<p>I posted this in the "College Admissions" forum, but I think I may get a better response here. So sorry if you see this double post.</p>
<p>I'll try to make my background short: I'm a "not-traditional" student. I first attended a 4-year college a good 20 years ago as a music major and got a good six semesters, 87.5 units, under my belt before circumstances encouraged me to drop out.</p>
<p>Fast forward to 2004, I finally get off my duff and decide to return to get my Bachelors, only now in the very different discipline of computer science. Fortunately, many of the humanities courses I took 20 years ago counted toward the general ed curriculum at the community college I'm currently attending. The bad part I'm finding out as I attempt to transfer to another 4-year, is that many of these universities won't even consider me because my large amount of accumulated credits puts me over what they consider a junior, even though well over 50% of these credits are in a field completely inapplicable to my current studies.</p>
<p>I failed to check with UCSC before I applied, but they recently "withdrew" my app. I checked with UCB before I applied-- I'm well over the their College of Letters and Science's maximum requirements, so I applied to the their CoE where that <em>might</em> not be a problem if they like what they see. So far, there hasn't been a problem with the other 3 schools I've applied to.</p>
<p>The admission people explain that the Bachelors degree must be acquired within a certain number of units, but fail to explain further, especially in the light of my change of fields. Why is something advantageous being taken as a detriment?</p>
<p>I'm just wondering if anyone else has ever run into this scenario? What is someone in this situation normally expected to do? I hope I'm not expected to go back to my old school and complete the degree in the field in which I'm no longer versed or practiced.</p>
<p>Any ideas?</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>Mark</p>
<p>Man. </p>
<p>I do not blame you nor anyone else for deciding to ever get into a new field of study ever! The job market is sometimes something else, you know? And, I just mean that in general terms, really. </p>
<p>Hmm...</p>
<p>How many credits do you have? Seems to me like you have over 100 or something.</p>
<p>Is there a University College being run out of any of these Universities in your neck of the woods. Where I live, one aspect of a University College, is for grown adults who have transferred around a bit and what have you. Sorry for not knowing what that would be called on the West Coast, but look into legit Universities which have special programs for working adults who are doing a career change and the like. </p>
<p>Some Universities also have a BA/BS in Liberal Studies or Professional Studies...those type of programs might be able to help you out because they are for folks who have transferred around a bit and the like. You put together your own major in those types of programs and sometimes they are humanities based and sometimes they are more like scientific and stuff. </p>
<p>Lastly, what do you want to do? This is just a shot in the dark, but you could self study and work ahead for Microsoft Certifications?! Maybe?! Does your Community College offer classes in those? < I might be out of line, because I do not know of Computer Science, really. But, I gather that having a fair amount of current Microsoft Certifications would be profitable to you, eh?</p>
<p>Thanks mildred. Those are good ideas, but I've never been one to settle. I have 87.5 semester units from a previous 4-year a good 20 years ago, and about 65 semester units on the community college level in my current discipline. I see no reason why I should be excluded from applying anywhere for this reason. It's not like I'm going to take 2 classes at Berkeley, then claim I'm now eligible for a degree from there. There's really no logistical way to even do that if I wanted to.</p>