My current situation in terms of my gpa and academic record is that it’s pretty low and my record is not very good…I went through a very rough time when I started college that ultimately made me not pass many classes. I have already retaken most of them and have passed with Bs and As, but the damage to my gpa was big. I asked a counselor if with all this damage is there even a slim possibility for me to be able to transfer to UCSB and all she said was “realistically you should just go to a cal state.” So now I am left wondering if she is right? I am an English major with a gpa below a 3.0…
Anything below a 3.0 GPA, pretty much puts you out of the running for the majority of the UC’s. For 2017, the transfer UC GPA admit range for UCSB English was 3.22-3.75.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major
UCR and UCM are posdible with a GPA below 3.0. Your counselor is right and target some Cal states instead.
If by "not passing’ you mean a grade of C- or less and you repeated those exact courses then UC has good news for you.
And if this applies to you and your counselor has this wrong, work with a different counselor.
You should look into the guaranteed admission program to UCSB called TAG if you are not applying for this fall (the deadline for the current year has passed)
Also if there are some classes that you have not repeated you should either consider repeating them to raise your gpa or see if your college offers academic renewal (as discussed on the link above)