UC to CC to CSU route?

I’m supposed to at rising sophomore status at UC Santa Cruz, but I realized that the school doesn’t really fit my career goals as I want to change my major the school doesn’t have (Urban Planning or Public Policy). The thing is that I basically messed up my first year and during summer semester at CC so now I have around a ~2.5 GPA. I’m going to attend De Anza this year, and I calculated that even if I get all As this year, my GPA would only reach between 3.2 and 3.3. Im planning to applying to SFSU, SDSU, CSUN, CPP, and a couple other UCs. And I can’t really retake the past classes since they are mostly Cs.

I heard that some CSUs have average transfer GPAs near 3.6 or even higher since I’m applying to other CSUs as a non local (I live in Alameda County). I know that for UCs, they holistically look for upward grade trends, but I don’t know if it’s the same for CSUs since I believe that admissions are automated by computers? I’m really worried about not being able to transfer anywhere because of how I did my first year.

Both UC’s and will CSU’s will consider an upward grade trend, but only 1 semester of good grades does not make up for a few semesters of subpar grades a time of application.

Below are the 2019 UC Transfer GPA admit ranges by UC campus and major to give you an idea of your competitiveness:

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

Below are the average CSU transfer GPA’s by campus but not specific for major:

https://www2.calstate.edu/attend/counselor-resources/Documents/transfer-2019-admission-impaction-chart.pdf

You might want consider taking an additional time at your CC and apply for Winter 2021 or Spring 2022 instead to help bump up your GPA. Also have all your GE and major prep courses completed could help your chances.

Best of luck.

Since you have SFSU on your list, https://www2.calstate.edu/attend/degrees-certificates-credentials/Pages/impacted-degrees.aspx indicates that SFSU is not campus-impacted for upper division transfers (“Open to all CSU-eligible applicants.”). A small number of majors are impacted (meaning higher admission standards than CSU minimum eligibility), but not the ones that you appear to be interested in like urban studies and planning.

CSU minimum eligibility for upper division transfers means completing all pre-transfer course requirements and earning a college GPA of 2.0 (2.4 if not a California resident).