Worried and confused on what to do?

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

<p>So I'm sort of in a sticky situation right now. I'm a highschool Jr living in texas:</p>

<p>3.8 UW GPA , 4.22 CSU/UC GPA</p>

<p>25 ACT (22E 31M 24R 24 S 8/12W. I know... I'm not the best test taker)</p>

<p>I would like to major in civil engineering.</p>

<p>I'm in 3 AP classes and 2 honors classes this year, and I'm going to take 5 APs next year including calc bc and physics c. I've won academic awards before, i have a few good ECs, and have over 100 CS hours. </p>

<p>Now here's the situation. The office where my dad works is opening up a new clinic in the Los Angeles area, but we won't be able to move out there for about 6-8 months. That means that I'll have to spend the second have of my sr year in a california school, so I wouldn't be able to get in state tuition until my soph year, but I wouldn't be able to recive a cal grant. I'm not going to stay here in texas since I have no other family here, and my original plan was to go to cal poly pomona or another csu my freshman year (not my dream, but it would suffice). Being an OOS applicant, I've heard that csu's don't give much financial aid, so my cost after the pell and a few scholarships would be around $30,000 for the first year... I have around $25000 saved up + taking out a loan- so I would BARLEY be able to get by. After that, it would be around $15,000 to $20,000 a year which I could most likely do. This would be my first option.</p>

<p>My second option would be to attend a ccc for my first two years, which would cost about $8,000 for the first year, and around $2,000 dollars for the second, which would save me close to $15,000 extra dollars that I could put towards my next two years. My dream has always been to go to UCLA , UCB, or UCSD. I know that there is no possible way that I would be able to go there right now with my test scores and financial situation. I feel like that I would have a pretty good chance to get in to one of those schools if I went to ccc (I feel like that I could pull off a 3.75+ gpa, considering that I have A's in most of my AP classes). </p>

<p>Though I'm still debating on what I should do though, and it kind of scares me to put off my original plan to go to a ccc (even though it could lead me to my dream college). </p>

<p>Any inputs or advice?</p>

<p>And could anybody tell me the best ccc's in the LA area that has a high transfer rate to UCLA and would be good for a engineering major? Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>If you do want to go to UCLA, (As a ccc transfer) Id recommend looking into Santa Monica College or El Camino college. I’m an attendee of El Camino, and their honors program is good to TAP into UCLA (or TAG into other UC’s). I heard nice things about Santa Monice College as well. If your father lives in LA, it might be beneficial to go to Santa Monica, as it will be closer to your home.</p>

3

<p>“I’ve heard that csu’s don’t give much financial aid”</p>

<p>Not exactly. I’ve been offered 10-11k just off pell grant / cal grant. Since CSU Long Beach costs me 6k, (9k for you) and I can commute, I basically ended up with free education.</p>

<p>It really depends on if you can and if you want to commute, as room/dorm + meal is whats going to really cost you.</p>

<p>If money is the real barrier, just go to a CC for 2-3 years.</p>

4

<p>^ Well one of the things is that I won’t be eligible for the cal grant since I won’t be a resident when I graduate (which is one of the requirements). So that’s most of the grant money off of the table.</p>

5

<p>Just to correct some previous advice you were given. Don’t feel like you have to go any particular CCC in the LA area if you choose that route. So many times I feel like I’ve read that people choose to go to SMC because it’s the “best” college to transfer to UCLA or to the UC’s. </p>

<p>The truth is any major CCC in LA should serve you just fine in transferring to any UC. SMC I feel is only so commonly mentioned, one, because they’re very close to UCLA and consequently send a lot of students there; however, their UCLA admit rate isn’t really significantly higher than any of the other major LA CCCs. And two, because they’re the only CCC in the LA area that I know of that spends thousands of dollars on aggressive marketing campaigns. Commercials, radio ads, bus flyers, etc. they market in a lot of places and it seems to work. As a result though the college seems to be overcapacity. I’ve heard and read here many SMC students complain about enrolling in classes and parking. Major problems at any CCC, but seemingly even more so when you have one of the largest student populations in the state.</p>

<p>LA has some great CCCs outside of just SMC and if you’re not living in the area I would encourage you to look at other options that might be closer to where you’d be living. LA county is huge and if you’re not in the area it would probably be terrible if you felt like you had to go out of your way to attend any one particular CCC, especially given how bad commuting is here. If UCLA is first choice joining the TAP program can be beneficial and thankfully it’s available at nearly any southern California CCC. I know you want to know what UC’s are best from transferring, but the truth is you can transfer from any of them. Just off the top of my head here are a few as examples Pasadena, Glendale, LA Pierce, El Camino, SMC, Long Beach, Cerritos, College of the Canyons, Citrus, Mt. Sac, etc. </p>

<p>If the UC’s are your first choice, it’ll serve you greatly to go the community college route, even when disregarding the financial differences. The CCC’s are designed to funnel students into the UC and CSU system and the UC’s are mandated to accept them, so CCC transfers legislatively have a leg up in the transfer process over anyone else. UC’s have to give priority consideration to CCC students in transfer admission, so it’s going to be much easier to transfer from a CCC to a UC then it would be if you went to a CSU and later decided you wanted to go to a UC. In addition, the process is relatively easy because of all the resources in place for CCC students to aid in transferring. Things like the TAG program, ASSIST.org, articulation agreements, etc. </p>

<p>That said if you’re serious about transferring to a UC, keeping your GPA up is imperative especially for the UC’s you named and the major you’d be applying to. For UCLA and UCB the average college GPA (unweighted because honors aren’t extra) for engineering is above a 3.8. For UCSD the engineering department is very competitive and you’d probably want to have above a 3.6 for a realistic chance of admission. So keep your grades up and you’ll be fine and be confident knowing that thousands of students transfer to UC system every year. Good luck!</p>

6

<p>what post #5 said. Great advice. </p>

<p>Only thing I’d add is look into the TAG program which gives guaranteed admission to UCs (not all campuses or majors, unfortunately). Here’s a starting point on TAG: <a href=“University of California Counselors”>University of California Counselors;

7

<p>Thanks everyone for the advice and info!</p>