Transfer to Berkeley or come in as a freshman?!?

xfer123
Thu, 02 May 2013 05:21:50 +0000

I have a few opinions on this as I’m a transfer myself.

Grade and cost wise, I would recommend going to a cc to complete lower div requirements like the humanities and writing etc. just for the fact that it’s easier. However, depending on what you ultimately decide to major in, if your cc doesn’t teach the pre-reqs for that major well, you may have trouble later or retake them when you transfer. For example, I had a friend who transferred as an EECS major but the CS he learned at cc was garbage so he ended up taking the lower div 61 series at Berkeley anyways. I transferred as an MCB major but my cc taught the bio/chem/ochem courses well enough that I do fine. But even if you’re cc doens’t teach the subjects well, retaking only those courses at Berkeley is definitely not as bad as having to take all the breadth requirements and what not. I’m also sort of bias as I hate humanities classes. Also, as a side note, once you transfer your GPA becomes 0.00, so your cc GPA won’t boost your Berkeley GPA at all.

Another good thing about transferring is your exposure to college. Coming from a cc, you’ve already been exposed to education beyond the high school level (of course cc courses are not like Berkeley courses, but it is a step up from high school), so a jump from cc to Berkeley isn’t as big as high school to Berkeley academic wise. In short, I believe you will be more prepared.

On the other hand, you do miss out on that full blown college experience. You can still transfer into transfer dorms though and have a great experience probably (I never lived in the dorms so I couldn’t comment on it). That is another thing to consider that is not related to the academics at all but it will affect you. Will you be happy at a cc? With a bunch of your friends off living the college life, will it bother you at all that you passed up that opportunity? Will you have friends going to cc with you? I hope I’m not coming off rude in any way. These are just some things I think you should consider. I don’t think the choice between Berkeley and a cc should be based solely on academic reasons. It really depends on where your priorities are in your life at the moment. Like is a college experience worth more to you than a high GPA? It’s not like a high GPA isn’t attainable at Berkeley anyways. Maybe your priorities right now ARE based on academics for your future so you do want to make your choice based on academic reasons. Just some things to think about. I can only speak for myself, but knowing my degree will be made up of only half Berkeley classes isn’t the same as if it was made up of all Berkeley classes.