<p>There are couple of classes that are not required, but strongly recommended (according to assist.org)
Which are...
COMPSCI 61A, COMPSCI 61B, COMPSCI 61C, and two EL ENG classes.</p>
<p>Unfortunately these classes are apparently not offered at most community colleges. It seems Laney and Diablo Valley offer some of these classes. Is it worthwhile to make the 1hr30min~2hr commute from where I live just to attend these classes during the summer? I checked and none of the classes seems to be offered online. Does this initiative reflect favorably in my application, or does it go unnoticed?</p>
<p>CS 61B and EE 40 may be available at some other community colleges.</p>
<p>The more you complete before transfer, the fewer “catch up” courses you need to take after transfer. Needing fewer “catch up” courses means that you can start upper division work earlier (and perhaps avoid an extra semester). Whether that is worth the commute is up to you.</p>
<p>If you do end up wanting to take those classes in the summer, you should make sure they’re offered first. I go to Diablo Valley College and I don’t think those courses are offered in the summer.</p>
<p>Classes like that probably won’t be offered over the summer at a CC… from your location, it looks like you’re pretty close to Cal, though. If the commute isn’t nightmare-ish (ie if you’re within an hour of Berkeley) you could take classes there during the summer (look into the extension program, assuming you’re applying next fall, or the edge program if you’re a fall admit). You probably don’t want to take more than one at a time, though. :P</p>
<p>On chances, well, it certainly won’t hurt. It’ll also give you a leg up when you do transfer, since you’ll have less catching up to do.</p>
<p>Thank you ucbalumnus, darksunsets27, and failure622. </p>
<p>If I were to do the commute I wanted to double check if this initiative will be noticed during admission process and/or give me added weight/edge over others who applied without those classes. If it is just for fewer ‘catch up’ classes once I get admitted doesn’t seem too appealing at the moment considering that I can spend my time on finishing rest of the prereq and ec.</p>
<p>I kind of got the feeling that it might not be offered during the summer, and plus I will probably get the latest registration date possible for being a new student.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely look into extension and edge program closer to Spring/Fall 2014 (when I plan on transferring).</p>
<p>Practically looking at every angle possible to give me a better chance, cause my overall gpa wouldn’t surpass 3.6 even after I finish ~23 units that is left with all A’s.</p>
<p>However, those CS and EE courses are key prerequisites to upper division CS and EE courses, so you would be delayed in starting your upper division work if you need to take a lot of “catch up” courses.</p>
<p>But with a 3.6 GPA at most, better make plenty of backup plans.</p>
<p>Yup, all I do lately is plan and plan. Have other schools I am considering, and realistically have a shot at getting admitted to. Still, I want to go to Berkeley. Definitely a reach considering the lowest gpa range for transfer students admitted last year was 3.64 and that is even considering all less competitive majors. In every aspect Berkeley is beyond my reach, so I am looking at every possible opportunity to improve my chances.</p>
<p>Also, totally unrelated, but what is a difference between your overall gpa and your major gpa? Is Major GPA arbitrarily created on the ‘Chance Me’ thread or do admissions actually consider Major GPA separately? Luckily, all my major related courses are pretty good in grades. Seems like by the time I apply at least my Major Gpa would be closer to 3.8.
edit - Seems like I found my answer in this thread…
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/204086-ucs-question-overall-gpa-major-gpa-help-pleease.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/204086-ucs-question-overall-gpa-major-gpa-help-pleease.html</a>
Still wishing someone could elaborate. I guess strategically I could maintain a high Major GPA and improve my overall GPA by taking easy classes to get an A. It seems at least for my major both gpa has equal weights, but seems the consensus is that the overall gpa is far more important.</p>
<p>Does your school offer CS classes which transfer to the other UCs besides Cal?</p>
<p>At my CCC there are 0 transferable CS classes, so whichever UC I end up getting accepted to, I’ll have a bunch of catch up to do.</p>
<p>@watterbottle93</p>
<p>I haven’t thoroughly checked, but all the main CS classes seem to be both uc/csu transferrable at my school, but only one is articulated for UC Berkeley’s COMPSCI 61B (even that is partial, and will need supplementary course after enrolling at UCB).</p>
<p>Other then that it there were couple of classes that matches with UC Irvine’s prerequisites. Another tip on using assist I believe you can ‘daisy chain’ to see if it covers it if it’s missing. I’m not 100% sure if this method is allowed, but counselor once told me that I can actually do this.
I.E.)<br>
[CC1] Eng 101 -> [UC]no articulation
[CC1] Eng 101 -> [CC2] Eng 10
[CC2] Eng 10 -> [UC] Eng 22
then
[CC1] Eng 101 -> [CC2] Eng 10 -> [UC] Eng 22
therefore
[CC1] Eng 101 -> [UC] Eng 22</p>
<p>I don’t think chaining things like that is allowed. My situation was a bit different (Maryland CC to CCC), but when I transferred to UCB they didn’t look at how the CCs treated classes from each other, and instead evaluated each course individually. That said, it could vary from one school to another, so go with what your counselor says.</p>
<p>waterbottle, can you find another CC nearby which offers transferable CS classes? Pre-reqs are super important, especially something like CS class, so it could really mess you up to try and transfer without them.</p>
<p>The lowest GPA wasn’t 3.64, I don’t think. I’m quite sure that range is the middle 50%. So From the 25th to the 75th percentile. So there’s a little bit of hope for you, perhaps?</p>
<p>@failure622</p>
<p>Sadly I live way up north and I there are no CCCs which are nearby that have transferable CS courses. With Cal specifically, they say on their assist page:</p>
<p>“The Computer Science department at Berkeley recognizes the fact that courses
comparable to Berkeley’s computer science 61A-61B-61C series are difficult to<br>
find at most community colleges. With few exceptions, transfer students must<br>
take CS 61A and CS 61C during their first semester/s at Berkeley.”</p>
<p>They offer I think 61A in the summer session which it says is recommended for transfers who don’t have it.</p>
<p>All of the other UCs on the other hand have bunches of CS classes which are pre-reqs and then don’t say anything like Cal does.</p>
<p>It makes me wonder if it would be worth it to do like move down to somewhere in the bay area to take a couple semesters worth of CS classes… There is absolutely nothing of the sort up here.</p>
<p>At least you can preview the courses here:
[EECS</a> Course WEB Sites](<a href=“http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/classes-eecs.html]EECS”>CAS - Central Authentication Service)</p>
<p>If you preview the courses, you can at least get a head start for when you take them “for real”.</p>