Words of Advice from Successful Transfer Students?

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

So since we’re getting close to the time for the incoming Transfer students to move in I wanted to start a thread on what advice the successful transfers would like to give for CC. Would they recommend anything in particular? How did they manage to balance their schedule well and keep strong grades? What did they do to stay social during CC? Would they recommend certain activities and discourage others? How did they deal with bad teachers? Do they have any general advice for the whole process.

Answers a couple, answer none. Either way give some advice to people who’re still in CC and are just joining up. We’d appreciate it very much.

2

Spreadsheets

see #1 (lots of planning)

I talked a lot in class and also had social opportunities through my job

I push for anything that includes volunteering. I’d discourage drug use.

You do your best to get through the class. I was fortunate in that I had very few poor teachers. However, (except for certain circumstances) I believe it to be in extremely poor taste to blame teachers for grades. There is always something you can do (supplemental reading, office hours, tutoring, group study, youtube videos, literally anything to help you understand) to understand the course better.

GOOD LUCK

3

In order of importance:

  1. Go to class.
  2. Join a club.
  3. Most CC's offer some kind of course planning class or even 'Intro. to ' classes. Take one.
  4. Don't do drugs.

‘Being social’ isn’t important. If you want friends, make friends. It’s good to know people in the same field, so that’s one reason why I say join a club. But most of my friendships in CC were superficial and my closest friends are from high school.

I’ve never had a ‘bad teacher’. It’s more often a matter of perspective.

4

1: Rate my Professor

2: Rate my Professor

3: Rate my Professor

5

The suggestion that @Lindyk8 puts forth is good, but it’s worth noting that one should try to pick good professors who are more challenging than average so that one can be better prepared for the rigors of classes at whichever UC you transfer to. Don’t pick the easy professors all the time because you’ll be doing yourself a disservice. You’ll probably struggle so much more after transferring.

6

I’m humbly going to disagree with Cayton on this one. /:slight_smile:

7

Sorry - got pulled away and had to start over…

I’m going to humbly disagree with Cayton on this one. /:slight_smile:

I have spent a long time looking at schedule builder for Berkeley and it notes the grade spread for all the classes for the last three terms, noting all the various professors. I have gone so far as to look at some STEMs, too. Almost every class, it appears that at least 80% of students get at least a B. Very few Cs anywhere. It’s crazy up there. I was shocked at how high the grades are in general. Even though it was a million years ago since I went to Berkeley, I kept telling my daughter the hardest part about any of this UC process is simply getting in. Once you’re in, the classes (in general - not counting STEM, where you need an aptitude) are not as hard as one might think, from my perspective, anyway. And even the STEM majors that complain seem to complain because they got a B whereas they used to get easy As.

So for CCC, my daughter followed RMP, in general the top raters are also the good teachers, but she picked them, regardless. She went so far as to change an entire schedule to get a high-rated stats teacher as opposed to every single other teacher who were all hard graders. She got an A in stats, which is hard to do when you’re not mathematically inclined, and also she felt he explained it very well. Did she deserve an A? Probably not, but how do I know. Being tough or giving out tons of homework does not mean you’re the best. So many people get Cs in stats. Did they deserve it? Probably not. So I say pIck the teacher that will give you the best grade.

Now she’s in Berkeley. Her psychology class: no written paper, one mid-term and one final (both multiple choice only), 2 research projects they need to participate in. The prof said she never gives lower than a B (unless you just don’t show up) and her average grade (also verified on schedule builder) is A-. She said on the final everyone usually gets an A- or better. She’s also a very beloved professor. Another of my daughter’s classes, a supposed weeder, basically 85% get a B or better.

I fully understand the positives of pushing yourself, and people can and will argue with me on this one, but I’m not sure pushing yourself at a CCC is all that it’s cracked up to be. The bigger tools to learn in my mind: going to class (seriously, that’s half the battle); doing all your homework; and learning proper study techniques. Doing those things will prepare you for a UC, and you can plan to push yourself once there. Now, I am leaving out STEM because if you don’t understand math or physics and those things, that’s a whole other ball of wax (although I would still use RMP without question to find the best prof).

I cannot say enough good things about RMP for finding your perfect teacher. If I were doing it again, call me a heathen, I would go for high CCC GPA just to ensure I get in. Just my two cents. :slight_smile:

8

I’m going to disagree with Cayton as well. Choosing a professor because they are hard is a waste of energy.

9

Team Cayton

There is no point in avoiding tough teachers, since thats all you’ll have at the UC level. Why set yourself up for failure like that? Take tough classes, learn how to do well in tough classes, do well at the UC when you transfer.

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A problem with this discussion is that having a teacher that is an easier grader in no way means you aren’t learning as much or are not being challenged. It’s an equation with no validity. My very best professor at Berkeley who taught me the most ever, and whom I still recall fondly to this day, was my Shakespeare professor Hugh Richmond from Oxford, who was probably one of the easiest graders in existence. His premise was simple - to make people love Shakespeare. Why should he threaten ppl with a C or be notoriously difficult to reach that end? You can get more bees with honey. I sincerely doubt that my daughter, who generally liked most of her classes at her CCC, was essentially less challenged as those claiming grading must be hard, or that a teacher with an easy grading rating on RMP must by equal measure be considered lousy.

Anyhow, for me I consider RMP (and its equivalents) the number one tool to be used at a CCC and a UC, for that matter.

Are you guys honestly saying you never used it?

11

UC professors aren’t necessarily hard by any means.

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Forbes uses RMP as one of its rating tools when it evaluates student satisfaction.

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I almost always end up disagreeing with the opinions of teachers on RMP. I mostly use it to see what people said to look out for on tests or what the teacher likes to focus on that shows up on exams. Overall opinions I tend to take with a grain of salt.

14

Well, I guess I can only speak for myself here, but I remember hearing about how hard UCLA philosophy was and how community college didn’t prepare transfer students for the rigors of that program very much at all…I was afraid the same would happen to me.

I went out of my way to take classes with harder, but good and effective philosophy professors. I also went out of my way to get harder English composition courses and my writing improved tremendously because of these efforts. Now, I’m doing pretty well at UCLA…not sure I would be if I had taken easier classes.

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=88919

I took three philosophy classes with this guy. ^ He’s considered pretty tough by community college standards. I actually got a “C” on one of the papers I turned in from him. I thought it was good, and it kinda wasn’t. I improved a lot in those three classes.

UCLA philosophy classes are about the same level as difficulty or a little bit harder than his classes. Thank God I took his classes.

I’m just saying that ratemyprofessors is good, but one should use it to look out for the more difficult professors who are also effective instructors. Their classes are always worth it.

15

Ugh, now I’m reminded that I have a 12-16 page paper due around 2 weeks from now for a summer session class. And an 8 page paper for another.

Life is great.

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I will say @cayton, philosophy is a whole different level of complicated. I put it in the same league as quantum physics. :expressionless:

But I looked at that prof. He’s what I’m talking about. Very knowledgable, yet a bunch of ppl put him down as a fairly easy grader: one said he was super-easy, another that he never opened a book and got a B (I don’t recommend that). He has a B overall rating, which is on the good side and his grading seems doable.

People shouldn’t assume looking for the good graders means looking for the idiots. I said to use RMP. I listed it three times. And here’s a great example. :slight_smile:

–> BTW, such a disconnect that you’re still in summer session with Berkeley having already started.

17

@lindyk8
People vary in their assessments. Many on that page said he was a hard grader or unfair. Before I took him, I saw mostly reviews of that kind. Maybe more academically capable students rated him afterwards, or maybe he went a little easier; he has a 2.7 rating in easiness, which is a little intimidating. I took him in spring 2013 and spring 2014.

And yeah, it is interesting that Berkeley has already started. Like last year, UCLA will be starting classes fairly late, October 2nd.

18

The one thing with RMP and others, is you tend to rate more often when you either hate someone or love them, so it can be misleading from that POV. There’s rarely the middle ground. Same with Yelp and Amazon.

19

I agree with @Cayton - there is a very large gap between the rigor of CCC courses and that of UC courses. Taking more difficult courses will prepare you for transferring, but naturally, one must strike a balance.