I'm an unlikeley transfer student

unpunk
Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:39:32 +0000

About three years ago, I had just barely graduated from high school. I didn’t have such a great home life, and when I first started going to community college, it was only because I wanted to spend more time with my boyfriend (bad idea). Needless to say, I didn’t do very well for those first two semesters. I had a 2.0 GPA for that year, and although I was taking mostly art classes and non-transferable electives, I know it’s still going to hurt me.

My homelife got worse sometime around there, and I left. I took two semesters off in search of myself, got a job, rented a house, and bought a car. When I went back to school, I started getting all A’s. Now my GPA is about a 3.4, I still have another couple of semesters at the city college to go before have all of my transfer requirements down. I am the youngest broadcaster with a regular time slot at the local radio station, I’ve been printed in the Sacramento Bee, and I am also an English tutor for both a local company, and the college.

I know that I’m a talented writer, and one day I want to do more than just work at a city newspaper or a local radio station. I’m working as hard as I can to elevate myself above the poor decisions I made a couple of years ago, and I want to eventually get into Berkeley as an English major. I’ve tried to convince myself that I would be happy going to UC Davis, Irvine or CSU Chico, because I know I could get into those, but I know that I would never be satisfied with myself there.

The first thing I’m wondering is–do you think that a summer session at Berkeley next year would up my chances of getting into Berkeley? There are two lower-division English courses which aren’t offered at the city college that I would really like to take. I also think that a summer session would make Berkeley more real for me, if that makes any sense. If I can pull off working full-time and getting A’s in Berkeley courses over the summer, even if I end up at Davis or Irvine, I’ll be more confident in myself as a serious student.

Is it likely that Berkeley will notice the shift in my grades from a C-average to all A’s? My councilor thinks I have a chance, but I do realize that I’m going up against hundreds of other transfer students. Transfer students who have better GPA’s than me, who are just as talented and ambitious. How many transfer students get into Berkeley with less than perfect beginnings? If I were able to wipe that first year away from my record, I’d probably have a really good chance, but, since that’s out of the question…

What else can I do?