<p>Hi, I'm Kevin who was accepted to all schools that I applied last year including: UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCI, UCR, USC, Cal Poly Pomona, Calstate LA and Calstate Long Beach. </p>
<p>This success is partly due to being a member of CC forum. :D I learned greatful tips, advices from many members last year and now since I have some time after the crazy final, I would like to give back to this CC community with the best I can. </p>
<p>Here you (especially UC or USC perspective transfers) could ask any question regarding the admission or even "what is my chance type of question" and I would like to reply as soon and as the best as I can. </p>
<p>One big big tip for every UC transfers:
After you update your application, Please do NOT drop any course in spring to keep out of troubles because if your transcript does not reflect the reality of the courses that you are taking or dropping, even if you are accepted, they will re-evaluate your application again and you will encounter some difficulties.</p>
<p>Hi Kevin. Since you have just finished your first quarter at ucla, I was wondering what the transition from a community college to a uc is like. Did you feel that your community college prepared you academically at ucla? If you don't mind, please share your experience at ucla :) btw i'm planning to transfer in fall 2007.</p>
<p>btw i think it's suppose to be "prospective." ;)</p>
<p>i applied to ucla, ucsb, uci, and ucr. i'd really like to get into ucla but i'm not sure if i will. my gpa should be around 3.6 (transfering as an english major) and i should have exactly 60 semester units at the end of the spring. my main concern is not completing all of my major preparation classes. i'll have my GEs done and be certified and i'll have completed the core english, math, and humanities requirements (many are last minute though, which i know is a disadvantage). i had some bad advising so i'm cramming a lot into winter intersession and spring to meet the minimums. do you think my gpa will help make up for not having all the recommended major classes finished and taking math late?</p>
<p>To sakura812, good catch... yeah, you are right, it is "prospective" not "perspective" my bad my bad! :( </p>
<p>My first quarter at UCLA was kind of tough. It was a big transition for me to change from a semester system to a quarter system. It seems to me that students can fall behind really easily in a quarter system if they slack off for about a few days. </p>
<p>The classroom hours are really short, most classes are offered with 3 lectures (50 minutes each) and 1 discussion (50 minutes) per week as 4 quarter units courses so I only had about 2-4 hours of classes each day but the work load was often overwhelming. To give you a clearer picture, I used to take 14-18 units in a community college while working 6 hours per week and still managed to have lot of free time but I had very little free time (close to no free time) when I was only taking 13 quarter units at UCLA. </p>
<p>Another big difference is the intense competition. Almost all students here are smart (I personally observe this in my first 3 courses here) and there are always a few geniuses who always mess up the curve. Therefore, if the professors give out a normal tests, about half the class would ace it and no one would fail so the professors frequently make the tests rather difficult. The grading system here is mostly based on curve. 20% get A, mostly B and C and few D and F. </p>
<p>Besides the academics, we have to WALK a whole lot here for at least 10-30 minutes or even more per day to our classrooms (mostly lecture halls or discussion rooms) and this is even worse in winter due to the weather!
........................................................... and so on!</p>
<p>Well, I believe that community college has well prepared me to be able to handle the coursework in a UC system. I currently have: A in C++ programming, A+ in linear algebra and an unknown grade (probably B even though I have about 90%, it it B because the curve was really bad, ~500 students with an average 87% in the midterm...) in Management 1A. </p>
<p>By the way, what major are you and what UC have you applied? Any first choice, second choice...?</p>
<p>Thanks for your insight kevin. I'm a life science major, and i have applied to ucla, ucb, uci, ucsb, and ucsd. ucla is my first choice. I remember reading somewhere that you were an engineer major, and since i'm a science major i just wanted an insight on what it's like academically there because i hear its really competitive at ucla.</p>
<p>btw in one of my threads i spelled the title safeties as "safties" :D</p>
<p>To violetstarlight:
Your 3.6 is a competitive GPA (in fact, this is about the average admits' GPA in UCLA) but you seem to have disadvantage of not completing all the required courses because the two most important factors in the admission is: completing the required courses (both GEs and majors) and GPA! </p>
<p>Particularly in your situation, I urge you to have at least IGETC certified and try your best to complete as many required courses as you can by the end of SPRING so plan your courses accordingly. Also, most UC campuses do not consider summer for completing missing courses.</p>
<p>To sakura812:
You are welcome! I hope that you have a better picture of how it is like to study in UCLA. You don't have to worry much though. If you can do well in CCs, you can safely assume you will do well in any UCs provided that you keep up your good work and performance.</p>
<p>Btw, Yeah, me too, I often spell wrong and it is even worse that I do not realize it until others point it out. :D</p>
Thank you very much for your compliment!
I was deciding to be either an electrical engineering or math major.
Now, I have finally chosen Math/Applied Science with a concentration in Management/Accounting (business is a totally new field to me :D ).</p>
My GPA was:
3.69 at the time I was applying.
3.76 at the end of Spring (I had a 4.0 in 18 units in Spring)
3.78 at the end of summer (I had an A in intro to programming which was my last class in CC :))</p>
<p>I feel sad that I could not apply for the Alumni Scholarship in UCLA because at the time I applied, I only had 3.69 :( but their required GPA was at least 3.75 but I got 3.76 right after the deadline for submitting the application was due. That is really sad! :(</p>
<p>Updated news:
UCLA 1st quarter GPA: 3.69
ahahah identical to the GPA that I was applying to UCLA. (I just checked and the official final grades are ready, I have 2 A and 1 B in 13 quarter units)</p>
<p>i will be IGETC certfied and have all of my required courses (math, english, etc.) finished by the end of spring. it's mostly major pre requesities that i'm missing, plus the fact that i'm taking math and english composition at the last minute, but they will be done by spring.</p>
<p>I think it could also depend on the major. I just transferred to UCLA from a community college as a Poli Sci major and while the workload is exponentially more, I somehow got by doing the same amount of work I did at UCLA. I usually took 4-6 classes at CC while working 15 hours, and transferred with a 3.79. My first quarter here, I only took 3 classes but worked 25+ hours a week, as well some some ECs, and it's honestly all about time management. The quarter system is, of course, much faster, so professors don't rehash important material over and over like in the semester system, but the key is study groups! </p>
<p>kevin, that sucks about the alumni scholarship. I didn't even know about it, I definitely would have applied- might have saved me a quarter of working!</p>
<p>Well looking solely at the chart given at UCLA, speaking statistic wise, let's assume that upper 50% of the applicants had GPA above 3.33 for poli sci major Fall '06 term (Since 3.33 was the average GPA for the poli. sci applicants)</p>
<p>The average gpa admit was a 3.50 and 60% got admitted. This means that someone with GPA below 3.33 was offered an admission too, or more specifically, approximately 10% of the admitted students for poli sci had GPA below 3.33.</p>
<p>This puts approxmiately 40% of the admitted students had GPA between 3.33 and 3.50, and the remaining 50% had GPA above 3.5. Remember, this is for the ADMITTED students.</p>
<p>I guess it's safe to say you'll be most competitve with a GPA above 3.5, since that puts you in the upper half category of the admitted students.</p>
<p>Of course, I'm basing my opinion solely on GPA. I'm not considering TAP, ECs, Essay, etc.</p>
i will be IGETC certfied and have all of my required courses (math, english, etc.) finished by the end of spring. it's mostly major pre requesities that i'm missing, plus the fact that i'm taking math and english composition at the last minute, but they will be done by spring.
</p>
<p>In summary, you have:
Pros: competitive GPA, IGETC certified
Cons: Missing pre-reg, English and Math are taken at the last minute</p>
<p>Do you have any other extra-actitivities, awards, special talents, or special circumstances in family hardship or anything?</p>
what gpa makes a person competititve for polisci at UCLA? (i see the stats, but what is your opinion)
</p>
<p>I personally think that for this particular major, a 3.5 GPA is considered competitive and dhl3 has a pretty good and simple analysis there in which I agree with him too. </p>
<p>There are many other factors like ECs, essays, awards, TAP, personal circumstances, completing major courses ... that will be considered during the admission process too! </p>
<p>To suggest this point, I have seen four 4.0 student that were rejected by UCLA last year:
1. one person on this CC forum who got in UCB but not UCLA (the ironic thing was that he was invited to turn in the Regents scholarship). </p>
<p>2&3: The other two students, (one is communication major and another is computer science major, both competitive majors) who were in my biology class, have strong ECs, great essays, 4.0 GPA but were rejected... I believe the biggest reason for their rejection is that they were missing a few important pre-reg and major courses. </p>
<p>4.Last one is an international student who applied as a business-econ (another competitive major) with a 4.0, was rejected and according to him, he were missing calculus 2 and few other major requirement. He got in UCSB with full free ride (Regents scholarship), though.</p>
<p>bfired2, thank you for sharing your story with us too!
kevin, that sucks about the alumni scholarship. I didn't even know about it, I definitely would have applied- might have saved me a quarter of working!
Oh yeah, you should have applied... </p>
<p>By the way, you seem like knowing what you are doing. Could you also share how you manage your time that well (working+full time status student+ECs)?</p>