<p>Hi, I'm a freshman spring admit at UC Berkeley. </p>
<p>Right now I'm attending community college and I'm going to move to Berkeley in January. </p>
<p>However, I don't know if Berkeley is the right college for me. I know I should of dealt with these insecurities before applying, but now I still have a chance to choose a different path so I'm weighing my options. </p>
<p>My concern is that I'll ruin my GPA at Berkeley and drop out. It's unlikely, but possible.
I was wondering: if I go to Berkeley and don't like it, can I drop out and go to a community college THEN transfer back into a lower UC like Davis? Right now I'm taking 16 units at cc. If I drop out of Berkeley after taking 13 units there, will the uc credits also count toward the goal of transferring junior year? I know if I take more than 30 units at a UC i'll be considered a UC student and it'll be infinitely harder to transfer junior year to another university. </p>
<p>Right now my options are: Try to succeed at Berkeley this January or stay at a cc for two years and transfer to a lower UC. A benefit of attending cc is that I'll get a higher gpa and have a better chance of getting into med school (if I decide to go the pre-med route. right now i'm undecided).</p>
<p>I just want to know if I have a way to escape if I end up failing. ><</p>
<p>You won’t drop out; you were accepted. Honestly, classes at Berkeley aren’t all that hard as they seem - as long as you study hard and don’t play around too much, I can assure that you can get atleast a B average gpa. Premed at Berkeley is hard, but not impossible.</p>
<p>But you should really think hard about whether you want to do pre-med or not; it’s an investment that pays off in the long run, but only if you have the dedication to stick to it till the very end. If you suddenly decide x years down the road that you want to switch, you will have wasted x years when you could’ve been doing something else. </p>
<p>I planned on doing premed when I was in high school: spent two (wasted) years researching in laboratories, slicing mice up and gassing fruit flies. But then I realized I didn’t have the dedication to throw away eight years of my life, poring over medical texts and vying in a cutthroat environment (In retrospect, I suppose my two years weren’t wasted if it catalyzed this realization). Instead, I chose to study CS at Berkeley - a major that brings in great financial returns in exchange for 3 to 4 years of studying (and has the highest average salary (well, after EECS, but they’re pretty much the same thing) immediately after graduation (in comparison to other majors) according to career survey), and, perhaps most importantly, a major I enjoy - I’m not afraid to have a bad grade in a difficult class as long as I enjoy learning the material.</p>
<p>That’s some really good advice Lucyan. Thanks so much for the detailed reply. I’ll definitely think before I commit myself to a major. Right now I’m more leaning toward a degree in applied mathematics or econ. Ideally, I would get into a good actuary grad program and become an actuary, but if that doesn’t work out I to major in something that will allow me to get a decent job with just a bachelor’s degree. </p>
<p>Congratulations on the CS degree by the way; must have taken a lot of hard work.</p>
<p>Oops, that’s what I get for not reading closely enough. </p>
<p>So how many hours do you study per week? Do you still have time for extracurricular activities?</p>
<p>Oh, by the way, I’m still looking for an answer to my original questions about the units that go toward junior-year transfers. So if anybody knows, please share some of your knowledge with me. :)</p>
<p>Yes, all units passed count toward future transfers. However, many UCs have a limit on units beyond which students with any four year school units will be rejected.</p>
<p>Also, remember that medical schools will calculate your GPA from all courses in all colleges attended, so transferring is not a good way to hide poor grades. Also, they supposedly frown on taking pre-med courses at community colleges, at least for those who started at a four year school.</p>