I met with two different counselors at my community college to discuss transferring to UCLA as a Computer Science major and they gave me very conflicting answers. When I asked the question “What are some extracurricular activities that UCLA would like to see that I did and would maybe tie into my major?”, I got two different answers.
The first counselor said that I need to take a bunch of extra curricular and join clubs, have a job, etc. The other counselor told me that UCLA doesn’t really care about extra curricular for transfer students and are solely admitting based on GPA and prereq completion. Which counselor is right? Thank you.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major indicates that transfer to UCLA CS is highly competitive – 5% admission rate, 3.88-4.00 GPA for the 25th-75th percentile. UCLA CSE is also highly competitive – 12% admission rate, 3.88-4.00 GPA for the 25th-75th percentile.
While college GPA is the biggest factor among qualified applicants for UC transfer admissions, when so many applicants are piled up at or very close to 4.00 GPA, it is likely that other parts of the application like essays and extracurriculars get magnified in importance to distinguish between numerous such applicants.
Here is what UCLA says it looks for in transfer applicants: http://www.admission.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_tr/tradms.htm
Upvote for the second counselor.