Hi! I’m currently doing my last semester at community college before I apply.
I am applying to UCLA and UC Berkeley as a Chinese major.
When I apply, I expect to have a 3.85 GPA from all my UC eligible courses.
I am IGETC certified. My college does not offer the specific major prep classes for my major, but I have taken many classes that are unofficially related to my major.
As for extracurriculars, I’ve done so little in college, so most of my achievements came from high school, which may reflect negatively.
In high school, I was:
-Founder of History Club
-Eagle Scout (Highest rank in Boy Scouts), I was also a founding member of this troop and eventually its leader.
-Chief Publicist of Computer Science Club
-An Executive Editor of our school newspaper, yearbook, and magazine
-Four time recipient of annual Chinese Association scholarship
In community college, I was merely a general member of a few unrelated, nonacademic clubs.
What are my chances of getting into UCLA and UC Berkeley as a Chinese major?
I’m particularly concerned that my community college extracurricular record looks really bad, since I barely did anything. I’m almost completely reliant on my high school extracurriculars.
UCLA/UCB are not going to care what EC’s you did in HS so no point in even listing them on your application. Bottom line is that the UC’s are very GPA focused, so your GPA will be the most important component of your application. Did you work while going to the CC?
I think you stand an excellent shot, in fact I would venture you’re a shoe-in since language majors usually have lower GPAs. ECs aren’t so important unless for Econ, business, future med school, etc.
I have a suggestion. Since your major is Chinese, an international type course would be GREAT. World history, global Econ. Something that gives the impression of international studies. You could even add in your essay you’re contemplating a global or history minor. It just adds a component they will like. Berkeley, in particular, likes a multi-discipline attitude.
UCLA doesn’t seem to care about ECs, I did nothing but work since starting CC and got into LA in a heavily impacted major
But Cal seems to care, at least more than LA imho. Plenty of 4.0 students w/ their prereqs completed get rejected, and in many of those students it seems that lack of ECs are their biggest shortcoming (myself included).
I’d say that if you’ve taken a sufficient amount of transferrable classes related to the Chinese major (since you said no prereqs were offered), to express interest in your major, then you have a great chance w/ your GPA… esp. since Chinese is not impacted. If you can, try to join a Chinese club or something related just to be safe for Cal. I heard that in the case where a student cannot finish his/her prereqs due to accreditation issues, Cal likes to see the student express their interest in the major thru ECs. And I’d take Ohm’s advice and take the courses he recommended tho!