<p>Right now I'm a freshman at UCSC. I really like it there, but I've been having family problems at home, and I'm 6 hours away from home in Santa Cruz. So lately, I've been thinking that maybe it's best if I take a year off from UCSC and go to a community college instead.</p>
<p>So, some questions:
1) If I took a year off and went to a community college, would it be easy to come back to UCSC for junior year?
2) If I went to a community college next year and applied to transfer to a closer school, like UCSB or UCLA, for junior year, would my chances at acceptance increase (since I'm transferring from a CC, and it's easier to get into a UC from there)? Or are they tainted by the fact that I went to a UC freshman year? </p>
<p>which leads me to a related question...
3) If I didn't get into those schools, could I go back to UCSC for junior year easily? or would I have to apply again?</p>
<p>Sorry if these questions are hard to understand. I'm planning to talk to the counselor once I go back to school but I was just wondering if anyone here had any answers. Thank you!</p>
<ol>
<li>you would have to reapply to ucsc i believe. i think they only give you one semester off before you have to apply to the school again. i heard you can talk to admissions and they can give you more time then 1 semester not sure.</li>
<li>your chances would increase if you applied to a different school. they are assume you are from a cc as long as your last 30(i think) units are from a cc.</li>
</ol>
<p>i had a similar situation sorta. i went to csuf for my first semester then went to cc. i applying to uc now. so far i only got accepted into ucsb(still waiting like everyone else for uci). i had to reapply to csuf but decision is still pending for that school.</p>
<p>Talk to UCSC. I’m at a CC right now and lab partners with a UCSD student who is taking a year off. Apparently she told UCSD that she was just going to CC for the year and would be back the following year and they aren’t making her reapply. She’s got some sort of status as a UC student but away. </p>
<p>I’m sorry that I don’t have more info than that. I still recommend talking to the school and see how flexible they are. I can certainly ask her more about it when I see her in lab again next Monday…</p>
<p>I know for ABSOLUTE CERTAIN (but hey, double check anyway), that if you take a Leave of Absence from UCSC, you will be able to return to UCSC without reapplying for admission. It’s pretty easy. You will have to communicate with your college some of the details, like why you’re leaving and when you intend to come back. When you do decide to come back, you may have to answer why you feel you’re prepared to return, and some others. </p>
<p>[UCSC</a> Registrar FAQ: Leave of Absence](<a href=“http://reg.ucsc.edu/faqs/leave.htm]UCSC”>http://reg.ucsc.edu/faqs/leave.htm)
[Student</a> Advising - Withdrawal/Leave of Absence](<a href=“Withdrawal and Leave of Absence”>Withdrawal and Leave of Absence)</p>
<p>If you intend to transfer to a different UC, you can achieve California Community College student status (for admission purposes) by following a few minimum requirements, like taking a certain number of units at the CC, etc. As I recall you have to be there for one year minimum. In all the literature CCC students are given the highest priority for UC admission among transfers.</p>
<p>Now, if you decide to return to UCSC, you may have some difficulty transferring the classes IF they are for your major. I think this depends on your department. I would imagine you’d get the units and GE requirements for classes taken, but as far as major classes I think there is a policy that CC classes cannot substitute certain major requirements or upper division classes. Ask your counselor and major adviser. </p>
<p>I hope this helps</p>
<p>@Miserlou57: That sure helped me! I think a Leave of Absence is what my lab partner is doing.</p>
<p>Can someone tell me if upper divison course count towards an AA? I went to UCSB for 1.5 years when I decided to take time off. A lot of time: 10 years! I recently enrolled at a JC. They told me if I took one class that I could graduate with my AA if I took one health class. I am taking it and now they are saying my upper division psych classes at UCSB do not count towards my AA even though they are the same classes that the JC offers. Now they say I have to take another class in the summer. Has anyone ever heard of this and why do my classes not apply? I was a sophmore when I took them.</p>
<p>@melanierich12: Usually CCs have a set sequence of lower-div classes that are required to satisfy the degree requirements for an AA or AS. Your CC will have that list available for you.</p>
<p>I’m confused as to how the upper-div psychology class at UCSB you took is the same as the one the JC offers. Not that I don’t believe you, but JCs typically don’t offer upper-div courses…</p>
<p>The JC isn’t an “upper division” but the course is the same. I know what the requirements are but they are saying the courses I took were upper division at UCSB. The same class is offered at the JC but they will not accept it. For instance: Intro into Stats at both school. Brain and Behavior at UCSB is also Physiological Psychology at JC. Into into Psychopathology is Abnormal Psych at JC. UCSB offers few lower division psych classes so basically if you have taken 3 UCSB psych classes, you have taken an upper division.</p>
<p>Ah, I see. Yeah, I’ve never heard of that kind of thing either. I guess they must feel that you got a more in-depth coverage of the subject at UCSB than what they teach at the CC level. In some cases you can petition the CC to reevaluate the course equivalency and give you the credit for the class. Sometimes, if you aren’t getting anywhere with a counselor, you can talk to the Dean of the department and try to work it out that way.</p>
<p>I realize you took the classes a decade ago, but if you have your syllabi from those classes still it will greatly help your case. If you don’t have them, you may be able to contact the UCSB professor you took the class from, assuming they still are there, and ask them for a copy. Sometimes Profs keep the old ones in their records.</p>
<p>I have a friend at my current CC who had to do something very similar. Although he was not dealing with classes mapping to upper-div courses, he was OOS from IL and our school was not going to initially transfer his chemistry and biology lecture classes. He had to prove to our school that his chemistry lecture and biology lecture courses covered the same material, and he did that using his syllabi from those classes. He didn’t have the syllabus from his Chem lecture, so he emailed his old professor in IL and had it sent to him as an attachment that he could print out and deliver to our school. They ended up accepting the classes and kept him from having to basically repeat an entire years worth of material.</p>
<p>Those are just some ideas that I hope are of some use to you. Best of luck with getting it sorted out!</p>
<p>I actually went to ucsc last yr and im currently at a cc. You can take a LOA for 2 years max ( which cost 60 dollars) or withdraw. If you left sc under good academic standing it should be easy to get back in jr yr even if you withdrawed.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! You’ve been pretty helpful. I’ll definitely talk to a counselor once school starts again.</p>