I am so sorry you’ve faced all these issues. I hope you’re taking appropriate measures to heal and get justice.
I am not understanding something. Why go back to community college at this point? That seems counterproductive. You are 28, which is young, but I definitely think you run the risk of feeling like a fish out of water at some of these schools you mention. The average age of a Barnard student is 20-21. At Vandy and Northeastern, most students are well under the age of 24. As an older student, you might fit in better at UCLA, where there are more commuters and more mature students. Northwestern seems to have plenty of older students. But how are you going to pay?
I’m a big fan of LACs, but I would have serious reservations about a 28 year old student transferring in. This student is likely to be six years old than the oldest student. They are going to be at very different times in their lives. I do agree that the MHC scholarship linked above sounds interesting.
An online degree is what it is. You can find social opportunities by working, of course.
I get the sense you aren’t sure what you want, but going to CC at this stage doesn’t seem to serve a real purpose. In your shoes, I’d probably consider options with a large proportion of more mature students. As a 28 year old, you might do better with more peers similar to your age. Good luck.
Plenty to do at Mount Holyoke, and both Amherst and Northampton are easily reachable by the five college bus system which is free for students. I speak from experience, I’m an MHC alum and used the buses myself. People sometimes try to make it sound like the bus rides are long and that these schools/towns are far apart, but that’s not the case.
Fair enough. My daughter seriously considered both schools and Smith was more attractive to her because of how easy it was to walk to town and enjoy the live music, bookstores and cafes. For OP, whose list of transfer possibilities are all urban choices, I thought it would be a nice fit. But I agree they are both amazing places to learn and their programs for older students seem very special. If she likes the idea of a LaC program for older students she should absolutely check out both!
I talked to someone at Smith and she did a quick little evaluation of all my earned units. I would be just over their maximum to transfer, so I am not eligible. It was somewhere I was interested in, though!
Transferring to UCLA from a CC gives me way better odds (20%-ish) than transferring from another UC (4%-ish). Plus, I still need a communications class to be eligible for transfer to a CSU campus.
You haven’t mentioned transferring to a CSU until now. Maybe just do the one class at a CC during the winter break and consider CSULB or SDSU? I am concerned that by going back to CC, you’re going to have too many credits. I’m not sure how that affects transfer admissions to private Universities though. Edit, I see you mentioned CSU east bay.
My net price results for Northwestern and Vandy are also $0 with work-study, so what would I be paying for? I have an EFC of $0 because my income is below the poverty line. Barnard and USC would force me to take out a few loans, yes, but that’s ok. The plus to Barnard is that it’s associated with Columbia, which - thanks to the College of General Studies - has a very large non-traditional student population. So, I’d have many people my own age in the area.
CSU campuses don’t offer much in aid, so I’d have to take out $15,000+ in loans each year to be able to afford housing and such at CSULB or SDSU. The benefit of CSUEB and SFSU is that I’d be free to live at home and save on housing costs, thus putting money in my pocket instead of forcing me to pay more. As for the comm class, it would only be 3 more units. I’d still be well within UCLA’s 90-unit maximum, and the other universities don’t have a maximum. I’d just need to be in residency for four semesters/six quarters.
Do you think these schools are notably safer than Cal? Crime happens in every large city and the cost of living is very high in NYC which may limit your outings. If you are focused on a CSU why not just finish up there? I dont understand what you would gain by a year at yet another campus after the CSU.
School of General Studies has a reasonably good acceptance rate and with your GPA, you’d likely get in. Why Barnard? And as @roycroftmom pointed out, NYC is very expensive and has its own challenges.
Evanston definitely is, and my friends at USC and UCLA who are from the Bay say that crime is way, way lower at each school than it is at Berkeley. Yes, other schools are going to be safer than Berkeley. Check the stats for violent crime on and around campus, check Berkeley’s niche rating for crime vs. any other campus. I’m getting notifications nearly every day about students being robbed at gunpoint, r-ped, beaten with poles, getting rocks thrown at them, random men wandering into student dorms to m-sturbate in women’s bathrooms, etc. If I could complete my Berkeley degree online, that’d be fantastic. But alas, they don’t offer that as an option. I also would not have been a victim of crimes in those cities, as I have already been numerous times at Berkeley. The fact that I repeatedly called their BearWalk hotline to get someone to walk me home and then got sexually assaulted on this campus because nobody deigned to show up and they kept hanging up on me, I a) have absolutely no faith in the university to do anything it says it’s going to do, ever, and b) feel deeply unsafe just physically being on that campus. Somewhere else is not going to have all of that negative history attached to it, and at private schools (which are my targets), they actually have the funding, resources, and short enough wait times to access services that doing one’s due diligence is actually enough. Here at Cal, doing my due diligence doesn’t matter. Yes, BearWalk and UCPD exist to protect me in exactly these kinds of situations. But when they just repeatedly hang up on me or forget about me for hours on end when I do rely on them - when they’re completely useless any time they’re called upon - that doesn’t do me much good, does it? This has been my entire experience at Berkeley. Everything I need technically exists, but it’s been inaccessible any time I actually needed to use it.
GS has terrible finaid and the net price would be $56,000 out-of-pocket each year for roughly three years, since they’d only accept ~40 of my credits. I’d also still have to do Columbia’s Core, even though I already have IGETC and GE Breadth. Barnard is all-women, I liked the vibe when I visited, they have a chapter of my sorority through Columbia, and I wouldn’t have to do the core. It’s got the benefits of a small LAC, with access to all the resources of a large university.
According to the UC application guide on High Unit transfers, the maximum transfer units for UCLA is 86.5 semester units/130 quarter units and they do not accept High unit Juniors or Seniors.
82 UC transferable units puts you in the High Unit Junior category.
You stated that you have verified with UCLA that you are eligible? You have this in writing? AP/IB credit is not included in the maximum unit count.
I’m already initiated and currently affiliated with a chapter at Berkeley. I just want to continue being involved because I’ve put blood, sweat, and tears into it and it was the singular thing at Cal bringing me even a modicum of joy these last three semesters. I’ve hated every moment of my enrollment at Cal outside of my Greek life involvement.
I am not a high-unit junior yet because I have not yet accumulated 86.5 units. Read the document more carefully. It says “Number of units that place an applicant in high-unit junior or senior standing” - 86.5. Even taking a 3-unit comm class would put me at 85 units, not 86.5. So, yes, I have that in writing from the UC’s official website that I am not considered a high-unit junior at UCLA and would be eligible to apply as a transfer student.
Ok, just checking that you got this in writing from UCLA. I have seen a few posts over the years where High unit transfers were told they were eligible but actually they were not.
This thread isn’t really providing me with any information I didn’t already know/haven’t already considered. Thank you all, but turning off my notifications now.
My daughter certainly had a great experience at Barnard, and I know that some Barnard women do join the university’s sororities.
However, the above two factors might complicate matters for you.
My daughter seriously considered both schools and Smith was more attractive to her because of how easy it was to walk to town and enjoy the live music, bookstores and cafes. For OP, whose list of transfer possibilities are all urban choices, I thought it would be a nice fit. But I agree they are both amazing places to learn and their programs for older students seem very special. If she likes the idea of a LaC program for older students she should absolutely check out both!