Future Out-of-State Transfer from Community College? Focus more on pre-reqs for major or gpa boost?

Transfer Students
1

Basically to summarize, I am a community college student studying engineering, from Virginia and I started since fall 2014 and now I am planning to apply to most 4 year universities by fall 2015( i talked to a transfer rep from Berkeley at my CC and told me that its a year long application and you register by I think November) or early spring 2016 (to other 4 year universities)before anticipated graduation at spring 2016.
My basic question is? Should I focus on most of pre-req or rather take a lot of credits while also getting my pre-req but the thing I wanted to get into the honors program which I still can but that just means I have to give up a class or two on the following(which I would take during spring before graduation) : Differential Equations(Math 291 at my CC) , and Organic Chemistry II(CHM 242 at my CC). I come from a CC that offers guaranteed admission to good engineering universities like UVA, Virginia Tech, etc. I do not plan to give a lot of background because that is not really my thing plus I want this to be related to mostly academics, but I have gone trough significant trials throughout my life and it has affected my performance. Now that I am here I would like to try to do my best til the end and don’t look back. I plan to either go to bio-engineering or chemical engineering. And I would really like to go to good out-of-state universities outside of Virginia, but UVA or Vtech can be if financial and academics needs are prioritized. Also, I am a first generation american, first generation to college, and have grown up with divorced parents in inner-cities until moving to VA years ago.

So far my transcript looks like :

Fall 2014:

-Precalc w/ trig (5 cr) A

-College lvl Chem I (4 cr) B

-English I (3 cr) B

-SDV(Advising, 1 cr) A

Spring 2015 :

-Calculus I (5cr) C

-Honors CHM II (4 cr) W

-Intro to Eng (2 cr) A

-Physical Education(Lolz ,required by Cc, 1 cr) A

*I am extremely ashamed and regretful about this semester, and realize this may even jeopardize my whole chance about getting into top engineering schools(especially out-of-state) since they don’t have the Guaranteed Admission (3.5 and above for engineering majors) like those in-state like UVA OR VTech.

*For Spring 2015, I decided to enroll into Honors Chm II class, which was fine at the beginning but rigorous, except that semester started severely hard for me financially, I never owned a car which I always had to borrow from my dad and my family is somewhat dysfunctional and that means I had to pay by my own pocket including loans to pay for my fall 2014 and spring 2015 and it limited my amount of credits and that is completely fine except that I have had a negative mindset most of my life. I did not bother to buying books since I had no money because I was worried about my dad having to pay for fixing the cars.My borrowed car broke down by december 2014 and had to rely on getting a ride by half of the semester and could not buy any book since trying to fix the broken down car for transportation was mostly important and therefore could not do much homework and could not mobilize easily. My family is lower-middle class and I am not mad because money is not easy to find. I decided to borrow a car from my uncle by middle of the semester but by then CHM II was too far way plus I did not even know about having the option to borrow a car from my uncle.

Summer 2015(As of Now, starting next week):(Plan to get all A’s )

-Calculus II (5cr)

-Regular CHM II (4 cr)

-Engineering Computer Programming ( 3 cr)

-Communications Public Speaking (elec, 3cr)

-Engineering Economics ( 2 cr)

–Calculus I? (If they let me retake, max credits at CC 18, if not I guess I will cross out electives mostly likely communications and try to retake even though my CC shows both classes on transcript but will only count latest retake on GPA)

Fall 2015( Future and probably one of most intense due to desire to show application to 4-year Unis)

-Physics I (5 cr)

-Multivariable Calculus (4 cr)

-Engineering Electric Circuits I ( 3 cr)

-Honors BIO 101 (saw Berkeley’s engineering lower division req, so there) (4 cr)

-Honors English Survey of World Lit / or Honors Engl Intro to Lit ( 3 cr)

-Honors Economics Macroeconomics (3 cr)

*I can substitute the last two honors courses for : Organic Chemistry I( I can take it during the spring too) and Linear Algebra (3 cr) (Also towards spring) . I just wanted to fulfill the honors program and graduate with honors( need social science,math or science , english, plus capstone honors that could take during spring) but if that puts at stake my chance at transfering to other 4 year Uni(specially those out-of-state then I would stick with science and math pre-req.) I know for sure I have to apply to UC Berkeley sometime during the fall if I want to get in the following fall 2016.

Given the scenario I gave for fall 2016, my Spring 2016 schedule would be :

-Physics II (5 cr)

-Organic Chemistry I (3 cr)

-Engineering Solid Mechanics(Physics and Statistics related) (3 cr)

-Linear Algebra (3 cr)

Differential Equations (3 cr)

-Engineering Electric Circuits w/Lab (4 cr)

-Honors Capstone and honors humanities class(6 cr, 3 for each in order to graduate with honors)
If I decide to focus on my pre-req and completely disregard then that means I could get to Spring 2016 with Organic Chem II and have less to overload( cuz fall is 22 cr, and spring is 24 cr)

Should I focus on most of pre-req or rather take a lot of credits while also getting my pre-req but the thing I wanted to get into the honors program which I still can but that just means I have to give up a class or two on the following(which I would take during spring before graduation) : Differential Equations(Math 291 at my CC) , and Organic Chemistry II(CHM 242 at my CC).

  • I mostly hesitated in the past to buy books but now I realize I really need to do all homework if not even more than asked in order to learn more efficiently. I am recently now taking more credits because I have managed to convinced other people to letting me borrow money in order to take those credits. Whether too late or not, I want to take a chance and try to transfer and earn a bachelors. By no shape or form I try to downgrade into thinking that a person like me has a high change of getting into top universities. But I want to see the end of a goal in which I plan to work very hard from now on including more studying and getting more EC's. Thank you, and any response is tolerated.Best of luck for all of you.
2

Holy cow, I didn’t read beyond second paragraph. Here’s what you need to do.

First off, of the OOS, the UCs give preference to 2-yr OOS vs 4-yr OOS, so that is good.

Go to assist.org and select any CA CC. It doesn’t make a difference which one you choose. Then choose berkeley and your major. You need to match the courses up as best you can with yours from your CC. The courses on the left are the UC courses you need to match.

Here is electrical engineering/berkeley as a sample:
http://web1.assist.org/web-assist/report.do?agreement=aa&reportPath=REPORT_2&reportScript=Rep2.pl&event=19&dir=1&sia=MATEO&ria=UCB&ia=MATEO&oia=UCB&aay=14-15&ay=14-15&dora=EECS

Your major pre-reqs are the number one thing to complete at every UC you want to apply to.
Your breadth (gen Ed courses) are not as important, but there is a link on the assis page to see what they are. There are 4 more in addition to the English. You must do the 2 english.

Do this for every UC you want to apply to. The pre-reqs might be different. You need to do these.

Engineering is VERY HARD to get into, especially at Cal. I wouldn’t worry about the C if you show an upward grade trend. But you need a high GPA.

3

Ucla is the only UC that gives detailed stats on admitted transfers. Use it to ascertain GPA, etc. for Berkeley. if one engineering major has a lower admitted GPA, you might want to consider that one as your major.

https://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof14_mjr.htm#SEAS

Also, go to “UC transfers” and start reading and posting in there. It’s a sub-forum of Transfers. There are a ton of engineering majors in there.

4

The other option is to withdraw now and come to a CC in California. As long as your courses are mostly lower division, you will have no worries about too many units and can finish at a CCC and stand a way better chance than at an OOS.

You can still do it from out of state, but engineering is so impacted. The engineering experts over on UC Transfers can advise you better.

5

I am going to be brutally honest here…

Your first two semesters were easy, and yet you still failed to ace them. Your grades do not suggest that you are capable of taking the loads you are planning on attempting this summer and next year. I would STRONGLY advise against taking more than Calc II and MAYBE one other class this summer. You are setting yourself up for a disaster. The same applies to next year.

Not only are you far from being a solid candidate to top engineering schools (and by that, I mean that you essentially have no shot), but you likely won’t even meet the requirements for the GAA to UVA or VT. Your current GPA is a 3.19 with a W. UVA requires a 3.4 min GPA under the GAA. You need to bring yourself down to reality and check what you are actually capable of doing. Start small, then take big steps.

Engineering schools put a huge emphasis on math and sciences. Thus far, with the exception of Trig, you have a B, a C, and a W. You can’t just pile on courses and think that it will finally click. If you can’t do it with 3 easy classes, then you definitely can’t do it with 6 harder ones.

6

Furthermore, as long as you continue to make excuses for yourself, you will never improve as a student. School requires hard work. There are plenty of people who have it way worse than you who still manage to get it done. At the end of the day, nobody gives a damn about your sob story. Show me what you can do, and show me that you’re a good investment. After that, you can tell me about the obstacles that you overcame along the way. Leave your “my dog ate my homework” BS at the door.

7

If you change your plan just a small bit, and give yourself a semester or two more at your CC before transferring, you can cut back your schedule and carry a smaller courseload. That will give you time to complete the honors program you are interested in, and you will have a better chance to pull your grades up.

It isn’t clear at all whether you have actually applied for financial aid at your CC. If you haven’t, then you need to do just that. If you file the FAFSA you will be able to borrow the student loans and you might even find out that you qualify for a Pell Grant.