<p>the3bink,</p>
<p>I was in your situation just a year ago. I’m glad to see that people are taking the route that I took, because when I was researching on CollegeConfidential just a year ago, there weren’t very many helpers or information on here with people who went through my situation. I went to SJSU (San Jose State) for my freshman year, and was very unhappy with it. I had to commute and live at home, the school was overcrowded, registering for classes was a nightmare, and parking was atrocious. It was a meat shack of unmotivated students and it was a terrible experience, personally. I didn’t try as hard as I wanted to from high school, so I didn’t get into any of the good UC’s. My lack of effort put me in the place that I deserved to be in. I went to visit my friend at Cal Poly SLO, and that really motivated me to try to transfer out. The campus was beautiful, school life was vibrant, and I knew I was missing so much at SJSU. But as we know, transferring from a CSU to any school is very difficult, and the best route to get to a better school would be the Community College route.</p>
<p>I was very narrow-minded about Community College. Oh, how naive I was. Community College is one of the greatest blessings that have ever appeared in my life. I dropped out of SJSU and enrolled at the community college in my area, West Valley College. Again, like all of the previous posters above, I spent countless hours researching the process of transferring from a CSU to CC to UC. As annashlynn posted above, you do need to be proactive about the transfer process. Look into every UC, look at what your major requirements are for each school, and look at EVERY single aspect of the transfer process. Know exactly what the UC’s want from their transfer applicants, so that you don’t get an unexpected curveball thrown at you. Know how many units are required to transfer, and know how many units you need to take at a CC. Calculate how many units you have that you think will transfer to a UC, and devise a plant that will fit ALL of the possible situations. (Example, if you think one CSU class MAY or MAY NOT transfer, devise a plan that can satisfy BOTH situations so that you’re not screwed with one or the other.) It’s not an easy path, but it can definitely be done. First off, Assist.org will be your best friend, aside from Collegeconfidential. Look at what classes articulate from your CSU, and hope that you have not too little, but not too many. You need to have LESS than 30 units from your CSU. Ideally, 28-29 units. The reason is because you do need a minimum of 60 units to transfer. To be considered a Community College transfer applicant, you must have the majority of your units come from a CC. If you have 29 CSU transferable units and 31 CC transferable units, you are considered a CC applicant. That is very important, because that’s the whole reason why you would go to a CC in the first place, right? CC students get priority in the transfer selection process.</p>
<p>What classes transfer from your CSU, and what do not? The general rule of thumb is that general classes will transfer to a UC. For example, Psych 101, English 1A, Calculus (1-3). Any specialized class such as the class I took at SJSU called “Money Matters”, will not transfer over. I was lucky that it didn’t transfer, or else I would have had the majority of my units from a CSU.</p>
<p>TAG honestly is not necessary unless you think you will get less than a 3.5 GPA. I think they’re phasing out TAG soon, although I’m not quite sure when. I THINK that they’re phasing it out after this fall, but correct me if I’m wrong. Make sure that you will complete IGETC. Your CSU classes do count towards IGETC! AP classes you took in high school do count towards specific IGETC requirements, AND your unit count. What I did to plan my year was visit a CC counselor, ask them for an IGETC sheet, and then plan your year out on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Make sure you plan exactly how many units you will take, and make sure that you will take more than 30 units from your CC, assuming you have less than 30 transferable units from your CSU. You can transfer out of a CC in a year, you’re just going to have to take around 15 units a semester. You might even have to take more, depending on what classes you can get, etc. </p>
<p>And to talk about my CC experience, it wasn’t too bad, to say the least. Registering for classes was a piece of cake for me. The CC that I wanted to go to was an hour commute from my house, and I had to wake up very early in the morning to go through a gridlock of traffic. That’s how determined I was to get out of SJSU. I tried to make the best of my CC experience by trying to give back to the community. I joined my school’s honor society, called Alpha Gamma Sigma. I even went for a leadership position and became the Community Service Coordinator. In addition to that, I joined the school’s honor program which allowed me to get priority registration. Classes at my CC were honestly more challenging than the classes I took at SJSU. My CC professors were excellent and came from prestigious universities (Berkeley, MIT, Princeton, etc.) Everyone’s CC experience will differ, but mine was not too bad. Only thing I will say is to keep yourself motivated. You can’t afford to slip up, not with the route that you plan on taking. </p>
<p>As for my personal experience, I was admitted to every UC except for UCLA. I submitted my SIR to Berkeley, and I will be attending there this fall as an Economics major! You need to make sure you have a high GPA, join clubs, be a difference maker in the community. I worked 30+ hours a week, coached a hockey club, played in my own hockey team, and was a part of Alpha Gamma Sigma. If you’re unhappy with your CSU, use that as fuel to motivate yourself to put the effort into transferring. This isn’t an easy path, like I’ve said several times, but it’s possible with determination and perseverance. A couple of us on here are living proof that you can do it. I got out of my CC in a year. Sometimes, it’s hard to motivate yourself. Go take a tour at the UC’s. See your goals and dreams in person, and use that to drive yourself to work harder. I wish you the best of luck, and if you need ANY more advice, clarification, or just want some assurance, feel free to PM me. Second chances do exist, and it’s up to you to make the best of them. I proved to everyone, and most importantly, myself, that I am worthy of attending a prestigious university, and it feels damn good. As I’ve said a billion times in this lengthy post; work hard, be motivated, and never give up, no matter how bleak the situation looks. The result will be worth it in the end, and you will love the feeling of redemption! I hope this will help you in your future endeavors, and I hope this will help any future prospective transfers that are in this unique situation! I know that it is very difficult to find any sort of information or success stories about this situation. I hope I provided you good information, and I hope that my success story will motivate you to go through with it! CC isn’t all that bad, especially if it can get you to a great university. Good luck to you, and to anyone that is a CSU to UC transfer. =)</p>
Not to mention that I didn’t even register during Priority 1 Registration because I was a new transfer student to that CC (so I think I got like priority 2 or something… and I still had no problem getting classes).</p>