UC --> CC --> UC transfer?

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

<p>Hi All,</p>

<p>I am currently a sophomore at a mid-tier UC and thinking of taking a one year leave of absence to continue my studies at a CC and then hopefully transfer elsewhere. To put it simply, I am sick of living here and am suffering from quite a bit of depression due to a lot of different my current UC-related factors.</p>

<p>Some things to consider:
I am premed and am scoring at the top of my class for both my biology and chemistry classes. So far I have taken the general chemistry series and the introductory biology series, and was planning on taking organic chemistry next year.
If I were to return back to a CC for next year, however, I would be taking organic chemistry there. According to my academic counselor, beginning my premed courses at a 4-year and then taking ochem at a CC would looking terrible on my applications for medical school and I would likely not be granted admission to any medical school; it will look like I took the "easy way out" of a hard class. This is certainly not the case; I have a 3.8 GPA and I think I have proven that I am a good student. However, in order to transfer into a biology program at UCLA or Cal, I will HAVE to have taken organic chemistry at the CC prior to transfer.</p>

<p>Any thoughts on how to amend this situation? On the one hand, I am in a very advantageous spot here at my mid-tier school; I am scoring very well in all of my classes, have priority registration, have a lot of face-time with my professors and will likely have a lab position in a biomedical research lab here soon. On the other hand, I am very depressed here and doubt that will change much in my next few years. Further, transferring to a top-tier school like UCLA or Cal could mean that I would drop from the top of my class to merely the average, as well as severely reduce my accessibility to important resume boosters like research positions, scholarships, clinical opportunities, etc given the intense competition among pre-meds.</p>

<p>Any help would be much appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Your counselor is actually right about the CCC courses…no matter your intentions…it will look pretty bad especially since you are already doing so well. You need to figure out what’s causing your depression…perhaps it’s the pre-med path itself? I know for me it was suffocating…and when I stopped freaking out over how many A’s I was getting…I actually did better. As someone who has done the transfer from mid-tier to UCLA, I would not recommend it at all for someone dedicated to going pre-med. The competition is at least twice as intense. It could intensify your depression. My advice would be to take your leave of absence to figure out why you are depressed…and then return to your school to finish your studies when you are better.</p>

3

<p>Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think you’re all that depressed if you’re performing as well as you say you are :slight_smile: I think you’re more than capable of toughing it out at your current school. </p>

<p>Just put things in perspective. You’re going to miss out on a lot of opportunities. Consider if your dissatisfaction with your current campus is a result of your own outlook or the environment, and try to find a way to make the situation better. See if you can meet with a therapist at school or have your parents arrange an appointment. There’s no shame in it.</p>

4

<p>Hey OceanPartier,</p>

<p>Thanks for your reply. Congratulations on being accepted to UCLA!</p>

<p>My depression is not stemming from my classes. I am depressed and upset because I don’t relate well to students here and hate being surrounded by people who party all the time. I strongly believe that attending a UC where I am surrounded by a different “type” of people will be very conducive to improving my depression, as every time I leave here to visit home I return to my happy, bubbly self. The problem then becomes whether it is more important for me to do well or be happy.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for your reply, Zomgrad. I am not depressed about the difficulty of my coursework. Rather, I am depressed at the school itself, as I am not fitting in to the social scene and have very few friends here. I am used to be surrounding my friendly people at home and now feel like I’m surrounded by stuck up spoiled brats.</p>

6

<p>Based on the fact that you said that you “hate being surrounded by people who party all the time”, I’m assuming that you’re currently at UCSB (not trying to generalize or anything haha, just trying to get a gist of what things might be like where you’re at right now).</p>

<p>All I can say at this point is this: It WILL look very bad on your medical school apps to go from a UC to a CCC and then back to a UC. Med schools generally frown upon applicants who take the normal CCC –> UC route, just because they’ll have taken the intro Bio, Chem, and O-Chem series at their CCC. If you go from taking just your Chem and Bio series at a rigorous mid-tier UC and then jumping O-Chem down to a CCC, they will be very suspicious on your motives. You can try explaining the jump in your application, but there is no guarantee that your reasoning will count for much in the hyper-competitive process.</p>

<p>In short, I highly recommend sucking it up and sticking with your current UC. I mean, you’re doing very well in your classes and you’re well on your way to being admitted to a med school. What more could you want? And I highly doubt that the UC that you’re in itself is making you depressed. If you really loathe being around partiers, go look for clubs that emphasize your interests. Join the premed club if you haven’t done so already and stick with them! Just avoid whatever it is that’s making you depressed. Trust me on this one: if you think you’re depressed right now, it will be NOTHING compared to the depression that you’ll probably get from being rejected from most, if not all, med schools (if you go the UC –> CCC –> UC route). </p>

<p>If you really really insist on switching up to a higher level UC, then you can try doing a UC-UC transfer. Med school’s probably won’t frown upon you for doing this, and may even look at it favorably because you went to a “higher” university. Plus, you’ll still be taking the basic Chem, Bio, and O-Chem courses at a rigorous university. The only downside to this is that you’ll have to start all over at the new UC. In places like UCLA, it’s EXTREMELY competitive to get research/intern opportunities… something that you say that you already have at your current UC. It’s definitely going to be a tradeoff if you do decide to do a UC-UC transfer, but if that’s what you really really want, then you can try and pursue it (the worst that can happen is that you’ll be rejected to UCLA/UCB and end up finishing all 4 years at your current UC). And the whole “CCC students get priority/UC-UC transfers are impossible” myth is complete crap. I got into Davis from UCSC two days ago with a 3.17. With your 3.8 GPA, you have a great shot at UCLA/UCB. Go check this thread out if you’re interested in taking this route:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/1494591-uc-uc-transfer-guide-aka-intercampus-transfer.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/1494591-uc-uc-transfer-guide-aka-intercampus-transfer.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Whatever you do though, do NOT do a UC –> CCC –> UC transfer. That will definitely wreck your med school plans, without a doubt. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Hi Cinnabon1234, thanks for your thorough and informative reply!</p>

<p>My friends and family say the same: that it is not worth giving up all the opportunities I have here simply because I don’t like the social atmosphere. Rationally, I fully agree, which really deters me from attempting to leave. However, my pervasive depression here is not making matters any easier. On the other hand, it seems to me that I should not live somewhere I hate and am depressed at simply because I want to gain admittance into medical school. I’m not 100% sure if I even want to be a doctor yet, so is it worth being depressed and unhappy just to leave that option open for myself? </p>

<p>Another option I have is to go the UC → CC → UC route, except instead of taking Ochem and transferring to UCLA or Cal, taking physics and transferring to UCSD or Davis. I’m not sure how medical schools view taking physics at a CC, however. That may be an equally bad option.</p>

<p>I can’t do a UC-UC transfer because I have too many UC units, and every UC has a 4-year university unit cap.</p>

8

<p>^ If you’re not happy where you’re at, transfer to another school, but realize it may not be a better environment; the grass is always greener on the other side.</p>

<p>In regards to your pre-med courses, don’t worry about them. So what if you take 1 or 2 classes at the CCC after you’ve already attended a UC. </p>

<p>If you graduate with a Molecular Biology degree with an 3.5+ overall GPA, med-school is not going to care you received a A+ in O-Chem or A- in Physics at CCC. If you’re overall GPA is 3.1, then med-schools may scrutinize your CCC pre-med courses, but it’s not the end of the world since you have other aspects of the application to demonstrate and or explain your academics, ie MCATs and essays.</p>

9

<p>I have a close friend whose brother was an admissions officer. I don’t remember how the topic came up, but he basically said was SFS Rules said about the GPA in regards to admitting people into graduate school who took the UC → CCC → UC and CCC → UC path. If the applicant has a strong overall GPA, then the fact that you went to a CCC won’t really matter. If your GPA is closer to the average GPA or a little below, then they will compare the schools the applicant was in. That’s when being from a CCC can be a negative factor. In your case, even if you do have a normal applicant GPA, but still manage to get into CAL or UCLA, then your CCC year won’t be much of a drawback. Please don’t judge me for that sentence structure.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your responses, SFS Rules and Robelius. I doubt taking physics and calculus at a CC would be a <em>huge</em> issue, but I am definitely concerned that it might – it would put all this last year’s hard work and effort to waste. Do either of you know if dental school, graduate school, osteopathic medical school, etc care about these things?</p>

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<p>No. As stated above in my post and in Robelius’, it will marginal to no affect on your chances at any grad/professional schools as long as your overall GPA is competitive.</p>

12

<p>Look carefully at the rules to make sure you will be eligible to xfer back to a UC. They don’t allow senior level xfers. If you are a sophomore then you are about ready to finish 2 years worth of units at a 4-year college. Add on 1 more year from a CC and possibly you could be considered a senior level applicant. I don’t know, but look into it.</p>

<p>I’m not an expert on the area, but I’ve heard that if you take a class at a CC but take a a more advanced one at a 4-year then med schools will realize you can do the work and didn’t just take the easy way out. When you say your academic counselor, are you referring to a general counselor or someone at your college specifically tasked with premed advising? If the latter, I’d put some credence into what they say.</p>

<p>Also, aren’t you a bit behind the curve for a life-science major at a UC? From what I understand, people take o-chem as part of a year-long chem sequence as sophomores.</p>

13

<p>Okay, thanks for the info. I really hope it won’t be an issue. I may go talk to the premed adviser again and see what he says.</p>

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<p>I talked to a premed counselor, and he told me taking physics or ochem at a CC would be an absolutely horrible idea and that I should try my best to stick it out here. And yes, I switched into the major as a sophomore and am taking chemistry and biology concurrently.</p>

15

<p>

This being a UC I have to ask…</p>

<p>Was that counselor an adult that seemed in a position to give an informed answer? Or a peer counselor that is just a college junior or senior?</p>

16

<p>^^Your pre-med counselor is well informed. When I was at UCI, we had admissions officers from UCI Med. School who came to talk to us about applications (I was thinking pre-med back then, not so much anymore). Taking core pre-med curriculum at a community college (as UC students) was high on their list of absolute no-no’s. We were told that because so many qualified applicants (everyone has a high GPA, MCAT scores, superbe EC’s, ect) are in the running, a blemish like this can be easily used to eliminate you as a candidate. Of course, this is UCI med. school. If you want to go to the Caribbean or something, I suppose it’s won’t be that big of a deal. mikemac’s suggestion of taking advance coursework would definitely remedy this issue. However, upper division chem/physics can be a you-know-what…probably more so at Cal or UCLA. </p>

<p>I think for your goal of going to medical school, staying put is still the best course of action. Perhaps you do need to get away from your school for a bit. You could still take your leave of absence and perhaps do some GE courses at a CCC. I would also look into the intercampus visitor program, which lets you attend a different UC for a quarter/semester. Or you could study abroad for a year or something. You’ll be able to escape for a while and it’ll look good on your med. school apps. I hope you figure this all out! Good luck!</p>