UCSC v. CCC, then transfer?

Transfer Students
1

<p>I'm pretty sure I'm going to UC Santa Cruz next year, which I'm alright with, but if I wanted/had to transfer from Santa Cruz to a private university after either my freshman or sophomore year, how hard would it be, in actuality? </p>

<p>I know with inter-UC transfers community colleges get priority, it's not the same with private schools, is it? My problem is that I really like UCSC, and they have an excellent psych program, but it's very possible that I'll choose to go in the direction of poli sci or history instead, for which the options are very limited.</p>

<p>If I stay on top of credits and earn a good GPA, would it be possible to swing a transfer to a top-20 private? Or would it be that much easier to do comm. college, earn likely a higher GPA and then transfer?</p>

<p>I'm really clueless on this one, any input would be wonderful. Thank you!</p>

2

<p>anyone? :-/</p>

3

<p>Hi, I’m in the same boat as you. I’m wondering if I should go to UCSC or a community college. My ultimate goal is to transfer. Originally I just wanted to transfer to UCLA or CAL, but I’m also considering a private school now. </p>

<p>Someone help us!</p>

4

<p>well, at least we’re not alone!</p>

5

<p>I know that with private colleges its not like the UC system with the prevalence for acceptance with a CC. Depends on the private school USC will accept a student with 30 units from UCs and then will no longer look at your high school record. Not sure about other schools.</p>

6

<p>Hey guys, </p>

<p>I am on the same boat as you, but one step ahead: I’m at UCSC and about to transfer into Fall 2010 to USC after one year. (just applied and application pending now.)</p>

<p>CCC is better if you want to go to another UC, in my opinion. this is because UC’s take CCC priority for admitting transfers. however, like me, going to a UC and transferring to a private is better plan because private schools (or at least USC) doesn’t take priority over any schools.</p>

<p>I looked a lot into transferring to another UC, but for a lot of the UC’s, its hard to satisfy all of their requirements in one year…(on the other hand I only looked at engineering lol)</p>

<p>It is possible that you can go from say UCSC or UCR to another UC. I’ve read people and met people who have done this. but again, UC’s really like community college students since they have no where else to go.</p>

<p>hope this helps!
any questions you have, hopefully I can help</p>

7

<p>You write that your interest in poly sci, history, or what have you, and the limited options UCSC has for those majors, may be the reason you would seek to transfer out. </p>

<p>Then you also mention that you want to transfer into a Top 20 private schools.</p>

<p>The issue with your desires it that the goal of transferring into a top 20 private school doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get to fulfill your academic interests. Some of the top 20, for example cal tech, won’t fulfill those academic interests in the departments that you mention, or at least not to the extent that a more well rounded school can.
There are plenty of non-top 20 private schools that will fulfill your “real” or “original” reason for transferring - which is supposedly the lack of strength at UCSC in certain departments.
But to answer your original question, if you plan on being so specific about what schools you transfer into-top 20 non privates, you’re going to have to do a lot of research. Different schools have different admissions policies. If I am not incorrect, for most top 20 schools, your high school record will also come into consideration for admissions. Meaning, that your sat scores will matter, and will play a role in transfer admissions. As will your high gpa, extra curricular activities, etc. Aside from the fact that most top 20 private school’s transfer acceptance rates are usually less than the acceptance rates for freshmen admissions, your competition as a transfer to top 20 private school will be more intense and competitive than had you applied for a freshman. Kids from peer schools(in the top 20) will most likely be your competition. When your competition has the stats that landed them at a top 20 first time around, they’ll have a stronger profile than you. If you weren’t top 20 private school material as a freshman, the odds are really against you. Now if you did have top 20 private school material stats, you arguably wouldn’t be choosing between ucsc vs ccc. But if you do and are opting for ucsc for financial reasons, then ucsc will look better than CCC if you are specifically looking to transferring into a top 20 private school. </p>

<p>Of course there are some schools that never take into consideration your high school record, but I think you’ll have a lot harder time finding ones that don’t that are specifically top 20 private schools. </p>

<p>If your real interest is to only “upgrade” schools. I will simply say to don’t get so caught up on whether they are top 20, or whether they are private. You could easily upgrade to a top 25 school by going the ccc route and transferring into Berkeley or UCLA. Also, USC is one of the few schools that doesn’t look at high school record after you’ve completed a certain level of units at a college. The same thing for claremont mckenna(if i remember correctly), which is the only top 20 private school I can think of that doesn’t look at high school record.</p>

<p>If you’re going to stick to your top 20 private school goal, be aware that a lot of these schools will require you to have a high gpa 3.6+ in college(which might be easier said then done for some students). You also will have to get letters of recommendations, which at a large state school like UCSC might be difficult since your classes are bound to be huge and getting your professor’s attention or building a relationship with them will be a challenge.</p>