Hello collegeconfidential,
I am a 21-year-old student attending one of california’s community colleges right now and I was wondering if I could get some input on my options/possibilities. I want to major in Materials Science/Engineering. Here is my story:
In high school, I wasn’t a very good student. I had undiagnosed and untreated ADHD and, furthermore, I wasn’t very focused as a student. Unfortunately, I made the decision to attend middle college for my junior and senior years of high school. For those of you who don’t know, Middle College is a program where juniors and seniors in high school take their classes at a community college for both high school and college credit. During this time, I was still unfocused as a student and I performed relatively poorly, getting a C in PreCalc, a B- in Calculus I, a C in Calculus II, a C in Calculus 3, and a C in Physics (engineering/science major branch). While I was able to graduate high school, these college credits are still permanently on my record, and I can’t imagine that they look good for someone who wants to major in engineering.
Since graduating high school, I took a semester off to work and mature a little. During this time, I was diagnosed with ADHD and ever since then, I’ve been receiving treatment. Then I re-entered college at a different community college for spring 2014. However, I did not report my transcript from the community college I went to for Middle College and re-took all the classes listed above except for PreCalc and I got As in all of them. In fact, I have gotten a 3.85 GPA at the community college I go to now, getting only two B’s in non-major classes. This time, I really feel like I’m a good student. I love learning and I’m really engaged in all of my classes now, unlike in high school/middle college, when I would sleep through classes and smoke weed in the afternoons. Not only have I gotten A’s in the courses I re-took, I have gotten A’s in Physics II, Physics III, Chemistry, Calculus 4 (multivariable), and differential equations, courses I never took at the original community college. I hope it is obvious this indicates my improvement.
Recently, I have had my transcript from the old community college sent to the new one (all college courses/transcripts MUST be reported when you apply for transfer to the UCs or else it is considered fraud) and my 3.85 GPA at the 2nd community college dropped to 3.53.
As far as ECs go, I am a math tutor and I am currently working with a friend on building and coding a rover robot that will be able to navigate around a household. I am very interested in materials, so that is why I chose materials science as my major.
So, do you guys think my chances are shot for UC Berkely, UCLA, Irvine, and Davis? I would really appreciate input.