UC Davis waitlist... Questions about community college?

So I was waitlisted at UC Davis and denied from Cal Poly SLO and UC SD.

UC GPA: 4.00
ACT: 31
Tons of leadership and work expirence as a swim instructor. Most of my essays had to do with my serious spinal surgery and how it affected my life. I was president of my KEy club and part of it for all 4 years, lots of volunteering.
I got a supplement from UC Davis and UC SD asking me for my grades for senior year Which are
AP gov: A
AP stats: A
British literature: A
Pyshio: A
PE racket sports: A

I know my course load isn’t too hard but I have taken two community college course:
Psychology: A
Sociology: A

Now that you know a little about me,
I want to know wether community college and transferring may be the right thing for me. I don’t have too much hope for the rest of the schools coming out because of the results so far so…

  1. What are the transfers rates? Is it likely that I will get in to a UC or a private if I keep up my work ethic?
  2. My major is bio, is it Likely that I could still get in for that major?
  3. I don’t like to PRTY and I like to save money, is this a good way of doing those things?
  4. If I get a job relating to my major(or internship) is that even better when trying to transfer?
  5. Is there anything that is better about going straight to a 4 year instead of staying in community college for 2 years and transferring? I want to know

Thank you

If you are in-state CA, then the CC route is an excellent option. You can TAG to 6 of the 9 UC campuses, meaning if you meet the TAG requirements, you are guaranteed admission.

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/tag-matrix.pdf

You can check the Biology course requirements needed for each UC campus for transfer by using www.assist.org
Select the CC and the target UC for a list of transferable classes.

Having a job/internship related to your major will help your chances as a transfer, but the GPA is the most important.

Here is a link for UC transfer GPA’s by major for each UC Campus to give you an idea of a target GPA:
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major
These are 2016 numbers, but will updated yearly.

Going to a CC for 2 years will not give you the full 4 year living on-campus university experience but it is an excellent route to consider to save money and try to get into your preferred school.

what major did you apply as?

Seems like when I started working in California in the 80’s, at least half the people I knew who had graduated from a UC spent their first two years at a community college. (Those were the days when I think California CC tuition was something like $5 per credit, and people were outraged because it had been free before.) I’m a big fan of the California Community College system.

I applied for Biological Sciences majors

Bump

Current Community College Student who has TAG with UC Davis.
I think community college is an awesome choice. I personally returned to school at 21 for mechanical engineer.
Since then I have complete 96 units(all transferable) and spent about 4600 on my education while living at my parents house. The first two years are general courses and really are meant to weed people out. Of course you need to work hard and understand what is going on, but once you transfer I would imagine you will get much more specialized. One look at UC Davis curriculum shows me this.

Also I started as mechanical and my time at MSJC allowed me to take up programming and I switched to electrical engineering. I state this because we go into education wanting something but end up with something else. At this point I spent a fraction of the cost to discover what I want rather than the amount I would have spent at a CSU or UC.

In addition, the tag programs guarantee admission if you have certain GPA. Davis was a 3.4 for electrical engineering. Also people claim getting classes is hard, but all you have to do its get priority. I got mine from honors, didn’t even finish the program but I any class I wanted.