, and more towards the applied aspect. My counselor said I really had no chance to get into UC Berkeley. Is this really the case?</p>

<p>Following the counselor's advice, I changed my focus to that of the CSU's for business. Ideally, I would like to remain in the Bay Area to attend schooling in business to remain close to family (I am a lot older than my siblings, and I would still like to see them grow up), but if southern California schools have significantly better education than northern California schools, that may also be an option. How does SFSU and SJSU rank in terms of business?</p>

<p>To anyone that has made it this far in the post, I thank you for taking time to learn about my situation. If anyone could offer constructive criticism/advice/thoughts/knowledge, it would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks again everyone.</p>

2

<p>first of all, i wanna say that i'm in a similar situation, but its only my first year of college. i, too, went to a high ranking high school in ca where my efforts didnt really pay off, and so now i attend a community college. thankfully i realized that i needed to get good grades right after my first quarter, and so i changed my major from biomedical engineering to economics...we'll see how that goes. i am also really interested in transferring to berkeley with a major in economics, but i'm not sure about my chances of being accepted...i would recommend not only talking to your own college counselor but berkeley's transfer counselors as well. i think it would be worth talking to the following people: Ana Rafferty, who is the transfer specialist at berkeley (<a href="mailto:rafferty@uclink4.berkeley.edu">rafferty@uclink4.berkeley.edu</a>). she gave me some advice (i know you want to major in business with less focus on economics, but this may be helpful to you):
"Hi,</p>

<p>I would be glad to provide information about the admission process for transfer students. You should know that I am the Transfer Specialist for the Berkeley campus based in Southern CA. Since you attend De Anza it may benefit you to contact Angela Skrivanich who is my counterpart on campus, "<a href="mailto:ang@berkeley.edu">ang@berkeley.edu</a>". As a transfer applicant to the Economics major, you should be aware that this program is impacted. It is very important that you complete the lower division prerequisites that are outlined on "<a href="http://www.assist.org"&gt;www.assist.org&lt;/a> ". Transfer applicants to the College of Letters and Science are admitted by academic division, not directly to the major. Economics falls in the Social Science division which is the most competitive division within the college. Last year's admission rate was 22%. This means that a competitive applicant should strive to maintain a strong GPA (3.5 or higher) and present any other information that is pertinent to their educational experience (activities, work, etc...). We will also review the information provided in the personal statement. Once on the Berkeley campus, students still must declare their major with the department. Since the Economics department is oversubscribed, there is no guarantee. There will be two additional courses that students who want Econ must take during their first semester at Cal. Success in these courses will be part of the selection process for declaration of the major.</p>

<p>Please review the information on our web site: <a href="http://admissions.berkeley.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admissions.berkeley.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br>
You should also visit the departmental web site for Economics: <a href="http://elsa.berkeley.edu/econ/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://elsa.berkeley.edu/econ/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Feel free to visit the transfer center at your community college for more information about visiting the campus.</p>

<p>Ana"</p>

<p>i'm sorry this is getting so long.....
getting into ucb's ba program is really tough, and that was really why i decided to go into economics. i think the line of jobs you will find will be almost the same. plus, it also depends on if you want to get your mba...i'm not so sure where sfsu and sjsu rank for getting business majors...
but do talk to those counselors mentioned above, and maybe you can get a better idea of what it takes to get into cal.</p>

<p>i hope at least some of alllll this helped you. let me know what you think.</p>

3

<p>Thanks a lot for the response! I went to De Anza for a bit as well, but then I transferred to a CC closer to my house. I contacted Ana, hopefully I will learn a lot about the transfer process from her.</p>