Name: Saagar Sharma (Pacific Islander born and raised in the United States)
Currently attending my sophomore year at San Francisco State with an intent of transferring out. This school didn’t seem like the right fit for me. My high school stats were poor and given my circumstances at the time, it seemed most convenient for me to go to a four year university. I am fully aware that it is harder to transfer from a four year university, however attending a community college is not an option.
I am currently a business finance major but I plan on transferring as an economics major (also thinking about rhetoric)
Current Stats: 3.88 GPA with a competitive schedule (DARN THOSE A-'s)
Extra Curricular Activities:
Community service abroad- Participated in a program where I did administrative work (mostly accounting/excel spreadsheets) for a medium sized hospital in India.
Intern at a top tier bank - (Won’t disclose out of discretion, but think Bank of America, J.P Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo etc.) I handle a lot of paperwork and transactions for private bank clients.
Help out in my parents corporation: We are multi-unit franchise owners and I help with operations on my spare time.
Participate in clubs at school but I don’t hold any positions: Indian Student Association and an economics/finance club.
My number one pick as of right now would be UC Berkeley as I would be able to keep my internship and go to school.
Appreciate all advice, thanks in advance
P.S. Let me know if I’m missing any crucial information, drafted this in about 10 minutes
While it is easier to get to a UC via a CCC, it’s not that dire to stay at SF State and apply this Nov from there.
Your biggest hurdle is making sure you have completed the appropriate pre-reqs for the major. Go to assist.org, choose any CCC, then choose each UC you are interested in and your major and try to match those required courses.
Try and do as much general ed as possible. And do not take more than about 1-2 upper division courses, so you don’t go over the unit caps.
If you feel you can’t do all this by next spring, hold off transferring.
@lindyk8 Thank you for your feedback! I have ultimately decided to transfer as a rhetoric major and on assist.org it ays that students usually take the required classes (Rhetoric 10 and Rhetoric 20) after they have successfully transferred so I think I will be ok in regards of major pre-reqs. I already have a date scheduled for the in-person evaluation with Berkeley’s undergraduate advising.
As far as Berkeley Econ is concerned: Coming from a CSU, your chances rely heavily on a fully completed breadth requirement and having all the major requirements completed. I don’t know of any successful CSU transfers to Cal Econ without both completed.
The major prerequisites are:
Intro to Economic Theory: both Micro & Macro
Calculus I & II
“Non-Intro” Statistics (basically has to have economic specific topics or include ANOVA)
Intermediate Economic Theory: either Macro or Micro
Your issue is that two of the major requirements, intermediate economic theory and economic statistical methods, are considered upper division coursework at SFSU. This is an issue because it puts you at risk of receiving the “high unit transfer” label that would greatly decrease your chances at transferring to Cal (along with some of the other UCs).
The equivalent stats course is Econ 311 (Although I met an OOS transfer that used an engineering lower division class so explore that avenue) along with the intermediate economic theory equivalent being Econ 301 for Micro and Econ 302 for Macro.
UCLA is the strictest with their “high-unit transfers” and generally has the same requirements as SD, SB, and Davis so I’d plan out options with them in mind first.
@SDGoldenBear Thank you for your feedback! I have ultimately decided to transfer as a rhetoric major and on assist.org it says that students usually take the required classes (Rhetoric 10 and Rhetoric 20) after they have successfully transferred so I think I will be ok in regards of major pre-reqs. I am looking at UCLA/Davis/SB as well.
I have had very good luck with similar appointments at CSUs and UCs. In my experience, the folks there really want to help and welcome the opportunity to guide potential applicants. It is a much more pleasant discussion than - “We rejected you because you missed these 2 classes”
