How often does this event occur? Sifting through the numerous threads on College Confidential’s UC Transfers forum it seems that many people decide if they don’t get in one year they’ll just wait til the next year to apply again even if they got into some of the “less competitive” schools.
Is this a significantly common occurrence? Is this simply a factor because transfers are usually older that an extra year doesn’t mean as much to them? It gets me a bit confused. Anyone care to explain?
For some, it’s not merely just a matter of “waiting a year.” The people I know who declined some acceptances for “another shot” didn’t have all their prerequisites completed and therefore financially benefit from staying another year at a CC (and paying CC rates or free with a BOG waiver) rather than going to a UC and paying additional costs for the same estimated bachelors graduation date.
Theoretically the only ones that really benefit from “trying again next year” are those that had a terrible start at CC (to help an upward trend) and those who didn’t meet all their prerequisites (a major criteria for admission). I think it’s fools gold (with a huge opportunity cost) to defer your UC admission if your not in one of those two cases.
Even “borderline” applicants don’t really improve their chances as the UCs historically increase their selectivity after each application cycle.
I agree with @SDGoldenBear. Unless you need to finish some req., there’s not much advantage.
Example: 60 units @ 3.3 GPA
Even if you add 15 fall units @ A- , that only brings you up to 3.37.
I took some classes that were not UC transferable and a counselor told me right before my last semester. I was going to take a 20 unit semester. Adding another year allowed me to take less unit and get higher grades. It also let me go above the 60 units(I went to 68) and raise my gpa a good amount(I think I was around 3.4-3.5 and I rose to a 3.6). I was mad at myself for taking an extra year because I thought that I didn’t need a counselor to help me. In the end it helped me get to a better school.
Remember, during the application process, they will only calculate the last fall term in the GPA, not spring.
Also, when you applied in fall, by your calculations, you had 40 units completed, then added 15 units or so in fall. You increased your total units about 40%.
In this case, the applicant already has 60 units completed (2 years), because the scenario is he applied and did not get in. Adding 15 units to the completed 60 will not raise the GPA as high. He increased his total units only about 24%.
It’s certainly doable, but based on the question posed, not quite as positive an outcome.
I think it is worth it if you are unsure about your major, what your career goals are, and if the school will take you where you want to go.
I see too many people rushing to transfer just to “keep up with their peers”. They end up transferring, majoring in something not marketable, graduate, and wonder why they have such a hard time in the job market.
I don’t recommend transferring until you figured out what exactly what you want to do and what is your game plan to get there.
I’m thinking of taking an extra year. It’ll raise my GPA, i’m considering changing my major from Psychology to Sociology since it’s more what I want to do with my career in the long run and focus my studies on. I also had a terrible start at my CC (I blindly followed a bad education plan that a counselor had written for me and I didn’t realize for a year that I needed to write it myself and include a bunch of prereqs that I never took and should have earlier on, also took a really stupid “experimental” math class that the Peralta district made up that didn’t prepare me for enough Algebra and now I need to take Elementary Algebra and Intermediate Algebra).
I hear about others doing this all the time, it’s not unusual. Sometimes people want to major in something different and they didn’t realize till they were 2 semesters away from transferring. I’d rather wait another year, be better prepared in math, and switch to a major that I actually want to focus on instead of see what schools I get into with such a low GPA in a major that i’m not that thrilled about.
@boxandwhiskers Taking another year may be helpful in your situation.
You need to take Elementary Algebra, Intermediate Algebra, and then one more math (i.e. math 13 - intro to stats) to even be eligible to transfer ( http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/glossary/seven-course%20pattern.html ). Otherwise, you will be unable to satisfy IGETC (assuming you’re following IGETC, but you need to take that math course before you transfer no matter what).
Also, I know that Elementary and Intermediate Algebra are both not transferable. You will not get units from them, and they will not be counted towards your GPA. I think that this applies to the experimental math class as well.
@goldenclub Yeah, the class I took was called “Algebra for Statistics” it’s the districts new math class that’s supposed to combine elementary algebra and intermediate algebra into one in order to directly filter into Math 13, Intro to Stats, which satisfy the stats requirement.The most algebra that class taught us was basically factoring binomials and then skipped right into probability - not a whole lot of Algebra was covered and I had a TERRIBLE teacher. But then UC Berkeley announced that the Psych major required Calculus, which meant that I had to take Pre-Calculus, which I enrolled in this semester in order to take Calc 1 in Spring of 2016.
I know that Elementary and Intermediate Algebra, and that experimental math class, don’t have transferrable units, but UCLA for Sociology majors requires Math 80, Probability and Statistics, which is only at CCSF and those prerequisites are Elementary and Intermediate Algebra. EDIT: I realized that I think Math 80 at CCSF is basically equivalent to Math 13 which I already took, but I will have to check. I still feel like I should take Elementary Algebra and Intermediate Algebra for the future when I do have to take Calculus classes, but i’ll talk to a counselor about that somewhere.
The problem is that Pre-Calculus’s prereqs is Intermediate algebra, and that Math class I took that combined those Algebra classes to get into Math 13 technically qualified me to enroll into Pre-Calc, which I knew was a bad idea. Sure enough, I sat in on one day of Pre-Calc and saw what level of Algebra I needed to know to even pass the class and it was way beyond me and I dropped it. So i’m kicking myself that I didn’t just tell my counselor to screw herself and take elementary algebra and intermediate algebra in case I needed anything more than just Math 13, which low and behold, I do now.
I put way too much weight into following what my counselor told me to take. I was under the impression that the school had my best interest in heart, and that since they’re school counselors, that they would know what I need to do. I should have researched everything myself and made my own educational plan. My school has been 90% useless this entire time, and everything I’ve learned about what I need to do to transfer has been through internet research, talking to UC’s directly, getting help from this message board, and reading through everything myself. I was a total idiot when I first enrolled, so waiting another year to transfer might be in my best interest since I had such a bad start.
@boxandwhiskers You should be fine by just taking intermediate algebra, honestly. It’s just basic high-school algebra, pretty much. I’m sure you’ll be able to do pre-calc - you’ll just have to work hard at it. It probably isn’t worth taking Elementary and Intermediate.
It’s alright, taking another year will allow you to switch into the major you want. You’ll be fine.
And yes, our district’s counselors are usually hit or miss.