I’m a freshman at a community college and I’m an econ major who wants to transfer to UCLA/Berkeley/USC and my grades for this year are mediocre, my grades consist of B’s, B+s’, with one or two A’s… I’m also in 3 clubs (fencing, honor society and econ) and working part time. How badly will this affect my chances?
I also want to go to law school a year or two after I get some work experience, and I heard that having a low GPA at any point in college could hurt my chances a lot…
Only having one or two As will affect your chance, because GPA is one of the criteria universities weigh the most. And there are tons of CC students whose GPA is 3.8+ which means their grades consist of mostly A and A-, and at least half of them are A. But there’s nothing wrong with trying. I think you always gotta give it a shot.
And as for law school, students at top law schools have a high GPA in general. Law school admission is more predictable than college admission because they weigh LSAT score and GPA a lot. But several Bs are recoverable, and that shouldn’t deter you from your dream.
Your chances are still OK. Just show an upward trend in GPA. Also just take extra courses at the CCC, if needed, to raise the GPA, even if it means an extra year. (I know you don’t like to hear that.)
Secret tip: look for a related major in the same discipline/dept that has a lower GPA. Usually, if it’s in same dept or very similar, you can switch after you get in. For instance, math/Econ or statistics at UCLA are about 3.75 admitted, while Econ is something like 3.89. I know of two students who got in math/Econ and were told they could apply to switch to Econ. They say you cannot switch into impacted majors, but I’ve seen it happen several times (but it must be the same dept or very related).
Also, re law school, more weight is put on last two years over first two years.
Here are UCLA transfer stats:
https://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof14.htm
BTW, you should post in the UC Transfers forum, not the generic Transfers forum.