<p>I am currently finishing up my first year in community college, starting my 2nd year this fall 2013. My dream school has always been UCLA. I am just a bit skeptical about the classes i am currently taking and the ones I took my 1st semester. Since I am still undecided about my major, I am just finishing up my general ed.</p>
<p>1st semester I took:: Intermediate Alg. , English, Psychology, and Chicano Studies. (math & eng. aren't transferable.) total gpa: 3.17</p>
<p>These courses do fulfill the IGETC requirements..however, I feel that I should be taking more advanced courses right??</p>
<p>any tips? please! :)
ps. some might say that its too 'early' of me to be thinking about all of this, but i really want to choose out the correct courses so that I can get into UCLA</p>
<ol>
<li> Get your GPA up. 3.17 really won’t give you a chance at UCLA.</li>
<li> You’re going to need a major… or even just pick something you might be interested in. Assist.org is a good way to see what pre-reqs you’ll need for different majors, but without a major that’s hard to do. (So, pick a direction and try it.)</li>
<li> Have a back-up plan, like another UC, and make sure you’re satisfying the requirements there too.</li>
</ol>
<p>3.17 doesn’t cut it at UCLA, UCD, or UCB. You should raise it. That’s probably the biggest issue.
You need to pick a major (as failure622 said) and complete pre-reqs otherwise you won’t be accepted anywhere. You can’t transfer as an undeclared.</p>
<p>You definitely need to start by picking a major. Some majors are more competitive than others. For example, if you intend to major in Biz Econ, you will need the highest GPA possible (3.8+) Once you pick you major, you can look at statistics to see what your GPA needs to be in order to be considered “competitive” for the major.
Here’s some statistics you can look at:
[Profile</a> of Admitted Transfer Students by Major, Fall 2012 - UCLA Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/Adm_tr/Tr_Prof12_mjr.htm]Profile”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/Adm_tr/Tr_Prof12_mjr.htm)</p>
<p>I don’t know what you mean by “more rigorous.” At my CC, there’s no difference from one class to the next. However, I suppose some CCs may have honors courses?</p>
<p>I disagree. Taking honors courses will eventually help you meet the requirement that will stamp “Graduated with honors” on your 4 year degree if you take enough honors courses (and I recommend taking them at a CC over a UC even though you’ll have to take a few at a UC).</p>
<p>Taking honors courses and completing the honors program at your school is a good idea, PERIOD. If your CC is like mine then they have the TAP program with UCLA that allows ONLY students who have completed the honors program to fill out a supplemental application in Feburary that allows them to be considered for their alternate major. I believe something like 90% of TAP students get in under one of their majors.</p>
<p>Because you’re taking remedial math and english courses, they’re not going to factor into your GPA nor are they going to fulfill any of your requirements. So you’re kind of using up time and money in classes that aren’t going to factor into you transferring. Your UC transferable GPA is what matters, so currently it’s your GPA in only the classes that are UC (not CSU) transferable. So yes, you should be taking “more rigorous” courses because the more non-transferable courses you take just prolongs your time in CC. </p>
<p>As other’s have mentioned you really need to pick a major because each major has specific requirements that you need to complete in order to be admitted. Some have lengthy sequences where you’d need to start planning your schedule now for the next few years so that you can fulfill them all. For example, if you end of choosing a major that requires a year of Calculus (pretty much any science major) you’d have to finish Trig, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus. That’s 2 years in itself, so you’d need to start taking the beginning of that sequence very soon. </p>
<p>At the very least it would help if you knew the area of focus you’d be interested in whether humanities, social sciences, sciences, engineering, etc. so that you can start getting some of those requirements out of the way as they can play as large a role as GPA in admission. If you have a 3.9 GPA and 1 out of 8 major requirements finished you’re not very likely to get admitted into that major at UCLA. So if you have a general area of focus maybe pick a few majors that you might be interested and see what requirements overlap so you can start on those while you’re still exploring what you want to ultimately decide on. To find those requirements use the website ASSIST.org and pick your CC from the list, the UC you want to transfer, and the major to see what you courses you need to starting taking to be admitted for that major. </p>
<p>As far as what GPA you’ll need that also depends on your major. The average GPA admitted to UCLA in 2012 was 3.71. Some majors are more competitive like Communications, Psychology, Economics/Business Econ, Engineering, etc and the average GPA is higher 3.8-3.95. So choosing a major is kind of imperative to knowing what courses and what GPA you need to maintain in CC. Also, to get up back up to a 3.7 from a 3.1. Assuming you enroll in the same amount of units each semester. You’d need a perfect 4.0 the next 2 semesters and then around a 3 A : 1 B average each following term to stay around a 3.7.</p>
<p>Listen up, you need to chose a major NOW and complete all pre-reqs. I will repeat, complete ALL pre-reqs!! Since your GPA is low you should choose a major with a higher acceptance rate like Philosophy, Anthropology, History, Geography, Chicano Studies, etc</p>
<p>Do not take honors courses, the most important factors are raising your GPA and pre-reqs.</p>
<p>The GPA i mentioned (3.17) includes my remedial classes,(math & english) which are not transferable… the other classes that are included in that gpa that ARE TRANSFERABLE is my psychology & chicano studies class… both of which i got A’s in…</p>
<p>so does that mean i currently have a 4.0 only including transferable courses??</p>
<p>I disagree, you do not have to choose a major right away. When I first started at OCC, I wanted to be an art major( Transferable gpa 3.33). A year into that, I decided it wasn’t for me. I figured out what I wanted to major in, I joined the honors program ( highly recommend), got involved in extracurricular activities ( honors student council, student government, ptk, etc) and the past 2 years brought my transferable gpa up to 3.80.</p>
<p>Now to spend my summer partying before attending ucla! woot woot!
:)</p>
