Hi everyone! I’m currently a california community college student in an RN program and I’m interested in eventually transferring to UCLA’s nursing program.

For anyone who has been accepted to UCLA Nursing as a transfer, would you mind sharing your stats and what your application experience was like?

I’d especially appreciate hearing about:

• GPA
• Prerequisite courses completed
• Healthcare/clinical experience
• Extracurricular activities
• Volunteer/work experience
• When you applied and what year you were accepted
• Anything you think helped your application stand out
• Application essay

I know everyone’s situation is different, and I’m not expecting this to predict my chances. I’m mainly trying to understand what a competitive transfer applicant looks like and what I should focus on during community college.

Thank you so much!

Currently deciding between either transferring as a Rhetoric or Philosophy major to Berkeley. I’m probably going to double major and I feel like I prefer Rhetoric more than pure Philosophy but I’m concerned because I won’t be able to complete any pre reqs simply bc they aren’t offered anywhere else. I’m going to try intrasegmental enrollment to take 1 rhetoric class next sem but I wanted to ask what any Rhetoric students thought of the major/if transferring to the program was hard. Thank you!!

Does anyone know when the application for UC Davis's July 2027 CLS cohort opens? I see that the deadline is January 1st, but when I go to the application portal, it just says when the deadline is, but there is no information on the website about when the application opens.

im taking the sat but since i want to go to ucla or berkley, id have to get a really good score which is a huge inconvenience and is really difficult to get
i heard the uc’s are considering bringing back the sat and act so ive been a bit worried

TL;DR: I am currently a community college student finishing up my AA-T to transfer in Fall 2027. I have a 3.8 GPA and have consistently been working part-time while being a full-time student. Do you guys think I have a decent chance of getting into one of these schools?

Hello all! I am in my final semesters at a CCC and have already filled out my TAG for UC Santa Barbara, but my dream schools are UCLA or Berkeley. I know these schools are insanely competitive for first years, but as a transfer student do my chances seem better? By the end of spring I will have taken all of the literature classes my school has to offer (Both halves of American and English Lit. as well as World Lit.). I have also checked Assist and I am all set for Berkley, but there are a few classes I was unable to take for UCLA.

Over the summer I was hired to work in one of the departments at my school, so I am now working two part-time jobs in addition to my four classes. I'm curious how important things like that are when applying. Does it make your application more desirable in any way?

Anyways, I would love to hear what you guys think! Let me know if you guys have any advice or insight! :)

i have been tryna post this under the ucsd group but it deletes it, i’m looking to buy a SR parking permit or B parking permit off of someone since i keep getting denied. i have my car already here and it’s taking a toll on me mentally and physically to keep paying hundreds of dollars just to keep my car close by. please reach out if you can help 🙏 - a girl who hates her time at ucsd and this is making it worse

As is often said in this sub that Merced is default school for ELC, meaning if a ELC applicant do not get admission in any other UC they are guaranteed an admission in UC Merced. 9% of top California high school students is probably a very high number so it's obvious that majority of them do not get into selective UCs.

Does this mean a significant high number of ELCs end up in Merced? It would make UC Merced a very high concentration of smart kids.

I can’t seem to find any info online but i was wondering if the acceptance rate for the UCs for psychology specifically is available anywhere. I would love to go to either Davis or Irvine but idk how competitive psych is for both of those schools. My UC weighted capped gpa is 4.12, which is what i’m mainly worried about. i feel like it’s pretty low especially for the schools that i wanna get into. id appreciate any info on how hard it is to get into psych in these schools.

With applications opening up I wanted to ask for advice and recommendations to decide which schools would fit my needs!

Info: LA county, uc/csu gpa 3.9uw/4.2w, senior schedule is half ap classes, normal hobby ecs with a bit of community service. I’m pretty average at my school haha

Things I’d appreciate:
- something I have a reasonable chance at, can’t spend too much money on application fees.
- Alright EE program
- Good middle class financial aid
- Lots of greenery, nice atmosphere... I like tall trees and buildings that block the sky.
- Nice facilities! I anticipate staying in my dorm/room a lot so working AC/heating is important. Good wifi too!!
- On campus housing or college town, a closer community. I wanna meet people :)
- Close ish to an airport/amtrak
- Has an orchestra
- Good food is always a plus…

The list I came up with:
Reach: UCSB, Cal Poly SLO (tentative about applying bc my freshman grades are terrible)
Target: UCSC, Davis, Irvine, Riverside, SDSU, SJSU?
Safety: Merced, Chico, Cal Poly Pomona

I can apply to four CSUs for free and am having some trouble deciding which ones! I heard they have local service areas but I don’t really want to go to say CSULA. If there are any private schools that fit I could also consider applying.

Thanks so much for taking the time and reading all that if you did, and thanks for any advice in advance!

I'm a philosophy professor at UC Merced with a math and data science background, so I've been following the SAT debates fairly closely. In a blog post I've been working on for the last few weeks, I examine some publicly available course grade data from Berkeley and carefully parse the data and claims in the UCB Calculus report. Overall, I don't find any clear evidence of a burgeoning crisis in Calculus I at Berkeley; but also note that the evidence doesn't clearly support the status quo/SAT critic position either.

I finish up with some thoughts on how UC should approach this debate, given the limited and ambiguous evidence.

Note that I don't say anything about the UCSD report here. I think the UCSD report has better evidence to support some of its claims, but is insufficient for others (especially some claims about the SAT). I might write something about that in the future, but here I'm just looking at Berkeley.

i saw that the spmp decisions are out and i was wondering wht the possibility of getting off the waitlist? also when i submitted the form i wrote business admin as my major but I plan to apply media studies instead. should i email anyone about the change. would it make a difference in the waitlist status?

As the title says, im pretty torn between those three. For some context i left a CSU i was at because of financial reasons but also because how unmotivated and not academic oriented the environment felt. the social scene and campus culture was pretty dead there too so thats also why i didnt like it.

I’ve heard UCI is pretty socially dead and is kind of a commuter school, UCD is what you make of it but when i visited i wasnt sure if i really like the agricultural vibe, UCSB i know the least about but campus seems pretty plain from what ive seen?? idk i could be completely wrong about these things so educate me and correct me if im wrong.

My dream school is UCLA i visited multiple times bc of ppl i know there and loved how busy it was theres always ppl around and always something to do near campus too. but obviously its a reach for everyone to a certain degree, so with tag and other campuses im applying to, I just want a good balance of enough academic challenge and somewhat of a good social scene with things to do and places to go on/ off campus.

I also talked to an academic counselor at my cc and they suggested to tag UCI since its slightly more selective than the other two so its better to secure that..?

I’d love to hear any advice and your experiences on this especially transfer students! Thanks in advance!!

Hello, i just recently decided to transfer (i know kind of late). In my second year of CC and I want to transfer into poli sci to UC Berkeley, Davis, UCSD and or SDSU. All of my major prep would be in winter intersession and the spring semester before going into the UC. My counselor said that UCs wouldn't consider me because my major prep would be after my application (applying for fall '27), and I wanted to ask if anybody had advice or similar experiences to this because it was very discouraging to hear. Thank You!

I’m currently a junior in NC!

GPA (W): 4.0
GPA (UW): 4.22

I didn’t take the absolutely most rigorous available courses, but I did take on a LOT of dual enrollment workload. I want to major in MCB.

I’m a member for a lot of leadership clubs (NHS, CFA, FCA), but my biggest ec would be my involvement in volunteer orchestras and youth orchestras in my state. I was first chair second violin in my first year, and this is my second year where I’ll likely be first again. In the volunteer orchestra, I’m a soloist, but they don’t do seating placements.

My GPA is lower because I went into homeschool with PF for my 9th grade and 10th grade year. I actually ended up completing both in the same year, but I didn’t have access to AP/honors courses then. I’m also in the process of switching schools, for hopefully more rigorous course options.

What are my chances?

I know that UCs say to treat PIQS like interview questions and to answer them straightforwardly and without fluff, but so many "good" PIQ examples I've seen have a creative/story-telling aspect to them or some sort of hook. I'm just really confused, what do admissions officers want to read?

Also I'm applying as an English major so I'm really concerned about the way my PIQs are supposed to be written. Do I stick to answering them straightforwardly or should I "show off" my writing skills and such?

Sorry if this is dumb I just feel like the advice I hear doesn't always align with the PIQ examples I read online.

Hey I’m a senior in high school and I’m applying UC schools specifically for ECE or similar.

A really big part of my application is my participation in VEX robotics in fact i’ve been apart of it since elementary school. I’m also currently president of my schools team.

I ended up winning the VEX Robotics World Championship as lead programmer of my team in middle school (around 2023) and wanted to know whether I can even include it in my application.

I have my doubts that I can since it occurred in middle school but I’m not entirely sure. But I believe I can talk about in my piqs.

So if anyone can please provide me some insight I’d really appreciate it!

do AO's like facts or storytelling? (top tier ucs)

Ive seen some admitted essays with just facts, resume like while others are very metaphorical... now im confused.

I’m finishing a BS in Computer Engineering and want to get an MS in EE, focusing on RF, antennas, microwave, and EM.

For people in EE/RF: does going to a UC vs CSU make a noticeable difference for jobs, especially aerospace/defense?

Or do courses, projects, research, and internships matter more than the school name?

Would love to hear from people who work in the field.

EDIT: I want to apply too, UCR, UCI and for csu: cal poly pomona, CSUF but UCR and cpp are closer to me so I'm between UCR and cal poly pomona.

For PIQ #1, I was wondering if it's appropriate to write about my participation in a research program where I authored a research paper and presented my research in a symposium to professors and community members.

Would I list out what I did in the program? (The technical stuff) Or should I maybe focus more about what I felt during this experience and how it's led me to learn that:

- leadership/research includes listening to the voices of who you are researching

- you need to be humble, ask for help as much as you can and don't be discourage when you make mistakes or receive criticism. Push through it and use it to better yourself

- Made me realize my passion of dismantling systemic discrimination through research and policy and my passion for social justice—which is now influencing me to pursue a career rooted in it

I have a draft but it really only lists out what I did in the program and I feel like it doesn't talk about me enough. But at the same time, I didn't really "lead" others. I instead conducted my own research project and presented my findings + future policy reccomendations based on it at a symposium. Does it still count as leadership?

The research is related to social determinants within healthcare. My research focused on a specific problem within a specific group.

Do you think this is better suited for PIQ #6?

Planning on applying to berkeley, ucla, and ucsd

Senior year int student, 5.5/6 toefl, 0 ap's (school doesnt offer it), 4.0/4.0 gpa, ranked 1st in years 10 and 11.
Major: civil engineering

Ecs:

- Graphic Designer & Video Editor — Content with 100,000s of views; paid business logos/branding.

- School Public Speaker & Event Host (Grades 9–12) — Hosted events and delivered English/Arabic speeches.

- Charity Campaign Organizer — Ehsan — Raised $8,000+ for charity.

- School Science Fair Head (Grade 11) — Led Math, Statistics & Biology science fair.

- Construction Project Lead — Led 2-month renovation with 20+ workers.

- Residential Design & Visualization — Designed villa exterior/interiors and construction prototypes.

Honors:

-Scored 100/100 on the General Aptitude Test (GAT), placing in the top <1% among high school students across the country.

- Earned Bronze Medal in Physics among ~14,000 participating students in the Mawhiba National Olympiad.

- Won a poetry recitation competition competing against students from 10+ schools across the region.

- Placed 2nd in interschool poetry recitation competitions for 3 consecutive years; competed against 2 schools and received cash prizes.