Stop the Excessive W's

Transfer Students UC Transfers
41

<p>UCLA is prime location. Great school for all majors. I hope that dream comes true for you. Admissions is cut throat up there. I have heard of 4.0’s getting declined. I can tell by the way you articulated your thoughts, you had a killer personal statement. If you can escape UCLA with a degree in philosophy you will be more than ready for law school. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>Have you took any honors courses? I have heard if your TAP certified it helps. Does it help or not to be TAP certified?</p>

42

<p>I am not so bothered by the W’s as I am the Ds, Fs, and NPs. It seems that UCs cut people a lot of slack. But the slack that is cut is cut for everyone so I guess it is fair. I am not so sure that a person that has a couple of Bs and Cs and a slightly lower GPA is not as good as a student that has a ton of Ds and NPs and with slightly higher GPA. I guess a person could purposely get a D or an F and not have the class count toward UC GPA rather than get a B or C and when they take it the second time they would likely get an A. I am not so sure that I trust the admission officers judgment if they are selecting the person with the ton of Ds, Fs and NPs over a person who has none.</p>

43

<ul>
<li>complains about other people dropping classes and racking up W’s</li>
<li><p>didn’t bother to research UC funding options outside of CC counselor consultations despite the existence of a magical entity called the Internet</p></li>
<li><p>kden</p></li>
</ul>

44

<p>-Complains about UCLA accepting Ws
-Doesn’t apply to UCLA… or any UCs</p>

<p>Strong thread OP.</p>

45

<p>Nothing is fair in life and that includes the playing field for transfers, there are just so many factors its not logical to zero in on Ws. I have had to drop courses because of my chronic disease; that doesnt mean I’m lazy, and despite the people who abuse it I’m glad the option has been there in extreme circumstances.</p>

46

<p>@WhiteTshirt</p>

<p>I’m actually embarrassed by my personal statement. I just professed my nerdly love of learning and how that relates to philosophy and questioning my assumptions and all that stuff. 5/10 or 6/10 for a personal statement in my humble opinion. Thanks for the compliment, though.</p>

<p>I don’t have any plans for law school at the moment, but I know UCLA would prepare me like no other school for it if I wanted to become a lawyer. UCLA is famous for its philosophy department and for its strong focus on logic. Sadly, I’m not sure what I’ll do with my philosophy degree for now. I’ll probably suffer for a while after I graduate by working some dead-end jobs, but philosophy is what I love most and I wouldn’t want to study anything else. :)</p>

<p>I am TAP certified, so I’ve taken multiple honors courses. To be honest, TAP is the real injustice, not Ws. TAP significantly increases your chances of gaining admission in to UCLa, and I mean <em>significantly.</em> More than 90% get in if they’re TAP certified. The honors courses were all jokes, though. Not in the sense that they were easy, but in the sense that they were not any more difficult than nonhonors courses. They usually required more writing, though. The requirements to be admitted to most TAP programs at CCs varies, but it’s usually a 3.0~3.5 GPA. Take the required number of honors courses, do well in your major, have a 3.3+ GPA, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to get in to UCLA.</p>

<p>To put it in perspective, some people with TAP shouldn’t be getting into UCLA. For example, some people get in to UCLA’s philosophy program with a 3.2 or 3.3 with TAP. Kind of ridiculous, I’d say. UCLA gives a surprising amount of leeway to these CCs to design the TAP programs as they see fit. You’d think there’d be more oversight, but there’s not.</p>

<p>There’s nothing wrong with getting in as a TAP certified applicant in to certain majors if your GPA is slightly lower than usual, say if your major is biology and you have a 3.65 or something, but some people get in with 3.5s and 3.4s into highly impacted majors like that when they probably don’t deserve to. But then again, the admissions officers know better than I do about these things. But this is one thing I disagree with them on. It’s not like these admissions officers know how not-difficult TAP courses actually are, but yeah, they’re no more difficult than normal classes. </p>

<p>I heard of one person getting in with a 3.1 into UCLA. a 3.1 GPA. 3.1. Amazing.</p>

<p>Also, I go to Santa Monica College, which is pretty prestigious among community colleges, and those TAP courses, while fun and educationally fulfilling, weren’t any more challenging than normal courses. You could say TAP is unfair, but then again, it’s open to all. TAP programs don’t like to advertise about their admission stats too much(I had to do some real digging to find out SMC TAP applicants get in 90% of the time or more), but they’re pretty freaking high. Just imagine what the TAP programs are like at some of the weakest CCs.</p>

<p>UC Berkeley TAP is like this, too, but they don’t require any honors courses to be taken. Sorry to ramble like that, but it’s something that’s bothered me for a while now, ever since I got in to the program at the school.</p>

47

<p>So people who are not TAP certified usually won’t get in? Does UCLA choose Tap applicants with lower GPA’s over regular applicants with Higher GPA’s?</p>

48

<p>@WhiteTshirt</p>

<p>TAP is not necessary for admission. but it helps. A lot. UCLA can and does choose TAP applicants with lower GPAs over regular applicants with higher GPA’s. Most applicants don’t have TAP certification.</p>

<p>I think I heard of someone getting into business economics at UCLA a couple of years ago with a 3.6 or 3.7 or something. The average admitted GPA for business econ the past couple of years has been around 3.93 and it’s severely impacted. That’s the power of TAP for you.</p>

49

<p>Oh wow seems like you have a guaranteed in. With TAP and all. I wonder how many people get in that are not tap certified over those who are TAP certified.</p>

50

<p>Seems like your doomed if your not TAP certified.</p>

51

<p>^ to be fair you can’t transfer into Econ at UCLA or UCB. You come in pre and if your GPA drops below ~2.7-3.0 (or something) they kick you out of the program. So if you can get into those type of programs and actually stay in them then you deserve to be there anyways.'</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/1106679-ucla-tap-acceptance-statistics.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/1106679-ucla-tap-acceptance-statistics.html&lt;/a&gt;
TAP has a higher admit rate because A) the people usually all have good GPAs. B) They are considered for alternate majors.</p>

52

<p>I agree with the OP. The problem with the culture of Ws is how it dilutes the opportunities of others in a generally overcrowded CC. Every single class I’ve had at CC, has had a ridiculous amount of people drop. I’ve never had a W, and have gone through all the same stuff that people say causes the W, whether it be work, family issues, personal issues etc. My CC lets you drop with a W all the way up to the second to last week of class which is ridiculous. </p>

<p>My first semester at CC I took English 101 H, the class had a 25 person cap and they only offered a single section. On the first day there was at least 10-15 people trying to get into the class, but the teacher didn’t let any of them in. At the end of the semester there were probably less than 10 people left. There was someone in there that had been kicked out of a cal state because he dropped to many classes, took a spot of someone else, then dropped the class 3 weeks before it ended. Keep in mind, we only had to write 4 essays and the teacher just talked about his life for an hour and let us out early. I still see the same people taking up the same spots.</p>

53

<p>@WhiteTshirt</p>

<p>Na, you’re not doomed at all if you’re not TAP certified. The overwhelming majority of admitted transfers don’t have TAP on their side.</p>

<p>@bomerr</p>

<p>Usually, they may have good GPAs and they do have the choice of alternate majors, but in order to be admitted in to your alternate major, you’d have to do most or all of the pre-reqs for it, so it doesn’t necessarily increase your chances of gaining admission. You’ll still have to do what you need to do to get in wit hyour alternate major just as everyone else does.</p>

<p>And again, in regards to GPAs, most TAP applicants are superbly qualified, but quite a few get in when they really wouldn’t have if they didn’t have TAP certification. If their TAP courses were truly challenging, then it’d be different, but I’d conjecture that most TAP programs don’t offer especially challenging courses.</p>

<p>90%+ admissions rates stretches my ability to believe they got in simply because they had good GPAs and had the choice of an alternate major, but that’s just my opinion.</p>

54

<p>LOL, I’m going to assume that OP is a teenager. W’s are a viable option to everyone. Including you OP. </p>

<p>Here’s the truth. If you get denied by UCLA, it isn’t because some kid inflated their GPA with 20+ W’s. You didn’t work hard enough and others did. It’s that simple. </p>

<p>@ucastell
"They don’t realize that when they apply for grad school, all of those Ws and failing grades will be there regardless of “what extraordinary circumstances they had to go through.”</p>

<p>I can only speak for LS’s, but, W’s don’t count against anyone. People talk about this all the time. Unless maybe we’re talking about Yale and Stanford, W’s don’t matter.</p>

55

<p>@CSB11 I never thought of that, but drops do hurt the people that wanted the class and would of probably stayed enrolled to begin with. I guess you guys will never know until you get admitted next year.</p>

<p>@Snorlaz the Op has no W’s. W’s are a cop out except in extreme cases which are far and few in-between.</p>

56

<p>LOL, OP, how many people do you honestly think are getting into UCLA with 20+ W’s? Your example is a rarity. 1st world problems…</p>

57

<p>For the most I part agree with the OP, but at the end of the day none of us have a formula on what the UC’s are looking for. If people get admitted, no matter the circumstance behind it. The UC deems that person fit for admittance and we can’t really do nothing about it. I say just put your best foot forward and hope for the best. </p>

<p>I for one need to stay off of this website. It’s too many people on here who think they know something but in reality know nothing.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that schools come on here and read these threads too. So be mindful of what you say or post on here.</p>

<p>I recommend not posting your stats on here or definitely not your essay’s. I would not let anyone on here read my essay because in reality they don’t want to help you.They just want to size up the rest of the competition that is applying for admission.</p>

<p>Sorry for the rant guys.</p>

58

<p>@Snorlaz
And I can only speak for Medical School, since that’s where I’m applying to after undergrad. Any failing grade you had and replaced will be counted towards your overall GPA, it doesn’t matter if you had just one D and replaced it with an A it still counts. And one or two Ws are fine, nothing wrong with that, but if they see more than three Ws that may raise some red flags, and for medical school where there’s so much competition a W with no reasonable explanation can really hurt your chances. Again I’m not saying you can’t have any W in your transcript, what I’m saying is that people should just be careful and think of the consequences their Ws and failing grades (even if replaced) can have in their future for grad school.</p>

59

<p>inb4 OP is an English major and thinks not withdrawing from Literary Composition 2 means he’s balls to the wall</p>

60

<p>If you think about the way a priority registration system works at CC, it’s based on units, and Ws don’t count against you, so realistically people that withdraw will maintain their priority, reregister in the classes and still are able to hold priority unless they hit 90 units (which they probably never hit since they keep withdrawing).</p>

<p>An example would be if someone placed into English 101 coming in, they don’t hold priority but need the class, while someone who has withdrawn still gets a closer registration date and holds more people from getting in the class, even though they’ve withdrawn.</p>