<p>I am in my third year at a community college, and am about to apply to schools for the Fall of 2011. I have already accrued fifty units and have two semesters left to take classes, but no school I'm applying to accepts more than sixty transferable units. If I take less than a full time load for the next two semesters will it hurt my chances of getting into top schools? Any units past sixty that I take will not be counted, and it would be awesome if I could take only two classes this semester so that I could study really hard for the SATs, work on my applications, and earn more money to put in my college savings fund. Thanks!</p>
<p>Which schools? A few might be a bit fussy about that, but many won’t care.</p>
<p>The schools that like to see “2 years fulltime” followed by immediate transfer might not like it – but you are already a 3rd year CC student, so that was blasted already. What I’ve gleened is that there are a few elite schools that like their transfer students very cookie-cutter in their first 2 years at CC before transfer, but even more don’t seem to care.</p>
<p>What matters most is your cumulative GPA and that you’ve had a few semesters of a full-time course load with good grades to show that you can handle fullltime at the new institution. Again, though, that fulltime <em>at some point</em> applies mostly to elite schools or elite schools that expect their transfer students to go fulltime. (For example from my backyard, Santa Clara University does not take any part-time students, thus it makes sense the college may look at part-time vs full-time experience.)</p>
<p>So how’s that for an answer? I think if you list your target schools and your GPA you’ll get a much more specific answer on the transfer climate at those schools.</p>
<p>No and no.
California UC and CSUs will accept between 70 and 75 transferable semester units max. 60 is just the minimum needed to be considered junior status in units. Any more than 70-75 transferable units is just not allocated towards a bachelors degree and only towards credited course completion and lower division prereq requirements.
The issue of whether you are part or full time does not affect your chances either which way. What matters is whether you will be ready to transfer within a year. Typically, the majority of students at CCC’s are part time and no college is going to punish you for that reason. If have all the classes you need already then going part time will matter little. I’d recommend FT since am sure there are more courses you could complete at the CC level instead of paying more for its equivalent at a CSU or UC, hence saving you money.
Once you have a AA your SATs will matter little UNLESS you are planning on going to private or out of state university. What Anna is saying is true for private and elite schools but is irrelevant to most public institutions.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! I have a 4.0 GPA after 17 classes and 50 units at my community college. I am applying to UC Berkeley, UCLA, U Penn, U Chicago, Georgetown, Cornell, and Brown. I live in California and all my IGETC and History major requirements have been completed since I finished my third semester. My first four semesters at my junior college I did 12-13 units a semester, which is full time. The only reason I didn’t do more is because I have to work a lot and wanted to make sure that I love my major a ton, which I know now I do! Do I need to complete at least 60 units to get a bachelors from UCB and UCLA, or if I transfer with 70 will I only need to complete 50 units at those two schools?</p>
<p>You mean an additional 60 units since you would need to complete something like 120-135 to earn a bachelors degree. If you planned correctly you could finish a BA with only needing to take an additional 50 of upper division units. If you go to UCLA or UCB, it is technically possibly but not realistically feasible unless you paid very close attention that specific institutions prereq’s prior to entry.
History is a fun major, especially if you hate math, since almost all other majors require some kind of math to prove their worth of existence even if not necessary. If I had the choice of becoming a math or history professor it would be a no brainer. Unless you are a math/engineer student the majority of students tend to loath math instructors but love their history professors!</p>