<p>Hi. I'm going to start the transfer process at the end of 2008 for Fall '09. I'm currently a Philosophy major at a cc in Nevada. Presently my overall GPA is 3.9 with 4.0 in major. (One A- in French screwed everything up <em>mutter</em>) This semester I will be joining the honors society and trying to get into the honors college (I figure I should be able to get in pretty easily with a 3.9). Once the weather clears I will be volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and I also plan to start a student organization at my cc that will provide GED tutoring to women at the local women's shelter. I'm in Students for Obama, a precinct captain with the Obama campaign, will be helping to run my precinct Caucus on January 19 (possibly getting the actual title Premanent Caucus Chair depending on how elections go), a member of the county democrats central committee and a volunteer with the democrats club in my city. In fall I will try to get into the student government.</p>
<p>I would like to go to Berkeley (of course), majoring in Philosophy and minoring in Peace and Conflict Studies. My academic/career goal is to continue on to law school and eventually enter into Humanitarian Law.</p>
<p>Initially when I saw that Berkeley doesn't even look at high school records I thought I might have a pretty good shot at getting in. Now I am discovering that it is difficult to transfer in from an out-of-state cc. Any advice on how to get a leg up here? I considered trying to transfer to a ccc close to the border for next year, but the nearest one doesn't have a philosophy department and the philosophy department at my current cc is outstanding.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and I will be 33 when I apply to transfer. I don't know if being over 30 is a negative or not.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link. I’m definitely looking at more than just Berkeley, but Berkeley is the school that I am most interested in attending, based on my career goals and where I think I would best “fit in.” I want to give myself the best chance possible, so I am hoping to get some advice on anything I can do make myself look. I understand that OOS transfers are looked at last and only considered if there are spots available after going through ccc’s and IS four-year colleges. I will also be applying to UCLA, Duke, Columbia, NYU and Cornell. As well as UNR and a couple of “safe” schools that I will determine once I have taken the SAT.</p>
<p>Ok, if you are applying to Columbia, then it behoves you to look at Chicago as well, as they are considered virtually the same in stature in the academic world, and both have the core.</p>
<p>Thanks menloparkmom. I’ve added U of Chicago to my list. They have a Human Rights program, which is important to me. Berkeley has a Human Rights concentration in their Peace and Conflict Studies department and Columbia has a special concentration in Human Rights.)</p>
<p>I am still going to apply to Berkeley, though. I grew up in California, graduated from high school in California and have spent most of my adult life in California. I have only been out of California for a few years, though long enough to lose my resident status <em>grumble</em>. California is home to me and I would love to go back.</p>
<p>Are your parents still in Calif, or did the whole family move? I don’t know ALL the ins and outs regarding OOS students applying, but if your parents still live in Calif, maybe you might not be considered OOS?
And PM me if you have questions about Chicago. My son transfered there, was not happy [for various reasons, which is another story] and is now going back to his S Calif U in Jan.</p>
<p>No, my parents are no longer in California. Having graduated from a California HS qualifies me for an expemption from OOS tution, but I don’t know if it would improve my application chances.</p>
<p>It won’t affect your admission, though you’ve got a decent shot with Berkeley as it stands.</p>
<p>If you really want to get into Berk you could take online courses from a California Community College. To be considered a CCC transfer student, and receive that high priority, you need to:</p>
<p>1) Attend a CCC two terms (presumably regular sessions, Fall and Spring)
2) Have 30 transferable credits from your CCC.
3) The most recent school attended during a regular session prior to transfer must be a CCC.</p>
<p>Now, if you could maintain that GPA and complete IGETC(read the sticky completely if you want the explanation) and do the above then you’d be pretty much a shoe in at Berk.</p>
<p>But, it could raise some complications. Under the above scheme, you might consider yourself to be taking classes full time online from your CCC and supplementing with that with classes from Arizona. This might raise financial aid issues, I’m not sure.</p>
<p>Don’t know if you’ve already explored it, but it’s not a terrible problem taking your philosophy classes out of state; only a few schools have courses that satisfy Berkeley’s philosophy major pre-reqs.</p>
<p>There’s a lot more information we can give, if you have any questions.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, Joe. I hadn’t even considered taking online classes from a ccc. Maybe I should load up on philosphy courses this semester and then take the online classes during the next academic year. I would just need to find a ccc with enough online classes that I could fulfill the requirement.</p>
<p>There are a couple of schools in particular that offer a lot of online classes. I’d recommend Santa Monica College because they have quite a few second level writing classes online, which is probably the hardest IGETC requirement to obtain online outside of language of course. You can of course take courses from multiple CCCs, it’s pretty common and not a complication with regards to IGETC.</p>
<p>You’d probably have to meet with a CCC counselor at least once just to make sure you’re on track for IGETC. It would be a shame to misinterpret a requirement and have your admission retracted.</p>
<p>Whether from Arizona or online, it would be a good idea to keep taking philosophy classes. They–probably, check assist.org–won’t satisfy your major pre-reqs, but they’ll demonstrate interest and aptitude in the subject.</p>
<p>Right now I am looking at Barstow Community College. They have a good selection of [online</a> courses](<a href=“http://www.bcconline.com/classp08.htm]online”>http://www.bcconline.com/classp08.htm). They also have a good neighbor agreement with Nevada, meaning that I would only have to pay $42/unit instead of the normal $200/unit for out-of-state tuition.</p>
<p>Here are some other colleges known for their excellent Philosophy programs
[ list provided with thanks to collegehelp]</p>
<p>Gourman ranking for philosophy:</p>
<p>Princeton
U pittsburgh
Harvard
UC Berkeley
U Chicago
Stanford
U Michigan Ann Arbor
UCLA
MIT
Cornell
Yale
Brown
Columbia
Notre Dame
Boston U
UNC Chapel Hill
U Wisconsin Madison
Indiana U Bloomington
U Mass Amherst
U Minnesota
Johns Hopkins</p>