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Alright so I have been in the military for 4 years now and am on my way out. I am going to move to california(wife is from there) and study at city colege san francisco(ccsf). CCSF has agreements with others schools and coursework already laid out to transfer to 4 year universities. I am going to study general engineering and see which engineering field truly suits me. My ideas are civil(1) electrical(2) chemical-nuclear(3). After my two years i am going to try and transfer to Cal Berkeley or San Francisco State University. Both seem to have very good engineering programs. What do you guys think of this plan?

ucbalumnus

It is a perfectly good plan, and one that is not unusual. Be sure to do well to have the best chance of transfer admission. But also be aware that community colleges are under heavy budget cut pressure, so that getting into classes can be difficult. You can take courses at more than one community college before transfer. I assume you know about Welcome to ASSIST for transfer credit articulation.

Note that CSUs do give some admission preference to "local" students. If you do most of your credit units at community colleges in Santa Clara County, you may gain a small admission preference at the CSU campuses in San Jose, San Francisco, and East Bay, but attending CCSF would gain the preference only in San Francisco and East Bay (see Publications and Resources | Student Academic Support | CSU ). UCs do not give any "local" preference.

For transfer to Berkeley EECS, you may find that Diablo Valley and Laney community colleges in the east bay have the best coverage of freshmen and sophomore level computer science courses needed for the major.

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Yes i just recently learned about the assist program.That is what im basing most of my plan on. The fact that on the assist website their is a transfer program between ccsf and ucberkley outlining what courses need to be taken in order for transfer. The outline is courses offered in ccsf.

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So for eecs you believe those two cc's offer better course selection? But ccsf would b ok for the other 2 engineering options?

ucbalumnus

Berkeley EECS has a three course lower division CS sequence, 61A-61B-61C.

CCSF has part of 61B. Laney has 61A and 61B. Diablo Valley has 61B and 61C. All have math, physics, other sciences, English, humanities, and social studies. None have EE 40, EE 20N, or CS 70. Taking CS 61A-61B-61C before transfer will reduce the schedule pressure you have after transfer.

If you are mainly interested in CS at Berkeley, consider the CS major in the College of Letters and Science, as it is generally thought to be easier to get into, and has slightly fewer requirements.

For Civil Engineering at Berkeley, there are six Civil Engineering specific courses beyond math, physics, etc.. Diablo Valley has four of them, CCSF has two of them, and Laney has one of them. For the joint major in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering at Berkeley, CCSF, Laney, and Diablo Valley cover the same courses (all are missing exactly one, the electronics course).

For those majors at other UC and CSU schools, you need to go through Welcome to ASSIST to check to see which community college courses give you the best coverage. You can take courses at more than one community college before transfer.

For SFSU, it appears that CCSF has complete coverage of the Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering majors' lower division courses, and nearly complete coverage of the Computer Science major's lower division courses. It is not actually that surprising, since many community colleges model their courses on those of the nearest UC or CSU (CCSF is near SFSU; Laney and Diablo Valley are near Berkeley).

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ASSIST Report: SFCITY 11-12 UCB Articulation Agreement by Major

Thats the agreement plan for ccsf and berkley for eecs. Ill have to talk to transfer counselor to figure it out but with this plan I should be able to transfer over correct? It may be a little more difficult once i get there but i really wanna go to ccsf. I could see maybe take one or two classes at diablo valley during winter and summer.

ucbalumnus

Yes, you can transfer with that plan. But see if you can take the CS 61A-61B-61C sequence at Laney, Diablo Valley, or other school that offers it before transfer, since needing to take so many lower division prerequisites will severely cramp your schedule after transfer.

The Berkeley EECS undergraduate handbook is here:
Undergraduate Notes | EECS at UC Berkeley

Note the sample programs; on page 31, it has examples for junior transfers who have CS 61B but are missing CS 61A, CS 61C, CS 70, EE 40, and EE 20N. Note that the schedules are more cramped than for students who were able to take these courses earlier. It will be to your advantage to take as many of these as possible before transfer.

Laney is next to the Lake Merritt BART (commuter rail) station; Diablo Valley is 3-4 miles from the nearby BART stations (Concord and Pleasant Hill).

ucbalumnus

It does look like Chabot College and College of San Mateo have courses that cover EE 40 for Berkeley EECS, so you may want to consider taking that course there. The College of San Mateo course also fulfills the electronics course requirement for the Berkeley joint major in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering.

noleguy33

I went to Diablo Valley, though I looked into going to CCSF(mainly for the BAH). I'd make sure CCSF gives veterans registration priority, I found in Diablo Valley getting classes could be a nightmare. On the first day of class, 60 people showed up to a 28 person class all hoping to get in. Having registration priority was extremely nice at DVC.

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I definetly want eecs as my major. I applied to diablo as well. Gotta figure out a way around he placement tests being that i am out ofstate. I dont think i would be able to fly out just for a test. I will be moving there in july and believe that would be to late. If ccsf doesnt have veterans priority registration i may go with diablo. That seems like a pretty big deal to me

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The main problem i am seeing with more research done is that if I dont get accepted into berkley because of the competitive nature of the school im kind of out of luck. San francisco states degree requirments are slightly different then berkley and would require and extra semester to finish them all if i didnt get accepted into berkley. The problem with eecs is its 73 credits with only classes available at ccsf. That is gonna be tough to fit in to 2 year curriculum.

ucbalumnus

Transfer students to Berkeley EECS (or L&S CS) who are missing most or all of the CS and EE prerequisites are often recommended to take the summer session at Berkeley before their first fall semester at Berkeley, in order to start prerequisites like CS 61A and/or EE 40. Berkeley EECS is a crowded four semester schedule for transfer students; getting as many prerequisites as possible done before transfer is desirable, even if you have to take courses at more than one community college (e.g. San Mateo or Chabot for EE 40; Laney and Diablo Valley for CS 61A-61B-61C).