<p>I have been attending community college in california since '03. I will skip the sob story but say that physical medical reason regarding my lower back made it very difficult to finish a couple of semesters and spent another semester partially paralyzed. Also, I have been working full-time in factory jobs that contributed to my back problem.</p>
<p>I have 134 units at community college and will be graduating with two associates and a 3.14 gpa.</p>
<p>I am not going to pretend 14 F's is fine, but I retook all of those classes and received mostly A's except for 2 B's. Unfortunately, those F's were in my science classes and I am a bio major. I was also heavily involved in extracurricular activities and held positions for which students would be envious (trying to keep this as anonymous as possible).</p>
<p>Had I the same resources as most students, those 14 F's would not have been there (i have no family and i had no medical insurance).</p>
<p>I am going to try to convey my circumstance regarding the F's in my comments section of the application, however, I still feel this looming sense of doom applying to UCSC, UCI, and UCR. </p>
<p>Does anyone have advice or words of wisdom/comfort. I would really appreciate the help.</p>
<p>One of the purposes of community colleges is to give students a shot at redemption. If the bad grades are firmly in the past, things don’t look so bad. You say you have 134 credits - are the 14 courses (42 credits worth?) included in that number? How many credits will you be attempting to transfer?</p>
<p>I am not exactly clear as to what you are asking, so I apologize if my answer does not directly answer your question.</p>
<p>When I look at my UC transferrable, it states my gpa is 3.31 and I have 130 UTA with a UEAR of 106. My CSU is also 3.31 gpa with 146.00 UTA and 119.00 UEAR. Some of my F’s were repeats because I attempted to retake the same classes and could not continue the courses into the semester past the W because of my back issue and not being able to walk or sit.</p>
<p>The 3.14 is for the community college gpa.</p>
<p>Do I get to pick which classes I want to apply to the transfer process? I thought they evaluate all classes. I am willing to retake classes at their institution if the feel that my grades are inferior. </p>
<p>Please let me know if I didn’t answer your question, and thank you for replying. =)</p>
<p>I heard, if you retake the class UC’s always factor the higher grade into the transcript. I’m not 100% sure though, you should probably ask your counselor.</p>
<p>XViral: That’s right. They’ll factor the higher grade into the GPA.</p>
<p>llmllmll: My situation was very similar, only it wasn’t a medical issue. I was just a stupid kid who’d attend class for two weeks before driving to Borders or Barnes & Noble instead.</p>
<p>I had a veritable sea of F’s and W’s, then ran off and joined the military. 5+ years later, I got out, went to a CC, did well and was accepted.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, classes that you don’t re-take <em>will</em> be factored into your GPA, whether you took them last year, 5 years ago, 50 years ago, whatever. Those F’s will follow you to your grave unless you take those courses again. I’ve seen other members here allude to some kind of petition process that would allow you to have the UC disregard those failures somehow, but I never came across that information during my application process, and rest assured I researched the hell out of it. Perhaps somebody here can verify that it does/does not exist?</p>
<p>Also, don’t just relegate yourself to UCR or UCM or wherever else simply because you don’t think you’d make it elsewhere. If you have the extra cash, shoot for everything you’d like, not just the places you assume you have a chance, particularly as a non-traditional student.</p>
<p>I am checking in the transfer center tomorrow about TAG. I have a Transfer Alliance Agreement it was phased out to TAG and it shows up on my transcripts at the top. I hope that I somehow get “grandfathered” into the TAG program.</p>
<p>I will also check out the academic renewal since I fudged-up a whole couple of semesters and the F’s were not speckled. </p>
<p>GTarrant: Have you transferred or attempted? If so, what universities are you looking at? I want to go to UCSC mainly because the folks at UCLA and UCB in the science dept. are constantly stressed for the pure reason of competing against other students. It’s not that I do not enjoy competition, but there is a higher percentage of students that do not exactly play by the rules at the competitive campuses (students taking prescription drugs illegally to concentrate and stay awake, cheating, and sabotage). Due to the economic situation and a larger number of students attempting pre-med prepping, it seems that disparity is leading some students to make poor moral choices for the sake of being that small percentage of students in a class who get an “A”. I want to go to a place where I can purely focus on study. UCSC, to me, is a place where I can devote my attention to learning rather than what are the grades of the person sitting next to me. I also have a love-affair with the idea of spending my down-time exercising through the Santa Cruz wilderness (this would be VERY good for my back by the way).</p>
<p>For me, too much stress is counterproductive when it comes to internalizing and applying knowledge. I might get an A, but that might be because I superficially crammed for the class and will forget two months later. However, I think you would probably do quite well in highly stressful situations since you have earned your way through the military (very cool). I hope everything works out for you as well. Please keep me posted about your circumstances.</p>
<p>I will keep my post updated about what I find out tomorrow and if I do get into a university when I apply, incase anyone is curious.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone! I am also “all ears” if there are more tips and suggestions.</p>