<p>I’m going to be transferring to UCLA in the Fall as a Neuroscience major. </p>
<p>I know this is a myth floating around for community college students, but are community college transfers not as smart or not as able to succeed as students who have been at the school since freshmen year?
I’m doing the Transfer Summer Program right now and I am meeting a bunch of students who came to the school right after high school. A lot of students I am meeting were valedictorians at their high school! Either that or they were in the top 5% in their graduating class. Way to make me feel like I’m not worth being a student at this school…</p>
<p>I wouldn’t question your worthiness to be there. Honestly, who cares if they were valedictorians or not in high school. Just do your best in the class. You might end up being surprised that you got a higher grade than most of the people in the class.</p>
<p>The people I am meeting that were once high school valedictorians aren’t in my class or transfer summer program.
They are just random life sci major students I am meeting around campus.</p>
<p>Well, to be perfectly honest, most people head to CC because they DON’T get into the schools they are interested in which would somewhat reflect their application strength as a whole. Overall, people who were admitted as freshman will generally have more impressive qualifications. I don’t think that can really be disputed.</p>
<p>Additionally, there will be some transfers who are VERY deserving of the school they transfer to and there will be others that just sort of lucked out following an easy route and managed to get accepted. You’ll be able to tell the difference after the first quarter/semester since it’s up to the individual to prove that they do deserve to be there. Do freshman admits excel at their 4-yr? Of course, partially due to the fact that they also probably excelled in high school, but that doesn’t mean that transfers have any less of a chance at success provided they apply themselves.</p>
<p>Hopefully in CC, you’ve learned to cultivate the skills you need to be successful and have utilized available resources to enhance every aspect of your education. If you truly believe that you have done that, then you don’t need to worry about any other students, whether they were admitted as Freshman or not. An individualized background can be an asset as long as you believe it is.</p>
<p>You may be a little less for morale after spending a few years at a community college, but you will have cost yourself (and taxpayers) a LOT less money. Who’s the smart one then? </p>
<p>I don’t even buy the “but lower division courses are easier at a community college!” argument; Suppose they are, aren’t you smarter for taking the easier route and getting a higher GPA? </p>
<p>In a way, I’m glad I “missed out on the high school experience” by going through a homeschool program. I didn’t have to hear about valedictorians, or SATs, superscoring, weighted or unweighted GPAs, or any of that silly crap meant to boast teenagers’ egos.</p>
<p>Actually i’m going to buck the trend and just say this.</p>
<p>Transfer, I have met are much more motivated and harder working than other students. They had to work to get there and once there they seem to try much harder.</p>
<p>As a transfer, if you feel a sense of inadequacy and blame yourself for not being “smart” enough than you will fail. If you go in with a good attitude and try your best then you will do fine and probably much better than you imagine.</p>
<p>P.S best part about transferring is your GPA reset and if you do well in your junior year you have a massive advantage over other student. Since most internships i found like the fact that your a transfer, you come in much more mature and have a much smaller sense of entitlement that other students have.</p>
<p>Every Professor at UCSD has told me the same thing, and studies back this up. Transfers do better than students who go straight to UC’s out of high school. They tend to be more motivated and know what they want and don’t waste time. Most people who were at my CC didn’t get rejected from a university right out of high school. Many are older folks going back to school, or people who decided or had to work full-time or former military or like in my case just didn’t feel ready right out of high school…</p>
<p>On the other hand, at Cal orientation, one of the speakers from administration mentioned that the average transfer GPA at graduation was .1 or .2 (I forgot exactly) under the average freshman admit graduation GPA.</p>
<p>It depends on the student I believe. I knew students at my CC who were probably never going to get past an A.A. and I also knew students who could very well get Ph.D’s down the road. Some choose a CC for cost, personal reasons, family obligations, etc. Not everyone follows a traditional path of high school then on to a four year college or university anymore and that certainly doesn’t make those that have chosen that route any less smarter. </p>
<p>I’m 30 and transferring in to UCD this fall quarter. I’ll be surrounded by students much younger than me and it is intimidating. But I know who I am, where I came from, and the obstacles I had to face to get where I wanted to be now. And I also know that if I apply myself to the best of my abilities, not make up excuses, don’t procrastinate on my studies, and bust my ass, I’ll get the results I want.</p>
<p>Good luck at UCLA. Work hard and do your best. You are worth it. :)</p>
<p>we all can be valedictorians, just don’t choose to work as hard in secondary school. i actually thinks thats wrong to kids, makes em all air headed, then they fall @ UC.</p>
<p>The lower gpa makes no sense to me. We start out with a grossly inflated gpa (3.9-4.0 for the most part). There is no reason for transfer students to drop below the Berkeley average which I believe is close to 3.0.</p>
<p>^
Actually you start out at zero GPA when you transfer. Your Berkeley GPA will be calculated with the classes you take there. </p>
<p>However, a common argument that people bring up is that transfers skipped those weeder lower divisions and hence it is easier for them to get a high GPA. Transfers can make a counter argument that it is harder to get a high GPA for them because CC didn’t prepare them enough for the UD classes. Anyways, lets not get into a freshman vs. transfer debate.</p>
<p>Well it was literally on a powerpoint at CalSO lol. They kind of dragged it out too haha. Everyone was all disappointed when the speaker finally said the transfer GPA.</p>
<p>Ah, it makes sense if they’re talking about Berkeley GPA solely; disappointing, but it makes sense. Too bad that GPA from CCC counts in the long-run as well, so joke’s on them.</p>
<p>I took summer session A at UCLA and got an A+ in my major class. the only thing that challenged me was the pace of the class. the pace was really really fast compared to what I’ve had in cc.</p>
<p>^Tthat’s my main concern, the pace of the course, not so much the material. I’ve been on a semester system all my CC years and have never been on the qtr system. It’s going to take some adjusting to but once I get used to things and have a study plan in place, I’ll be good.</p>
<p>It is a double edged sword when applying to medical school. The AMCAS calculated GPA includes all grades earned whether they were at a community college or a four year college so applicants who did their lower division medical school pre-requisites at a community college tend to have higher AMCAS GPAs than students who started out as a freshman at a four year university.</p>
<p>However, medical schools know that these lower division courses in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Calculus are much easier to get an A in at a community college than at a four year college or university and take that into account when making admission decisions.</p>