<p>I will be going to a CCC after I graduate high school and I have a few questions!</p>
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<li><p>Does your GPA weigh more than your extracurriculars? I want to start a club and be active in my community in general but I don't want to jeopardize my GPA. Will it look bad if I have no ECs but have a high GPA? What is a "good/competitive" GPA? </p></li>
<li><p>Is anyone doing biochem at UC Berkeley or any UCs in general? Is it tough? I want to major in biochem at UC Berkeley.</p></li>
<li><p>For competitive schools (UC Berkeley, UCLA, etc) do I have to finish all my prereqs/IGETC? I heard you could leave out, like, one, but they're pretty strict on it. </p></li>
<li><p>Will the honors program improve my chances of getting into any UCs? Or are there really no differences within the classes?</p></li>
<li><p>For the TAG program, would it be better to try to tag UCSD or UCD for my major?</p></li>
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<p>If you have successfully transferred into any UCs (preferably the more competitive ones), please tell me of your experience in CCC. That would be very helpful. Thank you, everyone!</p>
<p>GPA is the most important thing above all else. The only exception is required prerequisite courses, some majors at some UC’s have specific courses that you are required to take or you will be automatically rejected. The honors program will definitely boost your chances, and will allow you to list an alternative major at UCLA, which they do not allow for non-TAP applicants. The biggest perk of the honors program is priority registration which will let you get the classes you need. I don’t know much about your major though.</p>
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<li><p>Currently, the majority of the UCs do not factor in your ECs or personal statement in making their decision. The exceptions are UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCI, and UC Merced who all do holistic reviews meaning they factor in everything. The other 5 focus primarily on pre-req completion and your GPA to see if you’re prepared to take upper division courses in your major. </p></li>
<li><p>I was enrolled at UCLA for summer session as a Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology major and I’m currently a Molecular Biology major at UCSD, which is more or less the same as Biochemistry as they have the same course requirements. I would say the coursework is challenging, but manageable. Upper division courses are a step up from CC. The thing is that your upper division courses tend to cover some of the material you’ll learn in CC, but vastly more in depth. In terms of exams, testing tends to be more conceptual than purely regurgitation of facts like general biology classes are at the CC level. You’re expected to be able to solve problems using the information you memorize instead of just repeating it back. There are no multiple choice tests, so don’t expect that. There are no scantrons in upper division courses. Everything’s short answer and free response. It’s much more conceptual compared to CC, but there’s also a lot more to memorize. It may sound intimidating, but it just takes some adjusting. You’ll get used to it. If you did well in CC, you should be fine at the UCs. If you get As in most of your Biology / Chemistry classes in CC then chances are you’ll do fine here. I’m not saying you’ll get straight As at a UC, but you definitely shouldn’t be worried about struggling to pass or anything. I think whether you consider it tough or not depends on the quality of professors you had in CC. My CC had a really strong Biology and Chemistry department, so I felt pretty prepared for the coursework. I’ve received mostly As, two A-s, and one B+ in my upper division major coursework here, so it’s not too bad. Although I would say I have worked a decent amount more for those grades then I did at CC. </p></li>
<li><p>Yes and no. For biology majors there tend to be both required and recommended pre-requisites depending on the UC. The required ones you HAVE to finish or you will be instantly rejected. The recommended ones aren’t as big a deal. You don’t have to complete them, but it does help in terms of graduating on time. It’s much more helpful getting rid of your pre-reqs in CC, so you can focus on your upper division courses when you transfer. To find which courses are required or not look at the UC websites for your major and use Assist.org. Usually Physics is recommended (Berkeley it’s required) and one year of General Biology, General Chemistry, Calculus, and at least part of Organic Chemistry are required. UCLA and Berkeley are the most strict regarding pre-reqs. For the others if you’re missing part of Ochem or part of Physics, but have a decent GPA you’ll more than likely be admitted. </p></li>
<li><p>For UCLA TAP seems to make a decent amount of difference and will allow you to pick a second major, for example maybe Chemistry, in case you’re rejected to your first choice major. I have to imagine it’ll also look good for those schools that do holistic reviews. That said, if you’re struggling taking the honors classes in CC. Don’t worry about taking them. It’s much more important to keep your GPA up in my opinion. If you have a 3.8+ GPA with no honors classes you’ll be fine for any UC. If you have a 3.3 taking honors classes you’re going to be on the low range of the admitted GPA for schools like Berkeley / UCLA / UCSD. </p></li>
<li><p>I would TAG UCSD. UCSD and UC Davis are both great schools for Biology although I would say UCSD is almost universally seen as the more prestigious of the two. Biology here is our premier department, especially so in specialties like Experimental Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Neurobiology / Cognitive Science. Whereas UCD’s department is probably stronger in plant biology and ecology. I obviously have a conflict of interest, but I would say UCSD is every bit as well-regarded as UCLA for Biology, if not more so in Molecular Biology / Biochemistry. And amongst the UCs, UCSD would probably only be seen as taking a backseat to Berkeley for your major. Boasting aside, logically it probably makes more sense to TAG UCSD. UCSD has the higher GPA requirement for TAG. 3.5 for UCSD compared to 3.2 for UCD. It also has the higher average admitted GPA and lower acceptance rate. So if you have the GPA to TAG to UCSD, you will almost certainly have the GPA to be admitted to UC Davis. That said, the Biology department is impacted here and because of it you won’t be admitted to a biology major solely on TAG. TAG means you get admitted to the UCSD campus not to a major and impacted majors don’t apply. Fortunately though we actually have two separate Biochemistry majors here at UCSD. One through the Biology department and one through the Chemistry department. You’d be able to TAG for Biochemistry/Chemistry, but not Biochemistry/Biology. As you can probably guess the Biochem / chem is much more math, physics, and chemistry heavy, whereas Biochem / Bio focuses more on Biology. Basically I would expect to do a lot more math in Biochem / chem and more conceptual problems and memorization in Biochem / Bio.</p></li>
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<p>I forgot about that. UCSD is removing TAG after the 2014 cycle. So only if you were applying this November to enroll for Fall 2014 could you still TAG. However, that really wouldn’t have made much of a difference if you were interested in Biochemistry / Biology major because it’s impacted.</p>
<p>I was accepted last year as an MCDB major and my overall GPA was a 3.67. I finished all the pre-reqs except for my last semester of physics, which I ended up taking later at UCSD.</p>
<p>Dilapidatedmind, thank you! One last question: did you transfer in 2 years? I know many people who usually extend to 3 just to balance all the classes out.</p>