<p>Plans: Transferring to EECS (Elec Eng/Computer Science) program at UC (prefer UCLA), backup CS.</p>
<p>Quick Background:
Ex-Vet, now a full time student.
GPA 4.0 at Mesa Community College (SD), all transferable classes (30 units or so). Only classes left are the Eng/CS required classes (2 yrs of math classes for science /eng majors, Chem, & CS). </p>
<p>Moved to LA (Redondo Beach), heard Santa Monica CC was better than El Camino, even though El Camino is much closer and currently taking a PreCal summer class and enrolled full time for Fall. However, the Math department here is insane (appears majority of professors are difficult and on top of that bad instructors) and the commute ( 1 hour for 18 miles) in traffic is horrible. Plus, after talking to fellow students there I'm concerned that the Math department there will end up costing me too many Bs to get into UC/UCLA.</p>
<p>Question:
Will it hurt my chance if transfer once again for Spring 2014 to El Camino (after completing Summer & Fall 13 at SMC) and finish up my last 3 semesters at El Camino before I apply to transfer? Worried, UC admissions may think I'm only transferring there because its easier instead of realizing that El Camino is 5 min away while Santa Monica in traffic is an hour away. Also, </p>
<p>I just don't want to blow my chance of getting into UCLA or any UCs because wasn't sure if UCLA/UC prefers transfers from Santa Monica over El Camino,or, Community Colleges have some ranking thing (e.g. grades from SMC rated higher, etc.), and/or they think I'm grade shopping, etc. (if by chance I get lower grades at Santa Monica College and suddenly my grades are all As at El Camino )</p>
<p>There isn’t any sort of preference or leeway given to students who attend a certain community college. It is not any more easier to transfer to UCLA from SMC than it is from El Camino.</p>
<p>The UC’s really aren’t that superficial; they’re not going to care if you’ve attended 1 or 100 CC’s. They’re mostly interested in major preparedness and academic distinction. Remember everything is going to be secondary to overall GPA and prereq completion and then for those that do holistic reviews next in importance are the personal statements, EC’s, awards, etc. Then and only then if there was some type of bias for attending one CC, which there isn’t, is when it would come into play, but it won’t. I attended 5 different CC’s and was admitted to UCLA, so I’m evidence of that, and there are many others that have posted in these forums as well that have attended multiple CC’s, something that’s been pretty commonplace since the budget cuts a few years back.</p>
<p>Also, there doesn’t appear to be any preference toward acceptance to UCLA from any particular CC, which is supported by their admission statistics that they release every year. No one CC dominates the acceptance rates annually, not even SMC which likes to toss around the fact that they typically send the most students to UCLA. On the flip side, they also have the most students rejected to UCLA because they have the most students applying, more than from any other CC in CA. In reality, SMC’s acceptance rate while good isn’t the highest and is comparable with El Camino at 36.4% and 34.7% respectively for 2012. So there clearly isn’t a big difference between El Camino and SMC from UCLA’s perspective. Unfortunately, if you would have done a little more research or simply called UCLA admissions before deciding to attend SMC you would’ve saved yourself a lot of hassle and probably a decent amount of time and money that you lost to commuting. </p>
<p>Also, don’t try to over think the transfer process because it’s very straightforward. Take care of your prereqs, have a competitive GPA, compose a well-written PS, and have some outside activities outside of academics and you should get in pretty much every UC you want. It won’t matter how long it took you to accomplish that, where you were enrolled, if you repeated a few classes, etc. Just taking care of those things will get you in.</p>
<p>I was accepted into UCLA for this upcoming fall and I have attended 9 community colleges over the years, including 3 different ones in a single semester (Valley, Pierce, and Cerro Coso). So don’t worry about that at all. Just do what you can to keep your GPA high and take the classes wherever you want.</p>
<p>First, thanks for your service in the military.</p>
<p>The UCs don’t care how many CC you attended. Its common for students in larger cities to enroll at 2 or 3 simultaneously because its hard to get classes. They have no preference between CCs in the sense of thinking one is harder than another. They do claim to give preference to those who participate in the TAP program for Letters&Science majors; see [Transfer</a> Alliance Program - UCLA Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/Adm_tr/ADM_CCO/tap.htm]Transfer”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/Adm_tr/ADM_CCO/tap.htm) Even though you don’t want a L&S major there are other benefits to the program you ought to look into.</p>
<p>I think you have put too much dependence on the math dept to deliver. Realize that its what you do that makes the difference. For starters, it is common to put in 6-10 hours per math/science class each week on your own studying, doing homework, doing practice problems on your own. The latter is something they for some reason they never mention in class but really is a key. You can buy books for around $20 like the “Calculus Problem Solver”. These are like SAT prep books for a a single subject, and are available for math and science subject among others. Each is filled with problems and worked solutions. As part of your study you go and work a problem, check your answer, continue until you are solving them successfully. Learn the material well and the tests will take care of themselves.</p>
<p>And these days you have free access to resources that students even 10 years ago could have only dreamed about. There are tons of free lessons for math/science online; the Khan Academy, iTunesU with complete college courses, forums to ask questions, etc. You are by no means limited to learning from those “bad instructors” at the CC. If you take ownership of learning the material by whatever means you need to do it, you will succeed guaranteed!</p>
<p>Two more things. First, if you want to go to El Camino why aren’t you applying for this Fall? Web registration doesn’t end until late August. Have you tried to see if the classes you want are available there?</p>
<p>Second, you ought to have some backup plans if you don’t already. Which is more important, getting a degree in EECS or getting a degree from UCLA? I think you are perfectly capable of doing well in your classes and getting into UCLA, but it is wise to make backup plans. You can get guaranteed admission to some UC campuses via TAG (you can only TAG to a single campus, though) while still applying to UCLA. So if you take the required classes for TAG and get the required GPA you can be promised admission to an EECS program.</p>