<p>My sister is currently a freshman at UCLA. We have lived in the suburbs all our lives, so her transition to such a large school is very challenging to her academically. Currently, her GPA is pretty dismal. My mom has talked with her and discovered that she does not understand the coursework and lacks an efficient way to study. She has been getting zeroes and failing grades a lot, but she definitely works hard. My mom is worried because we are spending a lot of money towards her college tuition; with such low scores, my family fears that her aid next year may decrease, and we may not be able to afford it. My mom is considering transferring her to a local state college that is not as challenging. My sister was accepted to this college before, but turned it down. Will that affect her chances at transferring? Her GPA is also really low (2.55). How much will this affect her chances?</p>
<p>When is the best time to transfer? </p>
<p>If anyone could give a very general description of the process that will really help me and my family a lot.</p>
<p>She’s a freshman. She’s got a lower than loved GPA, but it’s not failing. Tell your sister to take advantage of her professor’s office hours and look for study groups for her classes. Unless her aid is tied to merit (and a min GPA), I think progress towards graduation is all that is necessary to keep need-based aid ( I am sure others will correct me if I am wrong about how aid works). Bigger question would be, is your sister aware of these concerns and making an effort to address them and/or have a plan going forward? (And too, if she is interested in transferring, I honestly don’t think that’s too low of a GPA for a transfer to a local state college unless she ends up with D’s and F’s on her transcript. But I think usually the minimum of most transfer GPA for admission is a 2.0 but you’d have to check their transfer admissions website to be sure.</p>
<p>The “college view . com” description of how to transfer is not bad.
<a href=“Best Colleges - Rankings, Statistics & Data - CollegeStats.org”>Best Colleges - Rankings, Statistics & Data - CollegeStats.org;
It seems early to decide to transfer. If she were sure she wanted to transfer, she would do the paperwork for the transfer now; the school she is transferring into may not let her know if she is in or not until after spring grades are in. She will need to improve her study habits at her current school or at a new school; she should find help from a tutoring center or some other student resource there. Another possibility is for her to go to take a break from college and work for a while; maybe she needs a break from to help her focus and motivate. Community college is another (less expensive) option.</p>
<p>Google “Expert advice” “How the transfer process works” if my link or advice goes away. I’m not sure I’m allowed to link to that page.</p>
<p>Your sister is only a freshman so she’s still probably adjusting to the routine at a uni with challenging courses and generally highly capable students (i.e. ‘competition’). She’s still adjusting to how to find and use resources, how tests are structured by various profs, how curves can affect the final grade, and perhaps whether her chosen major, if she has one, might be more challenging than she realized.</p>
<p>Is your sister the very shy type who is reluctant to seek out resources to help her study? If so, she’ll need to get past this and take the initiative to help herself.</p>
<p>While at UCLA has she taken advantage of discussing the course material with the TAs, with fellow students, with the professors? Has she sought out the tutoring center available to freshmen? Has she considered whether her major is one she still wants to pursue or maybe she’d rather pursue a different one - example: many of the incoming students consider themselves ‘premed’ but end up changing their minds after taking the chemistry and sometimes bio or math courses. That’s fine and normal.</p>
<p>Has she discussed her issues with the academic counselors? Maybe they have some suggestions including taking some less challenging courses if appropriate.</p>
<p>It seems to me that she should give UCLA more of a chance. Her GPA of 2.55 isn’t dismal , by the way, and will likely improve as she sorts out the points I made above.</p>
<p>UCLA offers free tutoring and other kinds of academic support to many of its students. One place tutoring is available is the Academic Advancement program, which is available to a lot of different students including first gen college students, students from low income homes, ethnic minorities etc. This is a link to the UCLA website that list a lot of the different tutoring and academic support programs. I hope that your sister can get plugged into one of these programs and get some help. [UCLA</a> Workshops and Tutoring](<a href=“http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/col/bruinsuccess/06/02.cfm]UCLA”>http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/col/bruinsuccess/06/02.cfm)</p>
<p>She must have been a good student to be admitted to UCLA. So it would be a good idea for her to go over her first semester performance.
Social adjustment: Is her academic performance being affected by adjustment issues? What are they? they may not go away even if she transfers.
About her study skills: she may do a lot of studying but inefficiently. Maybe UCLA has a study skills center that could help her do so more efficiently.
It’s better not to look at the GPA–which is not dismal–and instead, focus on the different components. Which courses did she get a bad grade in? Does she know why? Was it the homework? the in-class quizzes and tests? Were these science or social sciences or humanities classes? Did she seek help when she first got bad grades?
Addressing these questions will give her a better sense of how to go forward, whether or not she stays at UCLA.</p>
<p>as the mother of a freshman on social probation I will tell you that 2.55 is not dismal for a first year student. Not stellar, not what she or your parents are used to but if she makes a plan to seek help, speaks to her professors and gets good advising she should finish out the year strongly. No need to think about transfer yet. With more efficient work she will likely do quite well by the end of her freshman year.</p>
<p>I don’t think transferring to a “less challenging” school is the answer here. The underlying problems (poor study habits) are still going to be there. Plus, what kind of way to go through life is that? It’s hard, so I want to do something easier? She got into UCLA, that means that she probably has the skills and ability to do well there. A 2.55 isn’t the highest GPA ever, but it’s not that bad. She needs to start reaching out for more campus support. </p>
<p>Office hours, tutoring, study groups, changing courses, and re-examination of her study habits is really what’s needed. How much time does she devote to social activities vs. studying? Why is she taking the classes she’s taking (is she interested in them, are they for a major she wants and is interested in? Has she tried to discuss her lack of understanding with a professor or with some other kids in her class? </p>
<p>Transfer application paperwork will add a whole extra layer of stress to her life when she needs to be putting her energy full force into her studies. Help her get back on track, before you start reaching for the escape hatch.</p>
<p>UCLA is on a quarter system, which means that the material comes at you at a hot and heavy clip. My D is also at a school with a quarter system and finds the pace very challenging compared to high school. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t bail out of UCLA just yet. But I would back off and take the minimum work load, take easier classes (maybe not second semester calc or the chem class that all of the pre meds are in). </p>
<p>Also, some kids run into trouble because they were able to test out of lower division classes because of AP credit, but AP High School Subject wasn’t a good foundation for the upper division class. My D is retaking her calculus and chemistry in college, even though she had the AP classes.</p>
<p>While out-of-state students may think differently, UCLA is a “local state college”. It is possible to take a light load, or a heavy load of coursework and graduate. So I doubt that the transfer option makes sense for reasons that the academics are “too” hard.</p>
<p>I very much doubt that your sister will suddenly start getting As for equivalent courses to whatever school she transfers. Transferring rarely makes good career sense.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with graduating UCLA with a B- average.</p>