@ucbalumnus I’m currently undeclared at UCI, but I’m trying to declare the data science major, so I’ll be applying to UCB for data science. They haven’t posted the transfer stats for data science, but I’m assuming it’s less competitive than CS. I’ve looked up all the pre-requisites I’ll need and I’ll be completing them this year. Also, my general ed requirements are taken care of as well.
I did complete calculus I & II through dual-enrollment classes, so will Berkeley factor those courses into my UCI GPA when I’m applying to transfer? UCI accepted the credits from my dual-enrollment classes and gave me sophomore-standing, but they didn’t factor them into my GPA. I did end up with B’s in calc I & II, so will those pull down my transfer GPA? If so, then my transfer GPA will be somewhere in the 3.75-3.85 range. However, that GPA is still within range for the math majors and the operations research major at UCB and I will have all the pre-requisites complted for those.
@CU123 Most top 20 schools take a substantial amount of transfers. HYPSM schools take very few transfers (15-30 per year) and most are probably from non-traditional transfers (e.g. military, community college), but all the other Ivies (except Dartmouth) take hundreds. Cornell, for example, takes 800 transfers per year and UPenn takes 200. The schools I listed all take a lot of transfers. I know people who’ve transferred into non-HYPSM top 20 schools. They were all upper-middle-class White or Asian students from schools ranked 30-50 and they had no special hooks. They just had excellent GPA’s and compelling essays.
I’ve also done some research on UCB and UCLA. I’ve read that UCLA gives UC-transfers the same priority as CC students. I know that UCB gives priority to CC students and 95% of transfers come from CC’s. However, they take 4,000 transfers and 5% of 4,000 is still 200, which definitely not small. I think the challenge here will be coming up a compelling reason for my transfer. I know that if I even hint prestige in my application, it’s an automatic rejection. This is one of the reasons why I was thinking of getting a consultant.