I applied to UCSC for winter admission. I currently go to SJSU, I transferred there from a CC in August, but I’m not really enjoying it. My major takes four years to complete here whereas it’s two and a half years at UCSC. Financial aid is going to run out on me by the end of year three here at SJSU.
I go into UC Merced for Spring 2017, but I don’t think I would want to go there. I keep hearing that UCSC winter admissions is tough. I’ll give some stats:
Major: Japanese at SJSU, Language Studies - Japanese at UCSC
GPA: It was a 2.6 at my CC, but I will have a 3.0 at SJSU
Essay: 9/10 but I heard they don’t read it
ECs: Just a lot of employment history stuff like working at Target. I took all my classes online at my CC because I didn’t have a car to drive to campus.
Additional Info: I was accepted to all the CSUs I applied to: CSULA, CSULB, Fresno State, and SJSU. I decided on SJSU because I wanted to live in the bay area. I’ve lived in Central California and Southern California, so I wanted to be somewhere different.
SJSU is a great school, but I don’t want to have to change my major in order to get out in time before the financial aid cut off. I’ve considered changing it to communications or linguistics, but I don’t like either of those things. I want to work for the JET Program after I graduate, so I need to learn Japanese anyway.
Just some general advice would be great. The UCSC Reddit wasn’t really helpful when I asked there. They basically said that everything sucks about their school and that classes are hard to get.
@AgentXJP Literally everyone says this, thought not as rude as you just did. I have to pay about $5000 a year out of pocket to go to SJSU. My sister, who is the same age as me, has the same financial aid figures, and goes to UCSB, pays nothing for tuition. The UCs typically provide more financial aid than the CSUs because of the Blue and Gold opportunity plan. Did you know that or did you just want to be a dick?
I only see one person being rude in the posts above and it isn’t @AgentXJP. The B&G plan does offer more aid, but in many cases it’s still cheaper to go to a CSU. AgentXJP simply stated that fact and asked if you had considered it.
Thats said…I don’t quite understand your situation. You were a CC student that transferred into SJSU in the Fall of 2016? How are you transferring to UC Merced for the Spring of 2017?
Since 2015, spring admits at the UCs (other than Berkeley) are usually reserve for approved appeals and special case admissions (usually involving missing prerequisites / last minute CoA breaches at other UC campuses). SIRing to SJSU conflicts with those conditions so I don’t quite understand if your even eligible to be a Spring admit.
Generally though:
You currently don't qualify for the "CCC transfer" admissions boost since your last college attended is SJSU (and not a CCC). The only way to re-establish that label is by dropping out of SJSU and spending another semester at a CCC.
Your GPA is likely below the 25th percentile of all admitted students at UCSC which gives you a very chance of getting admitted as a non-CCC transfer. Even if you return to a CCC...your GPA isn't likely to increase to the average GPA for language studies at UCSC (around 3.20) within one semester. [Take a look at this link to see the group-wide stats of the 51 language studies admits last year.](https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major)
In regards to finances, if I had gone to a CSU, I would have had to pay 100% out of pocket due to my “high” income. They only offered me loans. UCLA costs significantly more than the CSUs, but because of B&G, my tuition AND health insurance was covered 100% .
@SDGoldenBear “Did you even do the math?” implies rudeness. Not many people understand my situation, and that’s fine. Thanks for the information.
@2016Candles That is exactly what I meant in regards to finances, thank you. While it costs about $10,000 more to attend the UCs, the CSUs are missing valuable financial aid coverage. Even on a net price calculator, I would get more aid at UCSC than SJSU.
@041191 I never said “did you even do the math?”. I simply asked if you had done the math. No one was rude to you. The fact that you have to add arbitary words into sentences implies you know this yourself.
Getting more aid is on a case by case basis, and won’t always offset paying double tuition and potentially higher living/food costs. As I originally said there’s possibility you might not even save money. But more importantly given your contradictory information (how are you transferring to UC Merced in spring if you just transferred to SJSU in fall? And your major shouldn’t take you 4 years at SJSU assuming you did 2 years at CC) and childish behavior in this thread I don’t think you’re ready to transfer anywhere so soon.
@AgentXJP I read your comment as rude. If you didn’t intend it that way, then okay. I apologize. Yet, you have to understand that anything written online is open to interpretation, and I guess I read it in a way that was the opposite of what you intended. “Did you do the math?” to me implies that I did not. In fact, I have gone over the numbers and decided that I want out of SJSU. My bank account will be out of money by the end of spring if I stay here.
I was accepted to UC Merced for spring. I applied in the summer when I thought I didn’t have housing. I got housing a week before school started at SJSU. I thought the financial aid package was good, which is why I chose SJ in the first place. But when it came time to pay for classes, after financial aid was deducted, I was still $1700 in the hole. It seems they changed their mind about a university grant that would have covered it.
People are often confused on how I’m going from a CC to a CSU to a UC. Or are confused why I would want to do that. My CC did not offer any Japanese classes that coincide with the assist.org agreements. I took them anyway and was told by a counselor at SJSU that they don’t count. I tried taking the placement test and learned why those classes don’t count–they didn’t prepare me for anything. I am in Japanese 1 right now. I have to get to Japanese 6 on a semester system, with no levels of Japanese being offered in the summer. Japanese 6 is a prerequisite for four culture classes that are part of the major. That’s why it takes four years.
I still haven’t heard from UCSC, btw. UCM has a new major and now offers Japanese classes, and their aid is all-inclusive with no sudden reversal of grants–I called and checked–so I might as well just do it.