I have a quick experience to share with you and whether you choose to believe it is up to you. I’m merely seeking advice, feel free to be as harsh and realistic with me. I want to understand my situation with full clarity.
I began my community college career in 2010. 3 years later after lots of internships and hard word I got accepted into UCB as a CS major with the intention of double majoring in Astrophysics. A week later, and after 10 long interviews with Apple I received a job offer to join as a junior software engineer working on some cool stuff. The money, the ‘Apple’ name, the idea of never having to take another test again blinded me and I choose to go with Apple. I transferred to SJSU instead and after 2 semesters there was forced to quit due to the intense work load at work. After 2 years at Apple, I decided I had enough and quit to join a startup that later won CES 2015 innovation award. Companies began offering me ‘senior’ positions with large salaries to come and work for them. Fast forward to now, I live in Manhattan, working for Citi Group developing integration systems for high frequency trading platforms. Fancy way of saying I know Python and C++. I’ve been here for almost 4 month, and I already made half of last year’s salary.
I hate it. I hate everything about this place. My experience here made me realize that I want to chase my true passion instead of money. I want to study Astrophysics.
I’m still technically an SJSU student (I think) but not enrolled.
How do I begin my transfer to UCB for Astrophysics?
Do I first quit SJSU ?
Do I just go back to community college ?
If so do my old classes apply?
Do I need to retake any classes?
It sounds line you just took one year at a CSU? If so, I suggest you go to a community college. However, you are very advanced, so verify that you don’t have a slew of upper division courses at the CSU because more than a handful could put you over the UC unit max. Don’t worry about the lower division courses. They won’t factor into unit count. With your exoerince, you should be a shoe-in at Cal, assuming you keep up the GPA.
I don’t think I took more than one or two upper devisions at SJSU that I passed. I did take a few more which resulted in F’s because I just couldn’t go to class anymore.
I want to retake the lower division classes related to my major. The reason why is because I’ve probably forgotten lots of things from clac, diffs, eng, physics. Do I ask my community college to allow me to retake them? Will I even be allowed to ? Will UCB acknowledge the fact I retook those classes?
I apologize to everyone over using profanity in my original post.
Yes, you can retake at the community college. As a matter of fact, there’s a little known rule that if five years pass (or something like that, I’m not sure), you can even retake certain courses you passed - meaning a C or better grade, if the situation is exactly like you said – new technology, forgetting language because too much time has passed. I’m not sure how it works, so ask someone at a UC. I would choose asking at the UC over a community college. They’ll probably have better knowledge of the rule.
Re retake of C- or lower grades, as long as they match you can retake at the community college. The UC will not factor in the earlier grades.
If you have upper division F’s from SJSU, then you may need to retake those at SJSU before officially leaving there. You can’t retake upper division courses In community college, and being accepted elsewhere will be difficult with those hanging out there. You’ll want to check with the registrar to find out if you’re still enrolled as a student. If you are, then I think yiu should consider staying there as one of your options. Also talk to UCB to find out what options you have with transferring. Talk to Admissions and also talk to your potential department. What you learn from UCB, will likely determine your next steps.
Got it! Alright so I have to:
Contact UCB Admissions and Astrophysics department ASAP to see what to do.
Ok so just to clarify, while I’ll still be retaking say my calculus classes, the grades from those won’t be factored into my GPA as I already passed them previously. Correct?
I don’t know what you mean. If you already passed calculus you need to find out if you can retake for credit because several years have passed. I have no idea what the amswer will be, BUT if they allow you to, then I assume they won’t count the earlier grade, but I’m just speculating. You need to get approval somewhere. If not approved, you can retake but the last gade won’t count and you wont get unit credit. Your first grades will be factored in instead. In essence, you’ll just be taking it for your own knowledge.
Also, check out academic renewal for bad grades. And keep in mind if these grades are from a very long time ago, the UCs din’t put a huge amount of weight on them. Talk to UC admissions.
Sorry for the double post, but I don’t see how I can edit my comment here.
It appears that Ohm888 is right. I can retake any class that I took over 36 months ago. When I look at UCB’s academic renewal class policy, it says they only consider classes that are credited by the CC into your GPA. Which means that if I were to retake a class, and receive credit for it when I apply UCB will ignore the old grade. They do however expect students to provide a reason for their academic renewals.
I’ll further confirm this once I hear back from them tomorrow. Also I’ll hopefully find out about the failed upper divs.