Ws on transcript?!

Hi,

I really want to transfer to Cal from Berkeley City College. I want to major in economics but I’m going to apply as a pre-law major to up my chances of admission, then see about switching once I’m admitted. I’m in my second semester of my first year and I have a 3.5 with 14 credits completed, but this semester I’m taking a 5 credit calculus class that I know I won’t get higher than a B in (because I didn’t take trigonometry). It’s too late for me to drop the class without a W, but I know that if I drop it, I will likely get around a 3.9/4.0 this semester, which will raise my GPA up significantly higher than it would go if I kept my calc class and got a B in it (because it’s so many credits I would probably get about a 3.64, thus keeping my overall GPA at 3.5).

I am more than willing to make up for the lost 5 credits this semester by taking summer classes in order to better prepare myself for Calc and then re-taking it in the fall, but my question is how the UCs will view my application if I have 2 W’s on it (I have one from a non-transferable 1 unit course that I took last semester). Will they not care as long as I have a high GPA, or do W’s matter just as much? Please let me know!

2 Ws on your transcript (and you have a high GPA otherwise) will not negatively impact your application to the UCs.

PS: I would be careful about applying with a major easier to get into and then trying to transferring internally to the actual major you want. Most competitive majors are very difficult to transfer internally. Make sure that any major you are applying for is a major that you actually would be happy to graduate with. FYI: UC Berkeley, like most universities, does not have a “pre-law” major.

Thanks! I thought they had a legal studies major but maybe I’m wrong. Do you know if its possible to apply as an “undecided” transfer, and if so, what I should do to increase my chances of getting in if I’m still undeclared?

You need to declare a major as a transfer student so you cannot go in as Undeclared. You are required to take major pre-req courses which are specific for transfer admission. UCB does have a Legal Studies major but as stated above, trying to change majors after being accepted could be problematic. Research your options before applying since you may end up staying in that major.

Thank you! I have one more question I was wondering if you could answer. Since I’m dropping my calc class, I will only have 9 credits this semester, which’ll put me at 23 total for my first year. I plan on completing the rest of the pre-reqs for the legal studies major this summer (that’ll give me at least 30 creds by the beginning of fall), and then the remaining pre-reqs for the econ major by the end of spring prior to transferring (I’m applying to all UCs but Cal as an econ major).

Will my chances of admission into Econ be slimmer because I completed the econ pre-reqs after I applied, or do they not care as long as I complete them by the spring sem prior to transferring? In other words, does a good gpa matter more than how early i completed the prereqs?