A few days ago
scholardan

Does anyone have any special advice for getting into UCLA or UC Berkeley?

I am at a California Community College and am planning on transferring by the fall of 2008. I have to start applying in October 2007. I will not be able to complete 100% of the prerequisites for all the schools I am applying for. I fulfilled all the general transfer requirements, but there is going to be one or two higher level classes (Including Calculus II) that I will not be able to complete due to time constraints and class sequences. Do these higher level schools (UCLA and Berkeley) overlook one or two missed prerequisites if everything else is in tact (including a 4.0 GPA)? Also does anyone have any particular admissions advice that the University of California does not state on it’s ASSIST website?

Top 3 Answers
A few days ago
Anonymous

Favorite Answer

Depending on your major (how competitive it is), missing one or two classes won’t be that significant. Both Berkeley and UCLA provide detailed guidelines for transfer students to follow:

Berkeley: http://students.berkeley.edu/files/Admissions/Transfer_07.pdf

UCLA: http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr.htm

Keep in mind the new personal statement prompts will start for the Fall 2008 application cycle: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/apply/how_apply/personal_statement.html

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A few days ago
Secret Asian Man
It will difficult. You have to keep in mind that every semester hundreds if not thousands of community college students request for transfers to one the UCs, and UCLA and Berkeley being two of the most popular they get the most requests, and this is not including the high school students that are also applying.

Just to give you an idea, I had a friend that applied for transfer to UCSD from a community college with a 3.8 and all classes prerequisites completed and he did not get in. It can be quite difficult.

My advice considering your time constraint? I think the best thing you can do right now is to try to squeeze in a few extracurricular things before the applications are due just so you can put it on your application. Also, when you write your entrance essay, get someone who knows something about writing to help you out or evaluate it. Other than acing whatever courses you have left this current semester that’s really the only thing that you can do.

I’m not sure if you’re on any time constraint but if you’re not then give yourself another semester to finish up the courses that you are missing and try again. It’s really difficult to do a transfer to a UC and you really want to make sure that every scrap of information that you hand in is the best that you can hand in.

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A few days ago
justbuntit
You will need to take the prerequisites if you want to get in. Usually, they’re pretty stringent on those no matter what. Lots of bureaucratic red tape which you will see quite often. It’s probably a bit late, but I’d try to get some extracurricular stuff in there (volunteering, work, etc). Preferably something related to the field you want to major in.
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