I’m currently a first year student attending UC Santa Cruz. I’m afraid to admit that I haven’t been having the best of times here, and that’s been reflected on me academically and personally. I fell in love with the beautiful campus and carefree nature but my personalities and the environment have gotten the best of me. The heavily influenced pro-drug nature is a huge turn off and I’m not really clicking with my roommates as well.
Currently, I’m an undeclared biological sciences major and have just been taking lower division courses being my Chemistry series, Math and writing classes. I’ve been passing my classes, but it’s not that good, as I’ve been getting a lot of C’s lately. I currently have a cumulative GPA of 2.54 - terrible but barely getting by. I really want to focus on getting my grades up but also have been thinking of some options lately.
I want to start new and drop out after spring quarter and take community college classes in my hometown, and from there transfer to another UC, preferably Davis. I know Davis is a bit more academically intensive so I wasn’t too sure if I would be able to make the jump GPA wise and unit wise.
Another option would be to tough it out at UC Santa Cruz, try to bump my GPA up and attempt a junior-level UC to UC transfer. If not, then I’ll be spending the rest of my undergrad as a Banana Slug.
I’m worried that I wouldn’t be eligible for TAG if I do drop out, and would then fall behind due to CC registrations and what not. It’s been on my mind since the beginning of the school year and it’s not getting much better.
Sorry for sounding like a huge nagger and seem like I whine a lot, but overall I’m just really stressed and confused on what to do.
In order to fulfill TAG you need 60 semester units at a CC, roughly 2 years of college, and in order to file you need 30 at a CC. See http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/tag-matrix.pdf So first off, for TAG you’ll need to spend 2 years at a CC. Even if you are willing to do that, another problem. You have been taking units at a UC campus, so those are added to any you earn at a CC in determining how many units you enter Davis with. And Davis considers high-unit juniors those with 80 semester units or more. The year at UCSC plus the 60 for TAG likely puts you into this range. So for TAG you need to contact Davis and see what they say about your eligibility (although they’ll probably not offer an ironclad answer).
Perhaps you could stay under the limit if you withdraw from UCSB before the semester is over, although that is somewhat drastic and you’d need to check the rules carefully before you do that.
I also strongly suggest meeting with a counselor in Counseling and Psychological Services at UCSC to talk your personal situation over. On the internet nobody has a crystal ball to say if the problems are primarily the UCSC environment and roomates, or perhaps they’re some difficulties that originate with you and that will follow you even if you leave. You have nothing to lose by talking with a trained counselor to get an independent opinion.
I have talked to a counselor about the situation, and they have given me great advice. I just wanted to lay out some other options, as I’ve realized I wanted to be closer to home and in a different environment altogether. I also mentioned things about transferring and they were quick to shut me down about it.
I don’t know about withdrawing during this semester… as you said, that is drastic and I wouldn’t want that.
To fulfill TAG, since it asks for 60 semester transferable units at a CC, wouldn’t that mean I have some transferable units and then add that up to whatever CC I take?
Say I have 45 units by the end of this first year (if I pass this quarters classes). That’s approximately 30 semester units, and then I can take an upcoming summer class + a full year of semester units to reach that minimum of 60, no? Am I thinking it the wrong way?
Also thanks for your advice Mikemac.
I’m not a counselor, you should talk to one at a CC (or, better, someone from Davis), I don’t want to steer you wrong. Davis seems to have stricter requirements than other UCs about residency, saying
That was for kids applying for this Fall last year. Since you’re not at a CC right now, my understanding is that you are not eligible to file for TAG at Davis since it seems like you’d need to be enrolled at a CC from Spring 2015 thru Sprint 2016. But check with a xfer counselor to be sure.
Understood. I’ll definitely try to get in touch with them. I tried e-mailing before but they waited weeks to reply back to me. Thanks a lot for your help Mikemac.