<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>I am a current student at Santa Monica College with hopes on transferring to UC Berkeley in order to get a major in Astronomy. I plan on eventually getting my PHD in order to teach or do research. I have a GPA of a 3.64 at SMC so far with 14 credits. But here is the problem. I started college in Florida in a community college at the age of 15, and left with an Associates of Arts degree with a GPA of 2.63, this puts me at about a 3.0 with 83 credits. When I started school there, I was young and had little interest in taking college courses. I was a C student with the frequent W or F. My outlook on education has completely changed, and I began making straight A’s.</p>
<p>Here is my question. Should I even send the transcripts from Florida? Or should I go ahead and keep working on my GPA at SMC, taking the chance that I will have close to 100 credits when I transfer? I did achieve an Associates degree from Florida. So would that make me eligible to “start another degree” at SMC? I am 24 years old and do not want to waste my time, but will do whatever it takes to achieve my educational goals. Thank you for your time,</p>
<p>Bud</p>
<p>Whenever you transfer to any school, you have to send the transcripts to any college you have attended. If you don’t, they find your records here:</p>
<p>[National</a> Student Clearinghouse: Degree verification & enrollment verification](<a href=“http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/]National”>http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/)</p>
<p>so what do you think my chances are as a trasfer student with a 3.0 and 83 credits to any Astronomy school in CA?</p>
<p>it depends, is it 83 semester units or quarter units? Many UCs (dont know about CSU) have restrictions on how many units you can have to transfer in as a Junior.
And well you could TAG into a UC that offers Astronomy…or go to the nearest CSU by you, if they offer Astronomy. But with your GPA of 3.0, you won’t get in to Berkeley.</p>
<p>83 semester units. I’m trying to find other schools in CA that I can apply to.</p>
<p>Yeah if you apply and don’t send a school transcripts for every school you’ve attended in the past (and they find out about it), they can and will dismiss you from the school.</p>
<p>I don’t think astronomy is impacted, but I don’t know which CA schools have astronomy programs. There are UCs you can definitely get in to with a 3.0, though.</p>
<p>I do not think any of the CSUs offer a degree in Astronomy, nothing higher than a BS in Physics with a minor in Astronomy. UC Santa Cruz has very highly regarded degree programs in Astronomy including BS, MS and PhD degrees. UC Santa Cruz, despite its very highly rated Astronomy Department, is considered a third tier UC overall and might accept a 3.0 GPA transfer student. UC Riverside also has a good Department of Physics and Astronomy and is probably the easiest UC to get into with the exception of UC Merced who will take just about anybody but does not have a degree program in Astronomy.</p>
<p>^^ I think UCR is more of the village bicycle than Merced ;)</p>
<p>UCR has a nationally ranked program in Physics and Astronomy which is probably the strongest department at UCR. The problem for them is that the vast majority of prospective college applicants are going to say “who cares?”. The number of students who plan to major in Physics is small and the number that want to major in Astronomy is even smaller.</p>