I’ve spent 7 years in CC, taking classes on and off for years. In the first few years I received multiple W’s and a few Fs, along with scattered C’s and As. I dealt with inconsistent housing/homelessness, and have been providing for myself without any familial support since I was 17.
I spent time away from school working in restaurants as a bartender and moved to two different states and received various certificates in regard to wine, beer and spirits knowledge.
Since returning in the past year, I’ve retaken the classes I received F’s in, taken advantage of academic renewal to help my gpa, focused on a Business Administration/Economics major and received all A’s in classes taken since I returned, including all major prep courses.
My current UC GPA is at 3.43 now and am wondering if I have any chance at being admitted to either UCLA or UCB. I’m currently an SMC student, so am local. Also a first-gen highschool and will be a first-gen college grad, as well as employed full time, with EC’s such as Income Tax volunteer preparation, marathon running and being part of wellness initiatives through work.
Thank you for reading my post and I appreciate all honest feedback.
This link shows UC transfer GPA admit ranges by campus and major to help determine your chances:
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major
Never say never. A friend of my sister’s got into Berkeley history with a 3.2 for this fall. First gen. I have no idea what her essays were like but they must have been doozies. ? Berkeley is the most holistic and first gen, minority, hardship can change the course of things. But almost definitely it will be a guaranteed no to Haas and a likely emphatic no to UCLA Biz Econ. Econ at either is also iffy, but better than the first two . Better to aim for a major with a more mid-range admit rate. But the takeaway is people do get in with GPAs lower than posted but with special circumstances and likely depending on major.
Yes there is always hope. I was a first-gen college dropout with a kid, a 3.3 and was able to transfer to UCLA (Math/Econ major not the most competitive). Please look into UCLA’s Center for Community College Partnerships (CCCP). They have programs that help first-gen students, https://www.aap.ucla.edu/units/cccp/#summer-programs
The deadline is way past due, but if you have any questions about any of the programs, please do not hesitate to reach out. I worked as a mentor during my UCLA time.
@everperez104 . . . according to what I see, you have a compelling case for holistics taking over for straight stats.
Looking at those admitted to both UCB and UCLA according to gumbymom’s link regarding transfers, here are the admit rates and 25th percentile grades of admits and enrollees to both universities:
UCB
(Pre-)Major…Admit Rate…25th Admits…25th Enrollees
Statistics…37%…3.80…3.78
Economics…19%…3.81…3.80
Haas…6%…3.86…3.86
UCLA
(Pre-)Major…Admit Rate…25th Admits…25th Enrollees
Math/Comput…46%…3.73…3.73
Statistics…39%…3.87…3.84
Math/Econ…37%…3.86…3.86
Economics…12%…3.89…3.86
Business Econ…9%…3.90…3.84
The acceptance rate for both universities from the transfer cohort is 22-23% overall. I included Mathematics of Computation for UCLA because it had the highest acceptance rate of just about all the sciences, and it might be a good fit for someone who wanted to study something quant-related for bus.
So my point is that you probably need to look for something that might have a higher-than-normal acceptance rate, so it does look like Economics and Haas are out for UCB, and Econ and Business Economics are out for UCLA.
Statistics for both have high acceptance rates but both have a really high amount of self-selecting types. Math Econ as Dagoberto mentioned has a high rate also, but also has a high gpa at the 25th percentile. But I think that your holistics might take over combined with your applying to a major that has a high acceptance.
Let me add a caveat too, that Mathematics of Computation is a fairly new major at UCLA, so I don’t think a lot of students have become aware of it (edit:)[, or in other words it might become a tougher admit eventually]. And there will be Data Theory majors as transfers also at some point, but it might not be for those entering in 2020. As far as UCB, I’m not sure about where Data Science transfers stand.