<p>I am a transfer student who has been admitted to UC Davis, UC San Diego, and UC Berkeley as a B.A Psychology major.</p>
<p>There is one issue though. This Spring I took an intro to programming class that is 5 units to help me if I decide to go to UCSD, which was actually my first choice before. I just clicked the box for "UC Berkeley" just to see if I could get in but I doubted it.</p>
<p>Well I am a very good student usually(I have a 3.75 GPA and was an honor student at the first CC I went to), but somehow because maybe it was that the class was once a week, or that the class was really long each day, or that it was hard to get help, and that the professor didn't like to communicate exactly what he expected for each project and test I just couldn't barely even get a C in anything there. So I talked to counselors for UCD and UCSD about it and they told me it's best if I withdraw if I don't think I can make it.</p>
<p>So I did.</p>
<p>However I didn't anticipate that I would get accepted to UC Berkeley. Unlike UCD and UCSD, Berkeley isn't so forgiving about withdrawn classes between being accepted and sending the transcripts, even if they don't matter to my major. Programming was only required for UCSD undergrads.</p>
<p>So I emailed UCB about it and they want me to explain myself in detail and talk about even making it up in the summer and even a timeline of events etc.</p>
<p>At the CC I went to there is only one Programming intro class in the summer and it's filling up and I think taking a class in the summer may interfere with moving to California. I currently live in Arizona, but I graduated from a California High School so I still count as a California resident.</p>
<p>So I am currently focusing more on whether to go to UCD or UCSD however, I am asking about if I should give UCB a shot. Should I bother groveling and trying to secure my admission to UCB? What should I say? I mean I'm basically saying that I stumbled upon a huge academic weakness outside my major and I may not be able to make it up over the summer. </p>
<p>Also, is it true that UCB classes will be significantly harder or more demanding than UCD and UCSD classes?</p>
<p>Also this is the message I plan to give, any opinions?</p>
<p>My first choice of UC school was UCSD so I tried aiming my classes toward that, even if they were classes not required for other UCs, not even required for Berkeley’s Psychology program. I never imagined I would even get accepted to Berkeley to be honest. CIS 129 was hopefully going to be the last of these classes taken before the transfer. Usually I am a very good student, I know and learn quickly what is expected of my in all my classes. This class I would take however would be the exception. I narrowly did not get into this class actually; the evening class once a week from 5:45 pm to 10 pm was the only one available, so I took it and felt confident that I could grasp what would be expected of me. Deciding on that class was actually what delayed me since I was trying to select from other classes. I did manage to attend every class, even though the class time meant I would have to face thick traffic while getting there. I did my homework, I made notes, I looked up a lot of help online. Yet, when it came the time for the actual graded assignments it was hard for me to know what would be expected of me. I did know the material but presenting it in a manner acceptable would be the challenge. This was for the first test and assignment, which was at the beginning of March. I would try my best and even though the homework was not graded, I would do it anyway and I presented it to my professor for his input and I did get a lot of input for that. I worked hard on the next assignment, getting help online, talking to others with experience in computer science, and getting just all the help I could get. Unfortunately, despite all this hard work I would get a failed grade in my next assignment in early April because of things that I could not have anticipated to be expected, things I asked the professor about but got very little or vague answers. When discussing it with the professor I was told we needed better communication to understand what would be expected, but I already tried that and would often get the same vague answer about figuring it out myself. I talked to admissions representatives for UC Davis and UC San Diego and they both told me it was better to drop the class than risk a failing grade, and so I did. Something I learned about programming, even beginning programming is that people have different styles and methods for it, and one tutor’s style is going to be different than the professors. </p>
<p>When I was in an honors program seminar back in my community college in California I was told to get past and beyond the professor if you have a professor that is proving to be difficult, and this is what I tried. I tried to get all the available help I could get but it seemed that in all the times I have in the past, it could have just been a matter of things working 9 times out of 10, and this being the 1 that didn’t work.</p>
<p>I am not sure if I can make up this class in the summer. At the community college I attend there is only one CIS 129 class available in summer, and it is running out quickly. Taking a class over the summer also will greatly interfere with my plans to move back to California and plans to attend UC admissions events and make other plans and preparations for attending a UC college. I have been accepted already at UC San Diego and UC Davis, and both campuses like they promised did not mind the extra W in my upcoming transcript.</p>
<p>Well, everyone would have their own way of drafting such a letter. I would try to keep it much shorter. Just use the first three sentences, and the last paragraph. And in between insert something about learning that you did not enjoy working with computers.</p>
<p>No need to explain what went wrong – I don’t think that helps your case. In fact, I don’t think Berkeley knows that you were doing poorly in the class, so no reason to bring that to their attention.</p>
<p>I am not sure why Berkeley would care if a psych major dropped a computer programming class. Perhaps you could ask them if there is another class you could substitute.</p>
<p>I’m in the same situation right now for dropping intro to theater, which was the class I needed to complete IGETC. </p>
<p>I’m a Social Welfare major and didn’t think I had a shot at berkeley either but when I got in it freaked me out about what I’m going to do about that theater class. </p>
<p>Are you sending your Letter of Explanation via email?</p>