<p>I’m a Berkeley resident, I just Finnish up the IGETC, so now I’m in the process of deciding what schools to send my transfer applications to. But this is a nerve racking process, so I’m looking for some good advice, comments, or questions I should be asking myself.</p>
<p>I should put this in context. I started out poorly, but have made significant improvements. Out of highschool I was going to SFSU, but hated it. I withdrew and started going to my local CC (berkeley). I was taking the exact same classes for the same credit with the same professors (CSU and CC like to share adjunct faculty to cut costs). My recent grades have been good, 3.9 over the last three years, but I haven’t been taking a full course load. My year at SFSU and first year at CC are dismal though. Right now my GPA is 3.02, but I applied for academic renewal so hopefully it should jump up a good bit. It’s been two months (they are taking their sweet time), but hopefully it’ll be about 3.5ish when I am applying. </p>
<p>Growing up in Berkeley, I’ve always been in UCB’s shadow. I think I might have a chance of getting in since my parents work as staff, my cc is a feeder school and I participated in an articulation transfer outreach program thing. yet I’m skeptical if UCB is the right school for me. Having to California public highschool, SFSU and CC, about the quality of California’s public educational institutions. Not in the sense that the education would be worse than other offerings, but it’s overly institutionalized for my tastes. That being said I would save a lot as an instate resident.</p>
<p>Ironically, I’ve grown accustomed to large class sizes, and excel in this type of environment. So while I can do fine in small classes, it’s certainly something I wouldn’t want to being paying extra for. I may be looking for an oxymoron, a large school which isn’t overly institutional, but I think second tier privates would be the closest thing. But I never heard of half the colleges I’m looking at.</p>
<p>right now my potential list is:
Humboldt
UCB
UCSD
Pepperdine
CSU Pamona
Woodbury
Whittier</p>
<p>but this is very tentative. If you have any good advice, comments, questions (I’m still working it out in my head too), I’d be glad to hear your say. I’m especially interested in what people have to say about non-CA, second tier privates.</p>