UC Transfer Hopeful - Prospects?

Transfer Students
1

Hello collegeconfidential,

I am a 21-year-old student attending one of california’s community colleges right now and I was wondering if I could get some input on my options/possibilities. I want to major in Materials Science/Engineering. Here is my story:

In high school, I wasn’t a very good student. I had undiagnosed and untreated ADHD and, furthermore, I wasn’t very focused as a student. Unfortunately, I made the decision to attend middle college for my junior and senior years of high school. For those of you who don’t know, Middle College is a program where juniors and seniors in high school take their classes at a community college for both high school and college credit. During this time, I was still unfocused as a student and I performed relatively poorly, getting a C in PreCalc, a B- in Calculus I, a C in Calculus II, a C in Calculus 3, and a C in Physics (engineering/science major branch). While I was able to graduate high school, these college credits are still permanently on my record, and I can’t imagine that they look good for someone who wants to major in engineering.

Since graduating high school, I took a semester off to work and mature a little. During this time, I was diagnosed with ADHD and ever since then, I’ve been receiving treatment. Then I re-entered college at a different community college for spring 2014. However, I did not report my transcript from the community college I went to for Middle College and re-took all the classes listed above except for PreCalc and I got As in all of them. In fact, I have gotten a 3.85 GPA at the community college I go to now, getting only two B’s in non-major classes. This time, I really feel like I’m a good student. I love learning and I’m really engaged in all of my classes now, unlike in high school/middle college, when I would sleep through classes and smoke weed in the afternoons. Not only have I gotten A’s in the courses I re-took, I have gotten A’s in Physics II, Physics III, Chemistry, Calculus 4 (multivariable), and differential equations, courses I never took at the original community college. I hope it is obvious this indicates my improvement.

Recently, I have had my transcript from the old community college sent to the new one (all college courses/transcripts MUST be reported when you apply for transfer to the UCs or else it is considered fraud) and my 3.85 GPA at the 2nd community college dropped to 3.53.

As far as ECs go, I am a math tutor and I am currently working with a friend on building and coding a rover robot that will be able to navigate around a household. I am very interested in materials, so that is why I chose materials science as my major.

So, do you guys think my chances are shot for UC Berkely, UCLA, Irvine, and Davis? I would really appreciate input.

[I want to say one last thing, because this is a really important lesson I learned; if you’re in high school, don’t do middle college unless you REALLY think you’re ready to be a college student. The credits will stay on your record forever.]

2

Definitely a shot for Davis and Irvine, UCLA and Berkeley would be more difficult but still very possible. You have an upward grade trend which will be helpful. Mentioning the diagnosis of ADHD will help explain what happened with your grades. Also look into TAG for Davis or Irvine.

Personally I’ve been diagnosed with Schizophrenia which made the transition from high school to college hard. I was also untreated and started receiving treatment during my first semester at a CC. You seem to be a very promising student, Good luck! :slight_smile:

3

Thanks for the input. I can’t imagine having schizophrenia, it must be far more of a challenge than ADHD to control. But anyway thanks!

4

bump

5

bump

6

Once again, bump. I need more than one person’s opinion.

7

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major can let you look up transfer admission stats by campus and major for past admission cycles. These include the 25th-75th percentile college GPAs of admits and the admission rates.

For materials engineering in 2015 (25th percentile GPA / 75th percentile GPA / admit rate):

3.42 / 3.72 / 34% Davis
3.83 / 3.99 / 21% Los Angeles
3.02 / 3.73 / 53% Merced
3.17 / 3.59 / 54% Riverside

Berkeley and Irvine apparently had too few materials engineering admits to report in 2015. Their 2014 numbers:

3.79 / 4.00 / 14% Berkeley
3.36 / 3.73 / 38% Irvine

8

bump

9

You have a decent shot. Try looking into whether academic renewal is offered at your CC. Some colleges don’t look at old grades if its been something like 5 years. It’s worth contacting some people from UC admissions about this.