UC Berkeley Fall 2019 Transfer Thread

Transfer Students UC Transfers
41

@sugarcane1

Is your student using TAG? If so, some UC campuses might requirea student to be enrolled at CC in the spring term prior to transferring.

This is from UC Davis TAG link.

When applying for the UC Davis TAG, students must:
• Have been enrolled at a California community college (CCC) during the previous spring term
• Be enrolled at the CCC for the current fall term
• Plan to continue enrollment at the CCC through the spring term prior to enrolling at UC Davis in
the fall
• Have at least 30 semester (45 quarter) UC-transferable units. These may include Advanced
Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam units.
Additional Considerations
Full-time enrollment is strongly recommended to be adequately prepared for UC Davis. Students who
are enrolled part-time for any of the above terms should provide justification in the Additional
Comments section of the TAG application.

42

CCC student from San Diego Miramar College
Major: Economics
GPA: 3.78
IGETC: Done
TAP: No

Background:
Vietnamese-American
Vietnamese first language
Low Income

EC:
Full Time Job 40 hours+
100 hours+ volunteer at Bulldog Drummond- profound marketing company
100 hours+ volunteer at Asians Joining hand- family non profit org. to help the homeless
Volunteer SEAL 2nd assistant coach
SDSU Air Force ROTC Program- Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corpse
Vice President of the Miramar Business Club

My Essays:

  1. Talked about my experience training with the SEALS- included dialect
  2. My experience with Bulldog Drummond and what I accomplished with them- Promoted a clean environment
  3. My leadership quality during my time with the AFROTC
  4. How I came to love my major and how I prepared for it
43

Major: Statistics
Transfer from a California community college
GPA: 4.0 ( I attended a foreign college for 1 semester and I don’t know how that will affect my admission and GPA. Please please reply if anyone has some experience with that. Tks a lot!! :D)
IGETC: will be done in Spring 2019
Prereq: will be done after Fall 2018

Extracurriculars: President of Math Club. Volunteer at Make-a-Wish. Correspondent at a non-profit advocating Human right and Democracy for an Asian country(Take a guess). A minimum-wage work around 20 hours a week(sad…). UC Berkely TAP. Um…what else…maybe playing tons of basketball and watching tons of NBA could count lol.

SAT: Took it two years ago when I first came to the U.S. and got a1490, but don’t know if I should report it or not(Any advice?).

Awards: none…My biggest “achievement” as a 20-year-old may be publishing an anthology of my poetry(Well…in a foreign language) and got the recognition of the dean of EALC at Stanford and the head of a library at Stanford. But that’s when I was in high school, and I am studying Statistics now so reporting that will maybe even make me look like a nerd or a weird person… :frowning:

Applying: UCB, UCD, UCLA. Maybe some private schools if they grant me scholarship lol. I’m broke :slight_smile:

Also, although I am legally residing in the U.S. and paying in-state tuition in California, I am still in the immigration process waiting for the green card and I’m not a U.S. citizen yet. Maybe that will affect the adimission?

Thanks for reading this!! Looking forward to all your advice and replies and good luck to the applications of you all! :smiley:

44

Hi everyone. Although I chose UCLA over UC Berkeley as my college of choice I wanted to give you all my profile if that will help anyone.

Transfer Year:Fall 2018
CCC student
Accepted:UCLA, UC BERKELEY, UCSD, UC DAVIS, USC, USF
Fulfilled IGETC and major req.
Major: Integrative Biology
GPA:3.8
E.C.: worked with professors from many majors to bring awareness to human trafficking.
Essay: talked about my art piece that I worked on with a rehabilitated prisoners, talked about my work with human trafficking, and discussed the struggles of mass media.

Advice: Be able to write an essay that will captivate the reader. Everyone has great E.C and gpa so what you have left is your essay to make you stand out. In addition, SAT scores will not matter nor does events in high school unless it still affects how your growing as a person/student now.

Advice on essay regarding major: try to start with what inspired you to choose your major, then express what you want to accomplish in the future as a uc student and a individual in society.

45

GPA 3.50 (Should be at a 3.67 by the end of this semester )
MAJOR GPA 4.0
UC GPA 3.50
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Alpha Gamma Sigma member, Scholars Program, Law Pathway Program, Young Democratic Socialist of America member
[ *] Job/Work Experience: n/a
[ *] Volunteer/Community service: Camp Monarch Volunteer Counselor
[ *] Personal Statement: not quite finished yet
Degree: AA-T Political Science

[ *] Applied for Financial Aid?: no
[ *][ b] Intended Major [ /b]: Political Science
[ *] State (if domestic applicant): California
[ *] Country (if international applicant): US
[ *] School Type: SMC (California community college)
[ *] Ethnicity: Persian
[ *] Gender: Male
[ *] Income Bracket: n/a
[ *] Hooks (URM, first generation college, research, etc.): n/a

[ *] Strengths: 4.0 in all political science related courses
[ *] Weaknesses: 1 W
applying to what schools?
UCLA, UCB, USC, UCSD, UCSB(TAG), UCD, Occidental College, Pitzer College, Chapman, LMU

46

Major: Public Health
CCC Transfer: West Valley College
UC GPA: 3.8, will be around 3.9 when Spring is done!
Major GPA: 4.0
IGETC: Complete
Prereqs: Completed except for second semester of Calculus
AA: N/A
EC/Work Experience: Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society(volunteer coordinator), Honors Program, working at Urban Outfitters, Berkeley Summer Experience

Volunteer: Kaiser volunteer, volunteer coordinator in AGS

Strengths: Passionate about health field, come from lower-middle class background which feeds into my passion for public health services for underprivileged areas, All A’s except for one C in an introductory chem class I took my sophomore year of high school(not part of my pre-reqs though!)

Weakness: Not finished with the second semester of Calculus is making me apprehensive about admissions but I emailed the Public Health department at Berkeley and they told me they would accept it if I do it over the summer or my first semester there. Hopefully this doesn’t affect admissions-- sometimes they allow exceptions. 1 W in Chemistry.

Ethnicity: Vietnamese/Chinese
Gender: Female
Income: lower-middle class
Hooks: first generation, mental health issues that I used as inspiration to work harder to serve others.

For my personal statement, I decided to write about something that’s extremely raw and personal about the loss of my grandfather this semester that made this semester the most difficult one of all. I wrote about how he inspired me throughout my life, as well as some other personal nuances that I feel developed me as a person in a lot of ways.

Schools (in order of preference): UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCD, Stanford(not sure yet haha)

good luck everyone!!

47

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major

Hope this helps someone.

48

Hi guys,
I’ll be applying as a transfer this semester from California Community College,
Major: Environmental Economics and Policy (CNR)
GPA: 3.68/3.76 depends if I do well in my math class
IGETC: done
Major Prep done
W: 1
ECs:
I work part-time, although it used to be almost full time, which is why my grade weren’t as great one semester.
I volunteered in Indonesia for half a year with a non profit organization learning about environmental destruction firsthand. I was able to fund most of my trip to Indonesia with my savings.
I’m currently in the scholars program, used to be in PTK until this semester. Used to be in the sustainability club, but not much.
I was also adopted from China without knowing any English at the age of 10.
I’ve also volunteered at pre-schools as well as food pantries in high school.

Do my chances look good? Or is it a very slim chance based on my stats?

49

What is the UC policy behind repeating courses at different colleges. I received a C in a course my first year as a transfer and it wasn’t even my fault, I had an incompetent professor and I even explained my situation to my counselor. I wasn’t the only one that had this issue as did most of my friends in that class. I retook that course this semester and I am pretty sure I will end with an A, it ends Nov. 20th.

50

Can only repeat C- or lower to get first grade removed.

51

GPA (as of fall 2018): 3.84 (yes I’m confident I can get a 4.0 this semester)

[ *] Extracurriculars: Speech and Debate Club, Muslim Students Association, Arabic Tutor, and Starting Point Mentorship Program

[ *] Job/Work Experience: Worked at Kumon Math and English Learning Center my first year as a cc student. I now work at MedSpa California which is a skin clinic. I recently got an R&D Internship at Jova Beauty, which is a cosmetics company.

[ *] Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer in the emergency department at San Ramon Regional Medical Center, Volunteer at San Ramon Valley Islamic Center, and UNICEF.

[ *] Personal Statement: I finished mine a month ago, but I’m just getting it reviewed by my counselor. One of them I wrote about an academic challenge I faced with a professor of mine. I swear this wasn’t a rant essay, I kept it completely professional and omitted the professors name. My counselor and the rest of the DVC staff are aware of this guy’s incompetence when it comes to teaching. Another one I wrote about my community service at the Muslim Students Association and an event I helped planned. The third one was about my passion for public speaking, hence I joined the speech and debate club and I have also taken a few speech classes at dvc for my GEs.

[ *] Applied for Financial Aid?: No
[ *][ b] Intended Major : Molecular/Cell Biology
[ *] State (if domestic applicant): CA
[ *] Country (if international applicant):
[ *] School Type: Diablo Valley College
[ *] Ethnicity: Pakistani
[ *] Gender: Female
[ *] Income Bracket: middle class lol
[ *] Hooks (URM, first generation college, research, etc.): Not many hooks, I’m pretty much like most students. I do have a lot of ECs and my work experience to back me up when it comes to the preparation and interest for my major. Technically I am a first generation college student in my family because my parents both went to college in different countries.

[ *] Strengths: I am hard working, dedicated, and I have a decent GPA. I’m hoping my work experience and extra curricular can get me into my dream school. I will have completed all of my major required courses by spring 2019. I’m kinda close to 70 units and most likely I’ll exceed bc I’m a bio major and our courses and prerequisites are a lot of credits.

[ *] Weaknesses: Like I mentioned earlier I don’t have a high GPA as I would’ve wanted it to be. I do have one C in my physics class which was optional for me to take, but the reason for my GPA being a little lower is because of a personal situation I went through. My mom had her surgery when I was taking this course and it happened about a month or two after school started and I was not focused in that class because I had to worry and focus about other things like my mom’s recovery, handling domestic affairs, helping my siblings. This was my lowest grade so far but hopefully the admissions officers can understand that this grade doesn’t represent my entire academic gpa based on my time as a transfer student. I do have mostly A’s in the rest of my required courses for my major.

[*]applying to what schools? UCB, UCD, UCI, and UCSD

52

@AMETHYST1399 Does having parents who earned their degrees from other countries count someone as a first generation student? I’m also pakistani and both of my parents earned their degrees from pakistan, not in the United States.

53

No you are not first gen.

54

@GoodAfternoonSir I spoke with one the Berkeley advisors today and they said a “first-generation college student” means that you are the first person in your family to attend college, so we both don’t qualify for that :confused:

55

CCC student at De Anza

GPA: 3.83 (hopefully by the end of this quarter 3.9 exactly)
Extracurriculars: YouTube and freelance writing/editing
Job/Work Experience: part-time teacher
Volunteer/Community service: 5+ years for hospice care + food banks; tutoring + teacher’s assist

Intended Major: English
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: White

Applying to what schools?: UCLA, UCB, UCSB, UCD, UCSD, Cal Poly SLO, SDSU, SCAD, UPortland, USeattle, UArizona, UDub, CU Boulder, UMich, LMU, UDenver, USC

56

I am a potential Econ applicant. By the end of my fall semester, I will have over 60 units done with a 4.0 GPA. (IGETC is done) All of my prereqs will be done except I will have to take Calc 2 in the Spring. I was curious if this kills my chance at Berkley. I know they offer contracts where students have to finish a class in spring for a certain grade but I am not sure if Calc 2 is a class that admissions would need to see a grade for before they accept me. I know that econ is an impacted major, which is why I am curious if anyone has had experience with the situation I am in now. I have 9/10 essays and OK EC. I had a full-time job throughout my classes at CC/high school. Not to get to specific but I am a seventeen-year-old who had to leave high school a year early with the CHSPE exam in order to support my family who fell on hard times. Luckily I had been taking CC classes in my high school years and that along with my AP exams allowed me to transfer this year. I am just really worried about having to take Calc 2 in spring and if this kills my chances. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If I absolutely had to, I could take a super accelerated calc 2 class in a one-month intercession before spring. I really would prefer not to as it meets four times a week and I would struggle to process that much information in such a short time frame.

57

@90smix and @transferszn you both stand an excellent shot. P/T teaching great for English! Calc 2 in spring is not a drawback at all. You obviously got an A in Calc 1. Good luck both of you!

58

Thank you Ohm888! After researching both programs I am still debating whether I should apply for the Haas program (Biz admin) or as an economics major. Have you had any experiences with these majors or heard feedback from Berkeley students about them?

59

@transferszn Recent CC transfer to Haas. Haas is a lot of hard work to get in and a lot of work once you’re in, but well worth it. There’s something that comes with having Haas on your resume which can look amazing for job opportunities, but I’ve met a number of transfer econ grads who’ve landed incredible jobs on par with any other major.

UC Berkeley as a school is wonderful overall, so it’s really up to you and what you want to study.

60

@transferszn With Haas you need a stellar GPA, which you have, plus a lot of leadership/biz-related ECs. If you’re missing the EC part you’ll probably be better going with Econ. You can get the same jobs with either major, so that don’t let that be a deterrent. Econ is a tough major to get into, but Haas is harder. You say you’re 17. A little young perhaps for them to gauge your “Haas” potential, unless you have something killer to show.