What can I do to improve my chances to transfer to UC Berkeley?

Transfer Students UC Transfers
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I graduated high school with an unweighted 3.2 GPA and a weighted 3.6 GPA. I’ve been accepted to Cal Poly Pomona for the upcoming Fall Semester, but my goal is to transfer to UC Berkeley.

Before the pandemic shut everything down, my SAT score was an 1132, but I intend on retaking it.

What can I do between now and 2024 (when I would be eligible for transfer) to improve my chances of acceptance as a transfer student?

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If you plan to transfer, you need Junior level standing 60 semester/90 quarter units. SAT scores are not considered by the UC’s or CSU’s and your HS GPA is also not considered as a Transfer. Your chances are dependent upon your College GPA, completion of the transfer requirements (GE’s and major prep) along with your personal insight essays. So do you plan to attend CPP and transfer or attend community college and transfer? CSU to UC transfers are more difficult and lower priority than CC to UC transfers.

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What is your major or likely majors?

My immediate reaction is that CPP is a very good university. You should try to make the best of the opportunities that you will get there.

However, what you do to make the best of your opportunities as CPP and what you do to maximize your chances to transfer to UCB might be mostly the same things: Keep ahead in all of your classes, attend every class and always pay attention, get to know your professors, look for A’s, look for internship or research possibilities. Keep way ahead in your homework. Definitely start your homework much closer to the day that it is assigned rather than the day that it is due.

At least for me an 1132 SAT and a 3.2 unweighted GPA seem low for UC Berkeley. Fortunately you are starting with a fresh slate at CPP.

Congratulations on your acceptance to Cal Poly Pomona. I think that you will find that there are lots of opportunities for you to do very well there.

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Points of information:

  1. UC’s are now test blind
  2. Test scores weren’t considered for transfers even before they went test blind
  3. If you are intent on a UC transfer, attending a CC is more advantageous than attending a CSU
  4. CPP is a good school, and you haven’t even experienced it yet
  5. Successful transfers to Berkeley typically have college GPA’s in the 3.65–3.95 range. Coming from a CSU rather than a CC, you’d want to be in the upper part of that range. Your best course of action is simply to do your best in college. At the end of the first year, assess whether you truly want to transfer at all, and if so, where you could realistically apply given your grades in that first year.

Questions:

  1. How does a person get an SAT score that ends in a 2?
  2. What are your major and career goals?
  3. What program have you been admitted to at CPP?
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Don’t even bother attending CPP if you’re dead set on UCB, if your dead set on Berkeley got to a community college. The vast majority of Berkeley transfer come from California community college you’d already put your self at a disadvatage attending a 4 year.

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Earn a high college GPA: