What are my chances to Berkeley or UCLA? I know it's a long shot

Hey all, I’m a current student at a community college in Los Angeles.

I’m hoping to transfer to UCLA or UC Berkeley and I’m going to apply this coming fall.

But there are things about me in order to determine my chances of admitting into UCLA or UC Berkeley

I’m an older student that returned to school to study really hard, I stopped going to school for about 5 years before I returned in 2014 Fall.

Before stop going to school I worked full time or two jobs and attended school part time.(24 units in 4 years)

I grew up from a dirt poor family and I worked to provide myself with pocket cash, help my family financially and to be a financially independent student.

I was an art major before but now I’m a business major and I never took major classes in STEM or English.

Before I left school my GPA was at 2.4

After I came back, my semester GPA has been 3.7 to 3.8 range per semester and I had a 4.0 past semester, working 30 hours a week.

My overall GPA at my school including long time ago units is 3.32, UC GPA of 3.24. But since I’ve returned as I said, my GPA has been 3.7 to 3.8 range.

I live by myself, I’m 28 and I work at a restaurant waiting tables as a server. I hate retail job and because I feel like I’m not as educated, incompetent I study my heart out and if I don’t get an A in an exam I get really upset.

Right now I’m taking precalculus and I have a B average in my course and I’m mad as hell. I still work so it bothers me specially in the winter. I understand the material, I know how to derive theorems but math is just like performing at a concert or at a sports match. I need to practice and review everyday in order to perform better. I’m trying to find co-workers to cover me and work and I’ll put in more time to solidify.

Although I only work two days out of the week part time during weekdays(but work 10 hours a day on friday saturdays and 5+ hours until late sunday night) it feels like I just don’t have enough time or I’m too tired to focus to produce quality studying hours to prepare for my exam

Anyways, here are list of classes I’ve taken and here are the grades.

2014 Summer(Worked full time)

Business 1/3 units - A
English 21B(English 1 pre req) /3 units - W

3 units/ 4.0 GPA

2014 Fall(Worked full time until Thanksgiving and quit)

Microeconomics/3 units - B
History 2 (15c to WW2)/ 3units - A
Philosophy(Human nature)/3 units - A

9 units/ 3.67 GPA

2014 Winter(Didn’t work)

Accounting 1(Beginning)/5 units - A
Media studies /3units - B

8 units/ 3.6 GPA

2015 Spring(Didn’t work)

Accounting 2(Managerial Accounting)/3 units - A
Macroeconomics/3 units - A
Latin American Art History/3 units - A
Business Law/3 units - B

14 units/ 3.79 GPA

2015 Summer(Started working)

English 21B(English 1 pre req) /3 units - B

2015 Fall(Worked 30 hours a week)

Lab Introductory Biology - A
Intermediate Algebra - A
Plane Geometry - A
English 1 - A

15 units/ 4.0 GPA

2015 Winter(Working 30 hours a week)

Precalculus - I’m going to end up with a B

My 2016 Spring schedule will be

Calculus - 5 units
Statistics - 4 units(Wait pool)
French 1 - 5 units

total 14 units, goal: 4.0 GPA

I don’t smoke, I don’t like drinking, I rarely take vacations I don’t chase skirts much.

People think I’m boring and too serious about life but I work too hard to be spending money on anything other than investing into my future and education specially when I’m at 28 years of age juggling school and work, with no professional career and degree.

I got B’s here and there but I’ll do my best to not slip.

Some were easy classes that I’ve gotten B’s in. I just got lazy. Microeconomics, I slipped in a crucial exam so that I can’t do anything about.

Precalculus… I should work less for that >:|

I know Haas is really really really hard to get into but I talk to Berkeley representative at my school and she says although 5.6% who applied get in, more than 40% of them didn’t even qualify to apply.(They were missing some of the pre req and didn’t know about it etc)

She also advised that I would have a better chance applying as Econ major which I don’t mind but if I’m doing Econ when UCLA doesn’t offer Business administration, I can apply for Biz Econ for UCLA although you need 3.9 GPA to get in.

I don’t know.

Do I have any chance?

I don’t struggle with math I love math although I’ve not taken math for the past 10 years and those intermediate algebra and geometry classes were my first since high school.

I think there is a different site in CC for transfer students. Post there for better feed back!
I do not know much about the transfers, only that the high school grades are not considered for your admission. But I do not know whether your age plays a role or not!
(By the way you are admirable!)

@uclaparent9 Since your id says parent, you already know juggling school and work is NOT the best idea. But having had to work, taught me a lot. Responsibility, sense of financial management, appreciation for what I have, work ethic, maturity, resilience etc. But I do not recommend it. If your child has to work, then do not juggle both at the same time.

^I agree with you and I am glad to see that you made it! Keep up your effort and do not give up and I am sure you will be successful in the future!

^Thank you. No giving up until I’m dead