Transfer w/ an unintended major to UCB? (pre-med intended)

<p>Hello everyone, my name is Jeff and I need some serious advice from y'all.</p>

<p>About me: I just started my second year in a ccc, and I want to study something with biological science in the future, and going to Med School is a huge possibility too. I will have completed 60 UC-transferrable units by the end of next spring. UC Berkeley is always my first choice, UCLA is the second, and UC Davis is the third.</p>

<p>Problem: As a lot of you may know, I need a full branch of Chemistry classes for the major that I wanted to pursue for. (2 sem of gen chem, 2 sem of organic chem).
Up to this point, I have not been able to complete any chemistry. This is caused by various reasons. ( I couldn't add into classes, budget cut sucks.) :( </p>

<p>Dilemma: I really do not want to spend an extra year in CCC, so the idea of transferring with a different major came into my mind. I am thinking about going for a math major first, and then switch major to a "pre-med" major later on in the UC. (I am actually in a good shape in terms of math classes, will finish the full branch of lower division classes by the end of next spring)</p>

<p>My doubts:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>However, I got a "B" on the first course of Calculus (single variable-aka "AB"), lets say if can get all "A"s on the rest of math classes, will that "B" affect me negatively much? "I will have a 3.5-3.7 GPA eventually by estimation."</p></li>
<li><p>Based on the above information, will I have a shot for Cal in general?</p></li>
<li><p>Will it be tough for me to change my major in the UC later on? (I will not give up on chem in the future of course)</p></li>
<li><p>I have talked to several people about this............ some of them say that I am too stuck up/stubborn about going to Cal. As they say, there are many ways to get to where I want to go (study medicine). I will also use the TAG for UC Davis in this fall too, but I am not sure if I should go to Davis if Cal/UCLA had rejected me. Am I really being a little bit inflexible ? Is my ego dictating my decisions? What do you guys think?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thank you all for reading this , and I appreciate for your time and help.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>No, if you do well and receive all “A” in the rest of your math classes that one b will not come back to haunt you.</p></li>
<li><p>You do have a shot but at the moment I would say it is around a 50% chance. If you can get ALL of the pre-reqs done (not just MOST) for the math major at Cal then you will increase your chances dramatically. I can not stress how important pre-reqs are during admission decisions.</p></li>
<li><p>Why would you want to change your major later on? Math is a perfectly good “pre-med” major. In fact art, history, English, philosophy and anything else you could think of are all good “pre-med” majors. If you like math, stick with it. You do not have to switch to a biology related major, this is a huge myth about pre-med studies. You will just need to complete the minimum requirements for medschool admission. This usually consists of 2 semesters of general chem, 2 semesters of o-chem, 3 semesters of bio, 2 semesters of physics amd 2 semesters of English.</p></li>
<li><p>If Cal is where you want to be the go for it! Work hard and don’t give up hope. Now with that being said, if you get rejected from UCLA and UCB but get accepted into UCD then by all means GO! Don’t be so arrogant to think that Davis is a bad school. Many, many, many Davis students apply and get into top tier medical schools each and every year.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>All the best</p>

<p>Unless things have changed in the last few months, UCs don’t allow transfer students to change their majors. You also won’t be allowed to transfer in as an undecided major. Use [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) to read up on strict transfer requirements. My advice (and your only realistic option) is to stay at CCC long enough to complete the IGETC and TAG agreement with a UC. You can try to apply to Berkeley but their rep told me that they won’t even look at your gpa/classes if you haven’t fulfilled every single pre-requisite for your major.</p>

<p>Mega thanks to you both for great advices ! Of course, more opinions from others are welcomed :)</p>

<p>@ComaPrison: “they won’t even look at your gpa/classes if you haven’t fulfilled every single pre-requisite for your major.” </p>

<p>I thought they give you the option of taking some of those courses after you have transferred into their school? but like you said, I know that they definitely want you to finish as much as you can in ccc so you will have a smooth path in UC later on. (I could be very wrong about the tolerance of unfinished pre-req courses)</p>

<p>Untrue ComaPrison you CAN change your major once you are admitted. </p>

<p>Although some majors are much more difficult to change to depending on school. aka Changing majors at Cal into Business admin or changing majors at UCLA into Biz econ/econ</p>

<p>Usually major changes within a specific school goes off without a hitch unless the major is heavily impacted.</p>

<p>Truthfully you have a 3.5-3.7 you have no room for dicatates what college you want to get into. To get into UCLA/Cal for Bio you looking at a 3.74 admitted gpa. Plus you don’t have all the pre-reqs completed which i’m sorry to say at least 50% of the applicants will </p>

<p>It’s a crap shoot basically that you get in or not. Be happy theres TAG and Davis is a quality school. </p>

<p>Changing majors to a math major would hurt. I don’t recall what the policy is at UCLA/Davis/Berk but if your not a specific major i don’t know if you can get the classes you need for a Bio major easily .</p>

<p>From what I’ve been told, you can change if you went straight in from high school. You can’t if you’re a transfer from a CCC.</p>

<p>Correction, they officially TELL you that you can’t switch majors, but apparently they just say that so that people won’t misrepresent their majors in order to get into the school more easily.</p>

<p>You can try to switch majors after you transfer in by going to the department head but the change in majors is not guaranteed. So if you choose to do this, make sure you choose a misrepresented major that you’d be willing to stick with, just in case they don’t accept your change of majors. If it’s an impacted major (like biology tends to be) then your chances are slim.</p>

<p>Even if you do succeed in changing majors, the delay would probably result in your graduating a year late.</p>

<p>I recommend you apply to all the UCs (and sign TAGs with as many of them as you qualify for) and just go to whichever one is the best one that accepts you.</p>