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  1. #1
    RIDE ARMOR
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    School Question

    I was wondering if anyone could offer some advice on what my best course of action would be.
    Currently I'm at a community college in CA where ill have my 60 units at the end of the semester. I was hoping to transfer to a 4 year college in the fall but i was denied to the ones I applied at. I have a 3.0 overall GPA which I know is not that great. And I have to be enrolled full time to be covered under my parents health insurance.

    So the options I am thinking about are
    1. Go back to my current CC for another year and take easy classes to raise my GPA since i can't repeat the classes I got C's in. Then reapply for Fall 11
    2. Move to LA area and go to a community college down there for a year. I know Santa Monica has a high transfer rate to UCLA or USC.
    3. Or my third idea is to stay at my current and try and get a transfer agreement to a UC.
    4.? If someone has a better idea please let me know.

    If anyone has any suggestions or advice I would appreciate it.
    Thanks

    P.S. I did speak with a counselor today who was no help at all. She offered no suggestions and just repeated that I will have finished my 60 units at the end of this semester which I already knew.

  2. #2
    Banned.

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    i would say do another semester at your current college and try to apply for spring or summer next year at the universities you would like to go to, but then again who the fuck am i?

  3. #3
    Old Merits
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    What schools did you apply for? Where are you currently going to school? Is it feasible to move to LA?

    I think maybe you can stay for an extra semester or an extra school year and see from there... Applying to either spring/summer or fall. I have no idea, honestly.

  4. #4
    The Flying Scotsman
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    There's something you're not telling us. No public(read: receives federal money) can deny you entrance so long as you place above a certain threshold on your ACT or SAT test. Either you're applying to private colleges, or there's some other factor at work. A 17 on the ACT should get you in the door at ANY public school.

    Not to mention a 3.0 isn't a bad GPA.

  5. #5
    Sea Torques
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    For the UC campuses not Berkeley or UCLA, TAG criteria are not specific to community college but specific for each UC and possibly major within that UC, so you will have to look into that as an option.

  6. #6
    RIDE ARMOR
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    Well I currently attend fresno city and it would be possible to move to la if I had to. Test wise I never took the act but had an 1850 on my sats in high school. I was denied to ucla berkley and cal poly and probably usc too. The counselor I talked to today told me to not take any classes next semester even after I said I needed to be fulltime.

  7. #7
    Relic Horn
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    Quote Originally Posted by Melchiah View Post
    There's something you're not telling us. No public(read: receives federal money) can deny you entrance so long as you place above a certain threshold on your ACT or SAT test. Either you're applying to private colleges, or there's some other factor at work. A 17 on the ACT should get you in the door at ANY public school.

    Not to mention a 3.0 isn't a bad GPA.
    Damn, I wish it was that easy in texas.

  8. #8

    Apply to easier schools? At least in Washington, a 3.0 from CC gets you into basically any pubic school in the state. Did you neglect to take a few required classes? You can get a transfer degree but not have all the classes needed, I know at least here that University of Washington requires more math than the CC make you take.

    Also from my experience the counselors at community college are completely useless, if I had listened to mine it would have taken me another full quarter to transfer because she couldn't count how many credits I had.

  9. #9
    Kirb
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    Quote Originally Posted by Melchiah View Post
    There's something you're not telling us. No public(read: receives federal money) can deny you entrance so long as you place above a certain threshold on your ACT or SAT test. Either you're applying to private colleges, or there's some other factor at work. A 17 on the ACT should get you in the door at ANY public school.

    Not to mention a 3.0 isn't a bad GPA.

    The hell they can't. I had a 1550/1600 on the SAT and Berkeley still denied me due to my lackluster GPA.


    As to the OP: I would recommend any path that would result in a transfer to a UC. But which schools are you personally interested in?

  10. #10
    The Flying Scotsman
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kirb View Post
    The hell they can't. I had a 1550/1600 on the SAT and Berkeley still denied me due to my lackluster GPA.


    As to the OP: I would recommend any path that would result in a transfer to a UC. But which schools are you personally interested in?
    Must have been worse than lackluster. I was admitted to every college and university I applied to my senior year, and my graduating GPA was AWFUL. My ACT score wasn't awesome either, a 26. Maybe it's a regional thing.

  11. #11

    Quote Originally Posted by Melchiah View Post
    Must have been worse than lackluster. I was admitted to every college and university I applied to my senior year, and my graduating GPA was AWFUL. My ACT score wasn't awesome either, a 26. Maybe it's a regional thing.
    It really depends from year to year too, unfortunately

  12. #12
    Sea Torques
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    In California, first-year admission to the elite schools is selective. Part of it is a numbers game. Whereas at UT (Austin) there may be 30,000 applicants, and UW 20,000, UCLA had 57,660 applicants for fall 2010, USC, 35,753 for 2009-2010, and Berkeley, 50,312 for fall 2010, and about 30k for Stanford. 1800 composite SAT is below average for an admit to any of these last four.

  13. #13
    Kirb
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    Quote Originally Posted by Melchiah View Post
    Must have been worse than lackluster. I was admitted to every college and university I applied to my senior year, and my graduating GPA was AWFUL. My ACT score wasn't awesome either, a 26. Maybe it's a regional thing.
    California schools are notoriously competitive. ACTs are not used on the west or east coast schools, mostly the midwest and south, I'm not really sure how to judge the score.

    I was still surprised that I would be denied with a near-perfect SAT, but as CDF mentions, first year admission is especially harsh. It may simply have been a matter of myself competing with too many other high scores with grades to match, a definite possibility since the elite schools in California are highly sought after by international students as well.

    A score of 1850/2400 (I hate this new SAT score system) wouldn't be first-year competitive for places like Berkeley. But transfers are certainly attainable with good grades.

  14. #14
    Conejita's Jolly
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    I used to work for the LACCD and I'm well aware they have a bunch of shit advisers; try to talk to another one. Also, if you want to boost your gpa make sure the classes are transferable, otherwise you'll be wasting your time. Keep an eye because UC and Cal states have different transferable classes.

    Are you a minority, btw? Kinda funky because SC accepted my ass w/ a 3.2 gpa, but I did a ton of community work, had a bunch of letters of recommendation, wrote a "compelling" personal statement, the whole shit. Just got fucked over w/ the Norman Toppings scholarship and that was it.

    I should mention my college has a partnership w/ SC, and let's just say if you are a minority, poor, and decent grades you have a high possibility of becoming a Trojan.

  15. #15
    Relic Weapons
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    Being a minority isn't really a shoo-in at USC; it factors into admissions as much as it does any other private school. You also need better than decent grades for freshman admissions; there's more leeway for transfer students, but I'm pretty sure most universities work that way.

    If anything, your well-roundedness (and not your race or poverty level) would have done it. Admissions here loves students that put in extracurricular effort and community service.

    Relevant to OP: I'm pretty sure that any admissions group is going to look at a possible transfer transcript and value additional advanced work put into potential major work than they will the slight increase in GPA that you'd get by repeating courses or taking easy ones. If you are considering taking additional courses at either your current community college or another one, consider taking advanced coursework that's included in the articulation agreement the schools have with where you'd likely want to go.

    What's 60 units at your school roughly, about 15-20 classes?

  16. #16
    RIDE ARMOR
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    Im a white 20 year old that works. No financial aid. Community service wise it could b better. I did volunteer at a childrens hospital for a while but due to work and school i had to leave.
    Yeah 60ish units is around 15-20 classes. Its semester based not quarter.

  17. #17
    Salvage Bans
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    What's your major?

    If you have 3.0 GPA you should be quality for TAG agreement for most of the UC except for Berkeley & LA. They have it every year, you didn't sign one this year when you apply?

    I'd stay at your current college and take some easy transferable courses (psy/music/PE/anthro,etc...) for UC credits [you can check which one are transferable @ http://www.assist.org/web-assist/welcome.html] to raise up the GPA, and sign TAG for next Spring/Fall quarter.

    I know for sure that UCI and UCSD had switched their TAGs from paper/prep. to online now, so you have to go to their website to check when's the deadline and what are the requirements to qualify for TAG, then make sure to check the box that indicate you have TAGs with the school you applied to when you turn in your application.

  18. #18
    RIDE ARMOR
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    My major is Electrical Engineering. I was not even aware of the TAG program until a friend of mine said she was going to Riverside since she fulfilled the agreement. I guess my best option stands to be to stay at FCC for another year and take easy classes that still transfer.
    I plan to take some simple computer classes and probably some PE ones but does anyone else have any easy class ideas?

    Thanks again

  19. #19

    Quote Originally Posted by CJ08 View Post
    My major is Electrical Engineering. I was not even aware of the TAG program until a friend of mine said she was going to Riverside since she fulfilled the agreement. I guess my best option stands to be to stay at FCC for another year and take easy classes that still transfer.
    I plan to take some simple computer classes and probably some PE ones but does anyone else have any easy class ideas?

    Thanks again
    You may want to rethink that if your plan is EE.

    Maybe CA is different but in NY EE is a crammed major, i.e. you need 118/120 credit hours of EE/related courses to graduate, if that's the case all you're doing is delaying graduation another year for no benefit, since you're not even taking classes that count towards your major yet. I'd do my best to get into a 4yr state university, transfer again later if you want, but my bet is you're just wasting time doing another year at CC.

  20. #20
    Relic Shield
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    Quote Originally Posted by CJ08 View Post
    Well I currently attend fresno city and it would be possible to move to la if I had to. Test wise I never took the act but had an 1850 on my sats in high school. I was denied to ucla berkley and cal poly and probably usc too. The counselor I talked to today told me to not take any classes next semester even after I said I needed to be fulltime.
    If you enter by freshmen, then they probably can't denied by looking at your SAT.
    The only problem is that they identify that you may not able to keep up your performance over long period of time, because of your gpa

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