I graduated hs with a 2250 SAT and a 4.5 gpa. I got waitlisted/rejected from my dream schools, UCB and UCLA, so I chose NYU Stern over UCSD. I’ve tried to get involved in clubs/activities and I’ve met some really nice people, but after a semester, I’m not liking it here. I want a college with more of a community and campus environment. I can’t justify spending 70k on tuition for 4 years on a school I’m not very happy at. I’m confused as to what my options are now. I could transfer to a good local CCC for a few semesters and aim for UCB and UCLA to major in polisci or econ. What are the steps I need to take? Any advice or testimonials from people with similar situations? Thank you.
With your stats I’m not sure why you’d go the CC route at all. I know a student who wasn’t happy at NYU and transferred to USC. I would look to doing a direct transfer, though now you’ve likely missed deadlines for next fall. What do your parents have to say? I would contact the schools you are interested in and see what your options are.
@petrichr you must be from CA as you mentioned local CCC. Your instincts are spot on. If you want to go to UCLA or UCB, drop out of NYU and head over to a CCC. You can still probably get in this spring if you go register online now. You might not get everything you want, but might be able to get 1-2 courses, worse case. Since you only went one semster to NYU you have no upper division courses, meaning don’t worry about going over any limits no many how many classes you end up with. The UCs allow as many lower division as you want. They simply cap them at 70 semester units that transfer over (the rest get subject credit).
@socalmom007 I can still apply to transfer to USC now; however, I realized that through the CCC route, I could apply for USC and the UC’s. My parents prefer UC’s over USC because of the differences in tuition.
@Ohm888 Thank you for your help. I will look into that.
You should attend a CC that is known to be academically rigorous - SMC, DVC, CCSF, and SBCC come to mind, but many colleges have honors programs that you should look into.
Life in CC may be less interesting than life at NYU. Exceptions might be SBCC (its party culture is inherited from UCSB) and SMC (because living in Santa Monica, if you’re able to, seems fantastic), but community college is generally pretty dull.
What are your grades like at NYU?
Plenty of people leave universities, go to CC, and transfer to Cal/UCLA. The CCC-UC admission process is much less difficult than applying during HS. You’ll need strong grades to transfer to Cal/UCLA (having a 3.7 makes you competitive, but you’ll want to do as well as you can), but CC is generally much easier than 4-year institutions, so getting good grades isn’t too difficult to do.