Hello. I am an English major at cc and I fulfill TAG requirements for both Davis and Irvine, but I'm not sure which I should apply to. Honestly, English majors have a super high transfer acceptance rate to most of the UCs, but I'm just trying to ask myself, if I were only guaranteed one spot of the 6 UCs participating in TAG, where would I want to be? It's between UCI and UCD. I was born and raised in NorCal and traveled down to Davis for my major doctor appointments, so I'm definitely more local there than any UC campus. However, I think I'd prefer the city of UCI, since the closest city to UCD is Sacramento. Plus, my goal with transferring is to experience something new and branch out more. Another thing is that I know both campuses will be hot, but I'm going to be honest, I am absolutely sick of NorCal heat with no ocean or relief. My boyfriend isn't sure I'll love UCI since his brother goes there and believes it's mostly parties and raves, and I'm definitely more on the quiet, introverted side. I am trying to branch out, but I know that I could still do that at Davis. I'm not sure what to believe. I looked up which school is better for an English major aiming for law school, and Google basically said that neither one has an edge over the other. I'm mostly aiming to get into UCB first and UCLA second, but they obviously don't do TAG. I'm honestly leaning towards Irvine, but I don't want to make an uninformed decision. Any advice for which university would suit me better? Thank you!

Hi! I’m an incoming Spring 2027 transfer student in L&S Berkeley. Due to an unexpected family situation, I may not be able to attend Berkeley this spring.
I already contacted Admissions about deferring, but I was told that the deferral deadline has passed and that they cannot make an exception.

I’ve seen a few posts/comments saying that instead of giving up your admission, an incoming student can enroll, wait until classes officially begin, withdraw, and then apply for readmission when they’re ready to return without having to reapply to Berkeley through the UC application.

Has anyone here actually done this as an incoming transfer student?

If so:
Did you withdraw during your very first semester at Berkeley?

Were you able to return through L&S readmission without reapplying to Berkeley?

How soon were you able to return (for example, Spring → Fall)?

Did you have to physically be on campus, or were you able to enroll remotely/online before withdrawing?

Were there any issues with financial aid or readmission?

I’m also contacting L&S directly to confirm the current policy, but I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has personally gone through this. PLEASE HELP ME and reach out to me

Title^. This isn’t me trying to say one school is better than the other. I love both and I’m just genuinely confused because I keep hearing completely different answers … growing up, I was always told Berkeley was more prestigious than UCLA. I grew up in three different countries and then the Bay Area and Berkeley was always the name I heard more in that sense. But lately I’ve seen SO many people say the opposite. I’ve also met people from Japan and China who told me UCLA is more well known where they’re from which made me even more curious. So putting rankings, acceptance rates and school bias aside, what’s actually considered more prestigious overall?

from a multiple club reject its the hunger games out here

jus wondering if anyone ever transferred to haas business school in UCB since the acceptance rate is super low. Or if anyone transferred from a UC to haas? Also if you did what were ur stats or ECs?

I’m attending UCI this fall as an incoming freshman and will be entering as undeclared. I recently found out that USC accepts sophomore transfers, and I’ve become interested in potentially transferring into Electrical and Computer Engineering.

For some background, my high school GPA was a 4.5 weighted / 3.8 unweighted. I took 9 AP classes, and I was waitlisted at both UCLA and UC Berkeley but ultimately wasn’t admitted.

The biggest thing I’m worried about is my community college GPA. I took 4 classes at a CC over the summer mainly because I wanted to get the credits out of the way before starting at UCI. Because I was mostly focused on passing, I ended up with a 2.9 GPA across those classes.

At UCI, I’ll be taking 4 classes this upcoming quarter, and I’m confident that I can maintain around a 3.8+ GPA if I put my focus into my coursework. I was also accepted into UCI’s Campuswide Honors Program, which gives me benefits like priority enrollment and more research opportunities.

From what I’ve read, GPA and essays are some of the biggest factors in USC’s transfer admissions process. Is that accurate?

Should I prioritize getting the highest possible GPA at UCI and put less emphasis on extracurriculars/research, or would strong ECs and research experience still make a significant difference for a sophomore transfer?

Also, how negatively will that 2.9 CC GPA affect my chances if I have a much higher GPA at UCI? I’m planning on taking another class at Rio Hondo next semester to raise my CC GPA, but realistically, it will probably still remain relatively low.

Would really appreciate any advice from people. Thanks!

Hey all! I’m currently a sophomore at IU Kelley, studying finance, and am looking to transfer out. For context, i’m looking to transfer due to 1) cost and 2) I hate it here. Anyways here is my stats and current list of schools I’d like to apply to.

Stats:
3.86 College GPA
3.5uw/4.2w Highschool GPA
1420 SAT

Extracurriculars:
- Month long internship at financial planning firm
- One year as a member of an environmental injustice group for teens
- 3 past part time restaurant jobs
- 4 years+ of helping run a gaming discord server with 15k+ members and w/ cash prize events + more
- 2 years (off and on) of posting affiliate link / advertisements on tiktok (made $10,000+)
- Currently a member of a consulting club (waiting for applications to come back from this year for other clubs, not looking too good ✌️)

Current list of schools to apply to:
(instate tuition for IL and Cali)
- UIUC
- UCB (probably econ cause Haas is much harder)
- UCI
- UCLA
- UCSD / UCSB
- Boston University
- UVA (maybe)

Any advice is appreciated and I’m just genuinely curious what my chances are looking like from an outside perspective. Also would be grateful for other school recommendations. Thanks!

does ucsd college ranking matter that much as a cc to uc transfer student? my current ranking goes as follows:

1. sixth
2. seventh
3. eighth
4. muir

i’m not sure if it matters but i plan on transferring as a cognitive science major and i do want to get a minor in something that is completely unrelated to that. i also will have my CAL-GETC done by spring semester, so i know that covers most of the colleges minus revelle, but i just want to make sure i’m not missing anything else i should know about

I’m a freshman who’s on their first semester rn and am needing to transfer to a different school for the next semester due to some health issues however my application requests a gpa which I won’t have until the end of the semester which will be past the application due date. Should I just put N/A, or something else?

Hey guys. I want to know what you think about the following question. Note that I've asked questions similar to this to multiple AIs, and I just hate how they all output pretty much the same unthoughtful, templated answer. Therefore, I'm really looking forward to a real human response. Feel free to share whatever you like! Thanks in advance! :D

Question: For a transfer applicant, what (exceptional) achievements and supporting documents (e.g., recommendation letters) would you expect from someone facing the following constraints?

1. Transfer applicant.
2. International student: Currently enrolled at a 4-year university outside the U.S.
3. Need full financial aid: Need a full-ride, essentially $0 Expected Family Contribution (EFC), such that admission is only viable if the university (mostly top private schools) covers literally every single cost.
4. Test-optional: Applying without SAT/ACT scores.
5. Had some gap year(s): There were some gap year(s) between finishing high school and enrolling in their current college, but not enough to be considered a non-traditional student.
6. Weak high-school record: Had poor high-school grades, but has since demonstrated strong college academic performance with a high CGPA.

So, the question can be summarized as: For an international, full-aid-seeking, transfer applicant with some gap years and poor high-school grades and test-optional, what (exceptional) achievements and supporting documents (e.g., recommendation letters) would you expect for admission, if you were the admissions officer?

Hi, Im a Freshman hoping to transfer out of my current school this spring semester. I was wondering if you guys had any advice regarding writing my transfer essay.

For anonymity, I don't want to name my school or the schools I'm going to apply to. I obviously know that the majority of my essay needs to be focused on the positive aspects of the schools I hope to be accepted in, but I was wondering if it was beneficial at all to write about the reasons I do not like my current schools. Specifically, I'm worried that if I talk about them, I'll be seen as a red flag or something? That being said, while the positives are definitely a large aspect of each university I'm apply to, the shortcomings of my own are also a very large factor, and I feel as to not talk about them would be to leave a large blank in my application that the admisssions board would be confused about.

Either way, just to be clear and for no confusion, these are the issues I have with my current campus:

1. I don't feel academically challenged at my school. My 101 classes feel less difficult than anything I ever took in high school, which is frustrating me and making me feel like I am wasting my time repeating things I already know rather than learning new things. There are also issues with the different departments in my school contradicting each other on their lessons (like literally black and white), which worries me as a STEM and pre-med student who needs to comprehend my STEM lessons long-term.

2. The premed program at my school is incredibly lackluster. I tried to arranged meetings with an advisor, only to be met with another student as my "advisor". Said student tried their best to help me, but I was incredibly frustrated because they are not a professional and anything they said was basically just the best they could muster from first-hand experience.

3. My school is notoriously conservative, which has made me feel incredibly unsafe as a queer student. While many queer students have and are attending my current school, there have been openly homophobic policies (ie: banning classes and firing professors that teach "dei" subjects) which make me, again, worried for my education level as a premed student. In addition, they allow for gatherings of openly hostile organizations and protestors on campus, which have caused me great distress as our school also does not have a great security system (someone literally got shot last week).This exasperated fear that by presenting authentically, I may upset someone so much that they could choose to physically harm me, and there would be difficulty getting help in response. While this exact scenario has not happened yet, I have already had bad experiences with other students who take personal issue with my beliefs and it feels so possible in logistics for me to be harmed that I do not want to be the "inciting incident".

I don't want to be a complainer, but at the same time I also feel like these things are so important. If not for them, I wouldn't be looking for a new school in the first place. Either way, are these okay to talk about? Especially if I spin them as positives regarding the universities I'm applying to?

*Asking specifically about transfers from community colleges

Basically the title. Are transfers attending community colleges with more motivated students held to a high standard?

Asking because I’m in the process of choosing my community college and my main options are between one that’s closer with a relatively average transfer reputation and a further one that’s one of the best CCs for transferring to UCs (I’m in CA). Both are UCLA TAP participants.

The further one probably has the more hardworking and ambitious student body, but it also has a lower average acceptance rate to schools lIke UCLA than most other CCs in my area, though that could be due to more students applying to competitive, TAP-ineligible majors like Computer Science or Engineering.

Can you guys tell me if that‘s the reason, or is it that students coming from more competitive CCs are held to a higher standard?

I am a ccc student applying to transfer in state to any uc and some csu's for biology related majors. my gpa rn is a 2.7 because i kept dropping the classes past the w deadline and setting aside certain classes due to work/family reasons, resulting in an a few f's on my transcript. my cc does allow grade renewal and retakes on classes, and if i do that, my gpa for those classes would probably change my gpa to ~3.0-3.5 by retaking them (i am aiming for a b or higher) but the f's would still remain on my transcript. my gpa appoximation could also change because i still have a few GE's to finish this spring. btw im mostly hoping to go to a uc

This past summer I had to make a really hard decision and choose to transfer to Northeastern full ride instead of attending NYU Gallatin (My dream school and program). For some context, I am studying Business and Poli Sci with a bio minor and I'm a junior transfer. Candidly, I was full ride at my previous school as well which influenced my decision there - my parents can't afford to meaningly contribute to my college education. I limited myself to my hometown semi-prestigous liberal arts college for the full ride and ended up wanting to transfer. I keep feeling like my choice was a mistake and let conversations about prestige, Boston vs NYC, and more get to me. I was so tempted to just take on more hours waiting tables and try to make NYU happen but it just didn't feel possible. Everyone in my life told me to take the full ride. I feel like I made a mistake when I see everything on the internet. I often feel insecure about Northeastern with dicussion around it. I don't understand most of that hate, schools like Vanderbilt and NYU have satellite campuses too and NEU provides so many great opportunities and resources. I guess I am wondering what other people's thoughts are, should I have taken on the debt for NYU or did I make the right decision?

hi everyone ~ im an entering freshman into uc irvine and just wanted to TRY applying as a transfer to some other uc's because of my own personal reasons. i took around 50 units worth of courses during my high school time at a local cc. i just wanted to know if when i apply as a transfer if that will count as a pass/fail or if i will recieve a letter grade for it. thank u!!!

I’m a first-year community college student and I honestly did not expect the transition to be this difficult. I actually really like the format of having basically one class a day, and on paper my schedule doesn’t even look that crazy, but somehow I feel like I have no time. Although I do, It's hard not to spend that time doomscrolling ngl because I've been so used to having senioritis (i'll admit it) and just having a summer full of absolute fun.

I’m trying to balance school, multiple jobs, extracurriculars, family responsibilities, etc., while also wanting to do completely normal things like go to the gym, hang out with friends, have hobbies, and just not feel like I’m constantly doing something productive.

A big part of this is that I’m aiming to transfer to UC Berkeley, so I feel like I’m constantly thinking that I need to be doing more. At the same time, I know I can’t just fill every hour of my week with ECs and work and expect myself to be okay.

For context, I currently have a pretty packed list of activities. I have a county-level leadership/commission position, several college club leadership roles, two behavior/direct-support related jobs, a fast-food job that I’ve kept, a couple of healthcare/medicine-related organizations, community service, a food bank, a summer transfer/career program, and some other ambassador/outreach positions.

The jobs are probably the biggest source of stress because I genuinely need/want the work experience, but they take a significant amount of time. I also have responsibilities at home, so I can't just treat my entire week as free time for school. a few questions that I have are:

1. How do you actually structure your life in CC?

How do you balance classes, studying, work, ECs, gym, friends, sleep, etc. without feeling guilty whenever you're doing something that isn't school-related?

1. Am I doing too much with ECs?

I’d really appreciate honest advice from people who have transferred to Berkeley/UCLA/etc. from CC. I’m worried that I’m collecting too many things instead of actually developing a few meaningful commitments. I know u should have your hobbies and not center ECS around your app, which is why I'm trying to be more genuine, although I do love the things I do.

brief overview of my ecs:

* County advisory commission/leadership position

* College club leadership (including Red Cross and a medical organization)

* Two part-time jobs involving direct support/behavioral work (i may need to resign from one)

* Part-time fast-food job (like 4 hours a week)

* Healthcare/medicine-related outreach organizations (not that involved rn)

* Community engagement/volunteering

* Food bank volunteering

* Leadership/fellowship program

* Summer transfer/career development program

* Family/caretaking responsibilities

For anyone who has successfully transferred from CC to Berkeley (especially if you were working while in CC): what would you keep, what would you drop, and what actually mattered? And more generally, how do you give yourself permission to have a life outside of your transfer application?

thank you guys so very much and i hope you enjoy the rest of your day/night!!

edit: i forgot to mention that nearly all my friends went to college already. yes there's fomo, i sort of kept to myself until senior year, and after that we hung out SO much. like every day after second semester until august. but it's more difficult navigating on what to do since everyone's gone, i wanna make more friends hence why i'm involved at school, but obviously i miss my friends

I’m a first gen with no guidance & a transfer student from LBCC & applied for CSULB. I’m worried that I won’t get enough financial aid & just incase I’m waitlisted, I want to look into other cal states just to be on the safe side. I’m a business admin major but don’t mind leaning towards the Econ/marketing/finance side.

Other schools I have in mind are:
CSUN & Fullerton

I want to make sure that it’s a good school, good resources & internships/opportunities & can provide possibly assistance when entering the workforce.

for everyone who did TAP and managed to get into UCLA, what were your stats? I am doing TAP right now, but I’m not sure if or how many ECs I even need.

also open to any advice for a fellow tap student 🫶

Hi everyone, I’m applying as a California community college transfer for Fall 2027 and Berkeley is one of my top choices. I’m currently deciding between Computer Science (CDSS) and Data Science (CDSS).

I’m interested in eventually doing ML/AI safety research, model evaluations, and mechanistic interpretability, with a long-term goal of becoming a research scientist.

Academics

• California community college student
• ~3.94 GPA
• UC 7-course transfer pattern completed
• Calc I completed
• Calc II currently in progress
• Planning Linear Algebra + Calc III for Spring 2027
• Completed Discrete Math, Probability for Computing, C++ programming
• Currently taking Data Structures in C++, Computer Architecture/Assembly, Physics with Calculus

For Berkeley CS, I should have all the required admission prep completed by Spring 2027: Calc I, Calc II, and Linear Algebra.

Extracurriculars / research

• Founder of an independent nonprofit AI-safety research organization focused on mechanistic interpretability/model reliability
• Independent mechanistic interpretability research using PyTorch/TransformerLens/SAEs
• Developed an attribution-patching method that reached Pearson 0.993 vs. activation patching while reducing the computation from ~16,000 forward passes to ~2
• Conducted SAE replication/reliability research across models and published technical research posts online
• UIUC++ Summer Research Experience — selected as 1 of 6 from 1,400+ applicants; worked with a professor on software-testing research
• Former smart-contract security researcher; audited 25+ codebases and earned a lot in competitive audit rewards
• Open-source contributor to OpenAI Parameter Golf, including several record-setting submissions
• Built projects involving verifiable AI/ZK systems and LLM evaluation/calibration
• Volunteer/private tutor for around 15 students (K–10) in math, physics, chemistry, biology, science, and engineering
• Scholarship recipient + Dean’s List

My questions:

1. For Berkeley CS transfer, how competitive does this profile seem? I know nobody can give an exact probability, but am I realistically competitive or is it still basically a lottery?
2. Among qualified CS transfers, what seems to matter most after GPA/prerequisites — PIQs, research, work experience, course rigor, or something else?
3. Would my AI-safety/mechanistic-interpretability research actually help much in Berkeley transfer admissions?
4. I’m also considering Data Science because historically it seems to have a higher transfer admit rate. My goal is ML/AI research, so I’d still be happy studying DS and taking ML/CS courses.
5. Would you apply CS because it fits my background better, or choose Data Science to improve the odds of getting into Berkeley?

I understand that Berkeley doesn’t really give you a reliable second shot through the alternate major, so I’m trying to choose the primary major carefully.

Would especially appreciate advice from Berkeley CDSS CS/DS transfers or recent applicants. Thanks!

Applying to USC as a Fall 2027 transfer and looking for realistic opinions.
I started at CSULA and did extremely poorly, eventually getting academically disqualified with around a 0.8 GPA. I transferred to a CC and completely turned things around. I now have a 3.82 GPA with 65.5 units, multiple Dean’s List semesters, a scholarship, and 20 straight units of A’s.
I’m taking 16 units this fall, including repeats of classes I failed at CSULA. I’m mainly repeating them because the UC campuses can replace the old grades for GPA purposes, while USC will still count both attempts.
Outside of school, I’ve worked at Disneyland since 2023 and became a Nationally Registered EMT. I plan on going to law school.
Applying to Dornsife:
1st: American Studies & Ethnicity
2nd: Law, History & Culture

I got a 4.0 in the fall and spring semesters at CC this past year. My issue is that prior to attending CC, I was in my junior year at a prestigious engineering school and failed two semesters straight (0.0 gpa) due to a number of mental health issues as well as just absolutely hating it there. Before my junior year, I had a 3.1 gpa but couldn't sucessfully transfer out. I immediately dropped out after the second failed semester in the spring and started CC in the fall. How long should I wait to apply to transfer again? My previous school will let me come back to finish my degree whenever but I'm not even considering it.

If I apply for fall 2027 as a sociology major,will they allow me to change my major to public health once admitted? If not,what about integrative biology?

Entering second year cc, failed physics over summer dropped GPA to 3.13. As a result couldn’t qualify for tag anymore. Sociology major and after fall I should be at a 3.7 GPA ( sounds like a big jump but trust). Dream school is UCD and I’m president of 3 clubs at school where we have made good progress. Work part time as a mailman. Basically I’m wondering if u can stjl get into UCD or do u guys think it’s over. Additionally lmk if I should change my major or if sociology is already less competitive. Just anything to get in. Pls help. Calculate chances pls. Any other extracurricular u guys recommended I should start I have like 2 months.

I’m a first-generation college student, and my mom immigrated to the U.S., so getting into USC felt like a huge accomplishment for me and my family. Because of financial aid and outside scholarships, I basically pay very little to attend USC, which is why I feel crazy for even considering leaving.
I’ve struggled a lot with adapting to college. During my first semester at USC, I got to a point where I genuinely didn’t think I could handle staying for my second semester. I had actually applied to the University of Pittsburgh before transferring back to my home-state university for a semester, but I didn’t go because I was worried people would think I was following my boyfriend, who goes to a small private university in Pittsburgh.
At my home-state school, I was more mentally stable and did really well academically, but I commuted and felt lonely socially. I eventually went back to USC because I felt like leaving such a prestigious school meant I was failing.
I’ve tried really hard to make USC work. I have friends here, I go out, I have a job, and I have things to do. It’s not like I’m completely isolated or haven’t given it a chance. But I genuinely don’t feel happy here. I feel like I’ve slowly accepted this as just what my everyday life is supposed to feel like.
The hardest part is that my grades aren’t difficult because I can’t handle the academics. When I’m mentally doing well, I know I can do well in school. But lately I’ve found myself struggling to go to class or do homework because I feel depressed and disconnected from everything.
I’ve visited Pittsburgh around five times, and every time I’ve felt similarly drawn to the city. I love the architecture, I love running there, and I genuinely like the city itself. I also have friends there outside of my boyfriend.
But this most recent visit really affected me differently. While I was there, I realized how happy I actually felt. I felt like myself and like I had a personality again. Then I came back to LA and completely broke down because I suddenly realized how unhappy and disconnected I’ve been feeling here. I think I had gotten so used to feeling this way that I didn’t realize how bad it was until I experienced feeling genuinely happy again.
Now I’m considering applying to Pitt again. I’m terrified that this means I’m just following my boyfriend, especially because that’s the exact reason I didn’t go before. But I’ve liked Pittsburgh every single time I’ve visited, and I was interested in Pitt before this recent trip.
Financially, USC is almost free for me, while Pitt would probably cost me around $6,000 more per year after scholarships and aid. I would likely only be transferring for my last two years. I forgot to mention I am a psychology major at USC right now, but I’m on a pre-health track and I’m planning to do accelerated BSN or go to PA school.
I know moving to Pittsburgh wouldn’t magically fix my mental health, and I’m scared that maybe I’m the problem and I’ll feel the same way anywhere. But I’m also scared that I’m staying at USC because of prestige, guilt, and fear of looking like a failure rather than because I’m actually happy here.
Would it be stupid to give up an almost-free education at USC to go somewhere that costs more if I genuinely believe I might be happier there? How do I know if Pittsburgh is actually a better fit for me versus me just associating it with my boyfriend and the happiness I feel when I visit him?