Transferring again?

Applying to College
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Hi all,

I started my educational journey some time ago at a California Community College. It took me some time to gain traction, but I got there and I thrived. I managed a 4.0 every semester of my enrollment, got my GE courses out of the way, and was accepted as a transfer for both the 2020 and 2021 school years (COVID threw everything into question in 2020) to my dream school, UC Berkeley.

Well, my dream school’s been a nightmare. I have a 4.0 here and am attending on a huge merit-based scholarship, but I’ve been absolutely miserable. In my time at this school, I’ve been robbed, assaulted, followed, and sexually harassed by someone in my department. Last semester, it got so bad that I was scared to be on campus at all and had to take incompletes/resolve them over the summer for all my classes in April. Not to mention, the bureaucracy here makes every service virtually impossible to access. Like, yes, support services exist at Cal, but getting an appointment for anything takes weeks, if not months. It took me nearly nine months to secure disability accommodations through DSP, which almost tanked me academically. I have never been so stressed in my life.

I got hit and pretty badly injured by a car a month or so ago, and I was honestly grateful and relieved that I would get to withdraw and not have to go back for a while. When I start feeling like a concussion and broken bones are preferable to returning to my school, maybe I shouldn’t be returning to my school, ya know? I don’t feel safe on Berkeley’s campus, and I just keep feeling worse and worse about being there. So, I’m returning to community college this year and looking into transferring again.

Anyway, I have 82 UC transferable units and 92.5 CSU transferable units, a 4.0, loads of awards and extracurriculars, a few publications, a conference presentation, and published creative works. I’d be applying as either Comparative Literature, Classical Civilizations, or English. The schools I am considering transferring to are: UCLA, Vanderbilt, USC, Northwestern, Mills College at Northeastern, Barnard College, ASU Online, CSU East Bay, and San Francisco State. I’ve reached out to each, and I am technically eligible. I just know it looks terrible to a) leave a school after transferring there, and b) turn down a full-ride scholarship at a T20. My odds are also slim because of my high unit count. They can check my grades, though; it’s not like I was failing out. I just want to feel safe again and actually be able to focus on school.

How can I approach this in a way that will maximize my odds of getting in somewhere else?

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Serious crimes seem like a matter for police attention.

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You have quite a jumble of elements here.

First, having a high unit count won’t necessarily affect your odds of admission, but it is likely to affect how long it will take you to finish. For example, most selective schools expect you to do roughly 4 semesters of upper level work at their institution. Moreover, not all of your credits may transfer, and they may not meet any given school’s distribution / gen ed requirements.

Related to that is cost: can you afford all of those schools? can you afford 2 to 2.5 years at them?

And then, crucially, ‘anywhere must be better than here’ is not a strategy. For a start, UCLA will have many/most of the same challenges as UCB. ASU online or Mills? Barnard or Vandy? NU or East Bay? I can’t make sense of these pairings. You don’t want to land badly again, so you need to put more work into sharpening your list.

One last point: I scanned some of your old posts and noticed a reference to trauma & PTSD in HS. You seem to have had multiple traumas in college. I absolutely understand wanting to feel safe- but it may take more than a change of venue for that to happen. As we hear a lot on the transfer threads, ‘wherever you go, there you are’. Please be sure to use your resources to get all the forms of support you need to help you have a good landing at your next destination.

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Those particular schools don’t require the CSS profile for the non-custodial parent (or no CSS profile required at all, in the case of UCLA, Northwestern, and USC). I haven’t seen my bio dad in about 13 years, plus I’m nearly 28 and self-sufficient/my mom is retired. With my 2.5 years of Pell left and my savings, I should definitely be able to afford any of them. Should I have to take out some loans, I have the credit scores for that, too. All those schools (save for the CSUs, Mills, and ASU Online, which are safeties and would allow me to live at home) have a chapter of my sorority, which I’d like to remain involved in to some extent. :slight_smile:

Academically, I’m fine - as evidenced by the 4.0 and numerous on-campus jobs and leadership roles I’ve held at Cal. It’s just the place that I can’t make work. Any other school on that list is not going to be the place where I have to worry about the handsy TA that Title IX’s “hands are tied” about, potentially being my instructor again. It’s not going to be a place where I’ve had to witness the aftermath of a shooting that killed three people just outside my dorm. It’s not going to be the place I had to wait 9 months for my first paycheck because the first background check appointment I could get through UCPD to work that job was 8 months after I started, or where the police did nothing about someone breaking into my dorm complex, cutting through three locks, and stealing my $1200 ebike in broad daylight in front of two security cameras. All of these issues come down to the location.

Those PTSD posts were from years ago and I’ve since gotten a lot of help. I was doing phenomenally for at least three years at cc, taking rigorous classes, working three jobs, doing 15 units a semester, and participating in clubs and the honor society aside from that. I also published, gave a conference presentation, got a bunch of fancy scholarships, etc. So, I’m definitely capable of being happy and fulfilled in college. I loved the work I was doing at my cc, and I’d love the work I’m doing now at UC if I didn’t have the other stuff plaguing me 24/7. It’s just that there’s no amount of positive thinking that’s going to erase the other issues on or around the campus.

In any case, I’ve already left Berkeley and have no intention of returning. I’m finishing my degree at another university; I’m just trying to get a better sense of which university that might be.

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All of those things have been reported either to UCPD or to Title IX, but nothing else happened.

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Unless you only want federal aid, Northwestern requires CSS Profile, including for the non-custodial parent: https://undergradaid.northwestern.edu/apply-for-aid/prospective-students/transfer-students-application-instructions.html

So does USC (under “Additional Information”): https://financialaid.usc.edu/parents/all/applying.html#/2

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Most UCs don’t seem to exclude applicants with 82 transferable units: https://www.sdmesa.edu/student-services/transfer-center/documents/uc-transfer-maximum-limitation-policy-chart.pdf . Check directly with the campus to verify.

SFSU is not impacted on the campus level, and your majors of interest are not impacted: Impaction | Future Students . So meeting baseline admission requirements described at Transfer Admissions | San Francisco State University should result in admission, if there is no high-unit limitation.

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Not if you’re independent for FAFSA at the time you enter NU. I checked this already.

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I didn’t dig in too deeply, but if your “dream school” was a nightmare, it wasn’t vetted well enough. Good luck next go ‘round. Turn over every rock you care about.

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On paper, it was perfect. It was close to home, I’d been familiar with the campus since childhood, the aid was great, and it had one of the best English departments in the country. It was the best logical option, academically speaking, and believe me, I did YEARS of research on colleges. I have a spreadsheet with over 1,000 of them ranked on different metrics, and Berkeley was the undisputed champ of all the schools I considered. I didn’t imagine crime would be quite as much a part of daily life there, though, so I didn’t plan my education around that. I mean, I definitely wasn’t expecting there to be a shooting just steps from where I lived.

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Well it sounds like you did plenty of dd. Fingers crossed for the next step!

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Good luck to you. Crime is up nationally, and many places that previously were considered “safe,” are now anything but. Much crime bleeds into suburbs of cities with high crime rates, so bear that in mind when you consider your options. I suggest looking at the Cleary reports for each institution, and checking the student newspaper crime reports.

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Berkeley hasn’t been considered a safe haven in recent memory though. Like many urban campuses, there’s been plenty crime abound.

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Given your age and number of credits you already have I would think the priority would be completing your degree on line if necessary in the shortest amount of time possible. Doesn’t the UC system have such an option?

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I’m sorry all of those things happened to you at Berkeley.

The incidents you mention, sadly, are all things that can happen anywhere, and particularly in the urban environments you are looking at for a possible transfer. But I know Berkeley can be particularly challenging. I live in the Bay Area and am very familiar with the surrounding area. A friend’s daughter at Cal was robbed repeatedly (home invasion, car invasion, mugging) and she and her roommates used to literally run to friends’ houses if they were going late at night (they were in the triathlon club so this may have come more easily to them, but I still think it’s sad and a little crazy, as they did it because they were afraid.)

My daughter is a double major in English and History at UCLA. Well, pre major since she’s just a first year. But she does feel safe on campus and she has had good luck with getting good advising for her class selection. Both English and History are amazing at UCLA. Westwood has some issues with homelessness, but it is not at all as challenging as Berkeley.

But it is a part of the UC system and has its share of bureaucratic processes. Maybe all schools do, but since you seem to be very frustrated with Berkeley’s bureaucracy, UCLA may not be a good enough improvement for you.

Have you considered Smith College? They have a program for older students called Ada Comstock. They offer housing, a community of older students, and strong support and advising. Not sure where your career plans are taking you, but it occurs to me that maybe you’d love a small, nurturing environment in a small town with plenty of bookstores to finish your degree. it would be very different from your experience thus far, but maybe something to consider.
https://www.smith.edu/about-smith/ada-comstock-scholars-program

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Have you considered colleges with programs specifically oriented toward non-traditional students, such as Mount Holyoke and, as suggested above, Smith College? I believe you would feel supported at these schools while receiving an excellent education.

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You need to escalate the Title IX complaint- with a letter to the Provost/President if you’ve been ignored. You do not need to be physically on campus to write a letter.

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OP is 28 years old, as such they are an independent student and don’t need to put parental info on FAFSA or CSS Profile.

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Seconding the recommendation of Mount Holyoke. Their Frances Perkins Scholars program is designed specifically for nontraditional students.
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/admission/apply-undergraduate-first-year/application-process/frances-perkins-scholars

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I agree that Mount Holyoke is another great one to consider. But Smith is right in the center of Northampton and would give OP way more to do than the gorgeous but more remote MHC.