UCLA Opportunity

Hello,

I am curious if I would be able to entertain the thought of transferring to UCLA still. My GPA’s currently are undesirable due to issues that happened whilst in my old CC.

I do not believe I have a high school GPA as my school gave me just “P”'s for passing and raw credit /w no actual letter grades. Past that I also went to the CC of the Air Force which gave me just P’s and raw credits as well… I also went to a CC down here and was passing every test and exam with 98% or above until the dreaded moment hit and they told me I owed them $1,200 for ONE CLASS! so I dropped out mid-way and they retained the grade of F and a 0.0 gpa. I was going back and forth with the residency advisor and they requested information (which I gave them multitudes of!) and they adamantly could not consider me a ‘californian resident’ as my ‘home of record’ (WHICH IS NOT CHANGABLE!) and MEPS facility was out of state, irregardless if I still filed taxes and everything for California.

I absolutely felt penalized for enlisting and could not focus on school from there on due to the debt I could not pay. So I decided to go to a different college two years later which accepted me as a RESIDENT FINALLY (forgot to add previous college but will fix that once I can come to an agreement with the transcripts they are holding).

I truly wish to go to UCLA but I am afraid that because of my mistake of leaving unfinished I will have no opportunity to even be considered for a transfer. I’m very uneducated when it comes to the education system … especially that of california’s, is there anything I can possibly do to improve my chances? I would like a ‘fresh start’ as it was only one class that wasn’t even transferrable anyways… But I have heard UCLA will ‘blend’ the old grade with new one. Making a 0.0 and a 4.0 go to 2.0 (Assuming?) which is absolutely awful for UCLA standards.

tl;dr: All schools I went to gave me raw credit no grades, went to CC down here and they refused to give me in-state tuition irregardless if I was an actual resident or not so I dropped out halfway due to inability to pay. Will I still be able to fix this or even be considered for UCLA?

I greatly appreciate ANY help anyone on College Confidential can give me!

Thank you,
Zanakinz

Sorry if double post is not allowed, I cannot find an edit button
Also, I wanted to do IGETC and TAP. My plan is to do CC->UCLA->Graduate School.

If possible, of course.

EDIT: I found the edit button! But now I cannot find the delete button. I will edit any future posts from here on out.

Where is “down here” which you keep referring to?
You have to have resided in California and paid taxes whilst in California before being given residency status.
Also, if you were stationed in California for a length of time, and filed taxes, while in California, you would get a reduction in tuition, but not in anything else.
If you left a school because you couldn’t pay fees, and you didn’t formally withdraw, the school has the option to fail you.
California is strict with residency because the residents of California pay years of huge taxes to support the schools and the state (which is out of money). Out of state students assume that they can just transfer in without having supported the state through years of taxes.

Why UCLA? You don’t automatically get into this school without proving yourself as a viable and competitive candidate. They get over 100K qualified applicants. Priority is given to state residents-sometimes, these are students who have been in California for their high school and CC careers.
There are other schools that are less competitive.

Sorry, by down here I mean in southern california. I’m from a northern state.

I was not stationed in California however I began my residency here and continued to pay taxes whilst in the military to california. Problem of it is however, California is tax-free for military so maybe it didn’t count but I had to still file for the state.

I’m in-state now according to the records of my new CC… However my biggest gripe was that I have been a resident when I applied at my original CC but it was a challenge to prove it and even though all evidence stated I was they still refused to update my application (Called other schools about it and they said they arent going to speculate why they won’t accept the proper documents but said the documents i’m providing were sufficient).

UCLA was just a preferable choice for me, i’m open to other options as my CC has a guarenteed admission program to other UC’s if I do well… But I thought I would attempt to achieve UCLA.

But my main question was (if it wasn’t clear as my writing skills are not the best) is there anyway to turn this around and still have a chance? I’ve heard of academic forgiveness but could not find any viable sources on the colleges/universities website on it.

After further research, The CC I went to will allow me to request my F turned to a W for ‘non-attendance’ even though I attended through everything except the final weeks due to the financial stress of it all. I may be able to attempt to get the grade changed to W and not counted against my GPA. However, if this is unsuccessful, would re-taking the class (it was only one and was very easy) bar me from admittance? I checked a calculator and if I succeed from here on out, it will be a 3.8 weighted overall gpa.

Why aren’t you consulting a guidance counselor at your CCC???

I think you have a couple of concerns:

  1. The school that can give you academic forgiveness is the school where you received the F. If you go back and retake the course and pass it, they may replace or merge the grade. You need to investigate that at your previous school.
  2. Any school you plan to transfer to, will require all of your transcripts. If you still owe that CC some money, they will not release your transcript to the UC's. You are REQUIRED to submit any and all transcripts to the admitting schools. If you don't do that, the universities' use a clearing house to check your previous schooling. The schools expect honesty and will not admit you if you are not honest with your application. UCLA, Berkeley and San Diego do not offer TAG (transfer admission guarantee). Local CC's within the area of a UC may offer a TAP program (Transfer Alliance Program).

Your writing and spelling, on this post, are not “fluid”.

Professors at the UC’s expect their students to have a strong grasp of written language skills. They don’t have an issue rejecting thousands of students who have weak writing skills. There are only so many seats at each UC.

The UC’s are tough to enter; UCLA will be even tougher because they expect and desire only the best students.

The popular CSU’s are very competitive, but may be inclined to admit you if you meet their basic transfer requirements.

Thank you for your response Aunt Bea,

I have a meeting with the veterans adviser in the new CCC however I had to wait for a student ID before they would even talk to me… So I thought i’d ask here until I can get the rest of my process completed.

Also on #1, I will attempt to talk my old CC.

2 I will be paying it off because I want to be as transparent and honest with the applications as possible... Which was why I wanted to get the official transcript from the old one settled /w my new CC.

and for #3 , yes, I still have to brush up on the fluidity of my writing & spelling… hopefully which will be improved by the time I will send in my UC Application’s. I do not have any IGETC classes done yet so I still have a ways to go. I only was a journeyman in the Air Force, never finished generals.

You do have the advantage of being a VET. Make sure when you apply, that you contact the UCs/CSUs Veteran Affairs offices on the campuses.
good luck!

Hey Aunt Bea,

I was doing more research (Will be going to talk to UCLA Transfer center today on my lunch break) and I saw on the website the only GPA they factor in is UC transferable credits? The math class I took was non-transferable. So if I’m reading correctly will it not calculate into my GPA?

GPA is only calculated based on UC transferrable courses