Choosing a school for UC Berkeley transfer dreams.

Cokelly · 06-26-2012, 02:47 AM

Okay, so im a prespective math major who has always dreamt of going to uc Berkeley. Low and behold I cant pay for it, anyway what community college has the best transfer rate to uc Berkeley and highest chances of me getting classes? I was thinking ccsf, any other suggestions?

Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC

Cokelly · 06-28-2012, 02:14 PM

Oh come on! Someone COMMENT!

Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC

hesdjjim · 06-28-2012, 03:23 PM

Be patient. This is not the most traveled board on CollegeConfidential. Us CC transfers are out here, but we don't live here.

What I suggest is you just go to the closest community college to you. You want to minimize commute time, and maximize study time. If you decide to take a part-time or even a full-time job while going to a CC, you'll want to be sure to set aside enough time for that.

It's not necessarily the community college that counts, it's the professors you choose. I suggest familiarizing yourself with rate my professors dot com (change the dot to a . and take out the spaces). That way you'll get a good idea of which professors are going to be the most helpful, and which ones you want to avoid.

Cokelly · 06-28-2012, 03:38 PM

Im not quite sure what you mean by that, I saw like 185 views in three hours and never a comment so yeah I put something to get people to comment. Thing is, im going to be moving and I wanted to find a community college with comparably high transfer rates to Berkeley (I was thinking bcc or ccsf), the classes I need, & good connections with Berkeley so I could do ECs there... I.e. start clubs w// the friends I already know there, do everything I can to try to get into research because of my prior work in that area, and ultimately maximize my application. I am NOT looking for the uber generalized approach of apathy and trying to play well with others I had enough of that in highschool. And by the way I know for a fact that the community colleges next to me, right now, will NOT get me to where I want to go (Mira Costa college, and Palomar)

Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC

hesdjjim · 06-28-2012, 05:39 PM

If you aren't willing to "play well with others," I can't help you.

Cokelly · 06-28-2012, 05:44 PM

Thats NOT what I mean AT ALL, I am willing to do it. Im just simply not willing to go to a school that sacrifices academics to get students to make friends, like my highschool did. Again, not a typical situation! Welcome to the wonderful world of knowledge about high tech high! And no, not high technology high.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC

hesdjjim · 06-28-2012, 06:20 PM

Okay, I see. My experience with community college is that it is not at all like high school, at least in the way you mentioned (academics is second to making friends, etc). In fact, there were a number of complaints among students at my CC that the college was "severely lacking" in the social department. On the other hand, the professors I had were very adamant about making connections with employers and getting internships.

If you want to study math at a community college in the bay area, I would suggest CCSF. Just looking at the math professors on the rate my professors webpage, it looks like they have a proportionally greater number of good math professors at that college. BCC on the other hand had about a 50-50 ratio of good to bad professors in math.

If you end up staying in the Oceanside area, you should be alright going to either Mira Costa or Palomar. They seem to have a large number of good math professors. It may not be your first choice of location, but if you have to stay, these colleges should do the job just fine.

Cokelly · 06-29-2012, 01:14 PM

yeah, im just kind of anxious about going anywhere that mentions a transfer to uc Berkeley as a miraculous occurance. Mira Costa has only sent one student there in the past I dont know how many years and I dont know what the situation is with Palomar. To my knowledge, they dont participaye in tap for UCLA or uc Berkeley (where as bcc and ccsf do) which gives preference to your application. And as I said before I could probably participate in more exyension programs to uc Berkeley in the bay area etc. which would also help my application. Im not just goinh to save money, im also going for the preferance ucs give to community college transfers, and it seems to be more prevelant with cccs around the college.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC

Shannon13 · 07-02-2012, 12:53 AM

I think I already told you this but as someone who has attended both BCC and CCSF, I highly recommend CCSF. I've taken classes at 8 different community colleges and BCC was the worst and CCSF was the best. BCC has very few classes, basically only intro classes and nothing beyond that. Additionally, there are very few (usually just one) sections for each class that they actually do have so you don't have much flexibility about your schedule. CCSF has TONS of different classes and TONS of different sections for each class. I know you're a math major and all of your math prereqs are offered at CCSF (I think at least) with many different sections. I'm going to take Calc 1 at CCSF this fall and they have many different options of when you can take it- 2 days a week, 5 days a week, super early in the morning, or super late at night. That's not offered at BCC. BCC's campus also sucks, their student body is weak at best, and there are very little clubs and the clubs that do exist have a difficult time getting enough people involved and finding a space to hold the meetings. This problem doesn't exist at CCSF.

The downside to CCSF is that the weather is absolutely terrible. Weather in Berkeley is bad but Daly City (where CCSF is) is just miserable. Both are located very close to BART stations so you can live near one and commute to the other fairly easily.

Cokelly · 07-02-2012, 03:08 AM

Yeah, im leaning more towards CCSF, to be honest I need to get used to bad weather (Currently spoiled by So~Cal! &plan to move to Ireland!!) So if anything your downside is an upside. Haha

Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC

Shannon13 · 07-02-2012, 06:59 PM

lol you say that now...but I highly recommend scheduling classes for as few days as possible at CCSF because when it rains it's just miserable and it rains all the time. The campus is on a hill, and if you take BART you will first have to climb a small hill, and then climb 4 flights of stairs to get to the main part of campus because THAT'S how steep it is. Doing that in the rain with a backpack full of textbooks is like bootcamp.

hobbithill · 07-09-2012, 01:34 PM

Why don't you try DVC?

hesdjjim · 07-09-2012, 03:41 PM

Yeah, I would second DVC. It is just on the other side of the hill from UC Berkeley. I don't know if it has a TAG with UC Berkeley (in fact, I was told that UC Berkeley does not even have a TAG program, so I'm a little surprised there). Chances are good that it has a TAG with UC Davis, however.

Also, CCSF has just come under fire for administrative mismanagement, and there are de facto threats to close the school down, believe it or not. (City College vows to resist closure, takeover - SFGate) You may want to think twice about that one.

Another thing. Anyone who tells you that it would take a "small miracle" to transfer into Cal, probably couldn't get into Cal themselves. Considering that Cal can only accept so many people, the vast majority of people you meet would not be able to get into Cal. So, get used to hearing the "small miracle" lecture, but stay open to attending other UCs such as UC Davis or UC San Diego (which are still highly regarded UCs).

Shannon13 · 07-10-2012, 05:47 AM

All community colleges have TAG with Davis. None have TAG with UC Berkeley.

Some have TAP with UC Berkeley, however, this is limited to low income/minority students.

lawlking · 07-10-2012, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Some have TAP with UC Berkeley, however, this is limited to low income/minority students.

That is incorrect. TAP is available for HONOR students--meaning they are enrolled in a honor's program. TAP does not discriminate based on gender, sexuality, and etc.