curiousgeorgiana

I don't know why so many people look down on Community Colleges, they're such an excellent way of getting into the college you truly want to go to =)

bananaslug

I dont look down on JC's I just feel that when you go to one, you kind of forget what your striving for. Meaning he would have to motivate himself to work hard, usually without a support system. In a 4yr the support is all around because everyone else around is striving for what they want. I think he should try it out. Going by stereotypes to choose a school is not a good idea; im sure there are a lot of preppy people in Santa Cruz.

curiousgeorgiana

Yeah, it really doesn't have preppy people though =(
The people at UCSC won't hate you cause you're preppy but you'll be in the minority.

bananaslug

Are you from Santa Cruz? JW, because when I visited, I saw a lot of different people; everyone hanging out with everyone pretty much. But if you know for a fact, then I'll stop talking haha

Ricky

Right now im thinking about appealing to UCD. i left out MAJOR information about my life. What if i send in my SIR to UC Santa Cruz and then my appeal for UCD gets accepted?

Cali Trumpet

Ricky - why send a Sir right now? Just get your appeal sent out fast and you should hear word in a few weeks, before the may 1st SIR deadline.

jennifer376

Ricky, don't bother appealing to UCD. I just called them today and they won't be granting many, if not none. They were being very superficial about it

curiousgeorgiana

UC's tend to say they won't consider appeals, but they always ending up doing so.
You have a decent chance of being accepted if you appeal.

My suggestion is APPEAL! =)

momuv2

Ricky --

You should not worry about UCSC and the sciences. I graduated from UCSC with majors in chem and bio and went to grad school at Stanford, got PhD, and went on from there. There is a niche for everyone at UCSC, and instruction in the sciences is very good. My recommendation, though, is to take advantage of what UCSC, specifically, has to offer (student research) that may not be so readily available at larger schools. I lived at Crown, which was very nice, and with minimal drug scene. As at any school, social and academic options abound, and each student just needs to find his/her place and passion and GO!!

momuv2

PS -- I forgot to add: When I was taking classes at UCSC, I had several friends from HS taking those same classes at Stanford (calculus, organic chem, physics) and they were using the same books I was using in my classes, which I found interesting. My classes, though, had 20-40 students and their's had 100-200. I thought I was getting a pretty good deal. I think that an undergrad science/pre-med curriculum is pretty much the same wherever you go (you gotta learn the same stuff -same reactions, equations, pathways, etc). I can't speak for the humanities and social sciences, though. I expect that's where the differences lie (lay?) - you can tell now I didn't major in English!

curiousgeorgiana

CC is the way to go. The local CC in my town uses the same books as they do at Stanford...

Go to a community college for 2 years, and then go to a school you really want to go to. Done deal.

Cali Trumpet

Curiousgeorge,

For this entire thread, you are selling the "go to community college" idea. It doesn't look like you have much to do with Santa Cruz because as you admitted, alot of what you are saying is "from what you have heard." It seems that you have alot of friends who just didn't want to like the school and tell you about how bad it is. Alot of people on this board have negative things to say about UCSC and it seems people who have been there and gone through the process have a whole different perspective. This person is not looking for uninformed information. He wants to know if UCSC is like what people on this board say it is. It is not.

Do you know anyone going to CC? I sure do, and they cannot stand it! The only reason why one of my friends is going to CC is so he can be close to his family for financial reasons and because his mother has cancer. Keep in mind the people going to CC mostly do not want to be there. I would SERIOUSLY DOUBT that CC classes are comparable to Stanford level classes like you are implying.

I took a math course at my local CC and it was ridiculous how easy it was. The teacher told us the problems he would ask for the test next week (5 problems) and we could even use notes to just write down the problems and how to solve them on our note sheet. The class wasn't that bad as I just read in the back. The teacher was a good guy and always answered everyones' questions and responded quickly to emails. The worse element of that class were the students. 90% were unmotivated - sleeping, doing something else, not completing homework, failing miserably on, as I said, ridiculously easy tests. This is not the case at UCSC, and if they do fail, they will not be there for long.

CC is a very very mixed environment. There is no college experience and to get into UCLA and CAL, there really is no easy method because you are not guaranteed admittance with x gpa. With the other UC's its easier because of the TAP program where you get a 3.2 and you are in good shape. But personally, UCSB UCD and UCI are not much better than Santa Cruz. The rankings are relatively close and they all have their plusses and minuses. The fact that UC's give priority to CC transfers is true in some sense. But the number differences between average gpa of UC transfer and average gpa of CCC transfer are too small to really make an argument that Community college will put you in a better shape in transferring to UCLA/CAL.

Momuv2 - Thanks for the story. It is cool that you were so successful at UCSC, definitely giving some points back to UCSC from those that just call it a UC party school and nothing else.

curiousgeorgiana

Wow, Cali Strumpet you need to relax,
I do have experience with CCs, in fact I live 5 minutes away from one and have 20ish friends that go there for a variety of reasons...from financial to "because I got into UCSD and not UCLA...and I don't want to give up on my dream of UCLA."
I've taken classes at the local CC, and they are quite difficult. I live in an area which stresses academic excellence, ...leading me to suggest that If you DO decide to attend a CC, don't choose ANY CC. If not an inconvinience, choose one that's top in the nation (like the one close to where I live).
Or, if you live in California, and would really like to go to UCLA, the best CC you can ever choose is Santa Monica CC - it is a UCLA feeder school essentially.
Any community college is cheaper than a UC, and you can get an excellent education there...with the opportunity of finally attending that dream school.

CCs are one of the best things created, in my opinion.

ALso, there ARE certain gurantees/contracts you can make between community colleges and universities. For example, 3.7/8 GPA - guaranteed admission to USC/UCLA/UCSD

Cali Trumpet

The community colleges around your area must be quite difficult. As I have taken classes from two community colleges, one of which is also a feeder transfer college for the UC's. The classes are much easier then regular HS classes. They are around 1/4th as hard as your standard AP class. Maybe you have a different standard for 'hard' than I do.

Direct from UCLA Transfer Admission website:UCLA Undergrad Admissions: Profile of Admitted Transfer Students, Fall 2007

Transferring from CCC > 43.24% admit rate 3.58 average Admitted GPA
Transferring from UC > 36.15% admit rate 3.52 Average Admitted GPA

To me this says two things.
1) Transferring to UCLA from a UC is not hard
2) Transferring to UCLA from a CC is not hard

Sure TAP helps you, but by looking at these statistics, it seems that transferring from a CC or a UC are weighted about the same.

Whereever you end up going, it will probably be easier than high school (or at least that is the case with my public high school). Arguably, you will have a better experience at a UC then at a CC.

Hey, I could be way off, and could be missing some key information. I definitely am not putting down CC's as they serve their purpose quite well. But if you are graduating high school in the top 10% of your class, it seems silly to do all that work and end up at CC with the 50 percentile students of your class.

GlueEater

Cali Trumpet, thank you soo much for that link. I've been trying to find info like that everywhere. And all the so called 'experts' I ask, expert either by experience or by training, tell me 'it's impossible, go to a CCC'. Not even bothering to answer my question. Again thank you.

Does such a thing exist of Berkeley, specificaly Haas?