I’m a freshman looking to transfer to Cal from Berkeley City College. Has anybody transferred to Cal from a CC (in philosophy preferably, humanities in L&S would be helpful too, though) that can give their experience on it as a whole? Specifically, how important is completing all prereq’s in the major (BCC doesn’t offer them, I plan to take one this summer and the other two through concurrent enrollment my sophomore year), when should I have IGETC finished by, etc.?
I know it’s easier as a humanities major, but still, I don’t want to take any chances, anything I can do to get an edge I will likely do.
(Wondering because I read the 2014 transfer admissions thread and was scared shitless)
scratch that. if you transferred as a humanities major to any of the UC’s (or know anyone who did), tell me your experience/stats, it’s all appreciated
Haven’t yet transferred, but I just wanted to let you know to be careful of the unit max. I’d talk to a counselor to make sure your concurrent enrollment does not push you over.
IGETC should be finished by the end of Spring for Berkeley.
Also, the pre-reqs for the philosophy major at Berkeley aren’t offered at most community colleges as far as I know. Naturally, pre-req completion won’t be a big deal here, but do try to take at least several courses in the subject and do well in them. I also recommend taking symbolic logic if your community college offers it; it’s very important for philosophy at any UC school.
If you have any further questions, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them.
I plan to take the three prerequisites for the major at Cal before I transfer (I should finish by the end of my final spring semester, but I could possibly take two this summer and finish the prerequisites by the end of this fall) so I imagine that’ll give me some edge. I’m also taking an english course articulated as a prereq for the english major at Cal, and will probably be taking another in the fall semester.
I’ve taken Intro to Phil, I’m currently taking Modern European Phil, and I studied briefly (although I will more in due time) with my grandfather who is a professor of philosophy. I’ll be taking the three prereqs for Cal and also probably ethics and buddhist philosophy at my CC, so I should be well off in terms of courses as well as interest in the major.
What was your gpa for transfer/other stats? And how much do extracurriculars matter from your experience? (i’m asking specifically because transferring into the humanities is so different from transferring into a stem major, and i’ve only talked to social science transfers so i’ve only gotten so much from them)
(this might’ve been a mess to read, don’t mind the somewhat informal shorthand, it’s late)
That’s good, and it’s pretty cool that your grandpa is a philosophy professor.
My GPA at the time I was accepted was 3.83. Extracurriculars matter somewhat, but not very much for transfers as opposed to freshman applicants. Still, it’s important to have some and talk about their importance and relevance to your field of study/
I don’t think extracurriculars matter much. I transferred in without any good ones. Humanities majors have a much higher transfer percentage than other fields at Cal (47.6%). Don’t worry too much about the transfer threads. I suspect that many of the people who were rejected from less selective majors with high GPAs were either missing crucial classes, or didn’t write very good personal statements. That’s just what I think.
Eh, I really don’t want to take any chances. Yeah, I’ll probably start my personal statement this summer, but still, it’s in my interests to examine every possibility, despite the humanities transfer rate.
Are you a music major? How do you like Cal?
@Cayton how was your transition from CC to UCLA?
The thing is, everyone I’ve actually met who’s transferred to Cal had straight A’s (one Sociology major and one Anthro, both of which are at least somewhat comparable to my major) throughout CC, and I imagine decent EC’s. Really I’m just looking to get an edge, but I know how selective Cal is, and it wouldn’t be far-fetched to think they might reject me despite having solid grades and the EC’s that I do.
Pretty smooth, @goldencub. The philosophy classes at UCLA are only slightly harder than the ones I’ve had at community college for the most part. The professors here are also very helpful, kind, and dedicated to to teaching.
As long as you keep a GPA above 3.7 or so and have some kind of extracurricular(s) to talk about, you should be fine.
Oh, and it should be noted that anthropology and sociology are very selective at Cal, so higher GPAs would be necessary to be competitive in those majors. Philosophy is different.
UCLA requires symbolic logic of all of its philosophy major applicants. Same with Berkeley. The two philosophy departments(UCLA especially, since Betrand Russell and other famous figures in analytic philosophy have taught there) pride themselves on their analytic nature and rigor.
The professors at UCLA assume you’ve taken symbolic logic and frequently write symbolic logic notation on the board to make sense of the material they want to discuss with students, so it’d be nice to take the class before transferring, if possible. I can’t speak for Berkeley philosophy professors, but I’m sure they do the same. If the class is not offered at your CC, that’s fine. Just take it after transferring asap.
