#transferquestions

[breethebruin]

So glad you opened up your ask box! I'm a community college student that wants to go to UCLA really really bad! I just wanted to know what what your GPA was to get in and what suggestions do you suggest for transfer students that want to apply?

Hi uglyisbeauty! :) That's awesome! :D My GPA was a 4.0. (but you don't need a 4.0 to get in! Many people I knew got in WITHOUT a 4.0-- so don't stress out over this!).  It really differs for each major (depending on how competitive your major is). At the UCLA TAP (Transfer Alliance Program conference I went to at UCLA prior to transferring, they told us that for MOST majors a 3.5 gpa or higher is competitive. However, for majors that are really really competitive and impacted, higher GPAs are more competitive. I used the transfer profile UCLA publishes online every year to get a feel for my major: http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof11.htm You can click on each school for the individual major to see the amount of people that applied as transfers and the average GPA admitted. Here's the college of letters and sciences majors for example: http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof11_mjr.htm 

I would use that site as a guide to see what GPA you should shoot for. I also really suggest joining an honors program at your CC if you your CC has one. Also, try and see if you can do the TAP program (Transfer Alliance Program), which is a program that UCLA offers that if you complete your honors program at your CC, you get priority consideration at UCLA, as well as an alternate major option (So, if you don't get in as your first major, you can get in as a second major.) More info here: http://www.ugeducation.ucla.edu/tap/I did the TAP program and I feel it was super helpful, it also opened up the door for scholarship opportunities at UCLA. If you can, go to the TAP conference too at UCLA! They have them every year!

As far as applications too, make sure to stay involved on campus. I know this can be hard at a CC at times, but try to join a club or start a club or volunteer. I think campus involvement and extracurriculars are always great to have when applying.

I am working on a blog more with even more tips too! :) (I'm creating a MEGA list hahah!)

Hope that helped and thanks for asking! :D

[breethebruin]

Q & A :)

 phammbrenda said: thank you for answering all my questions and in a really detailed manner as well :) i’m planning to take summer classes, too. how many classes do you recommend taking in the summer, and should i choose the easy classes or hard classes to take?

No problem at all! Summer classes are great for getting rid of some classes before the full school year. For summer time, I'd say no more than 3. Since it's the same material in a less amount of time, it's actually pretty intense (depending on the classes you are taking). It actually reminds me of the quarter system, lol. I would suggest taking two easy and one harder one (if you need the harder one to get to your transferrable writing or math classes or just for your major). Also, make sure to look up all your professors on rate my professor. Some people think the site is biased, and it can be, but I've personally never been let down by ratemyprofessor, so I always used it! :D Do you already know what major you want to pursue? If so, you can already start looking on www.assist.org and see what classes from your CC articulate (count towards) your major at UCLA (or any of the UCs and CSUs!) :D

[breethebruin]

Thanks for opening up your ask box! :) I think your blog is really great and it's nice I've found it. How many units did you take per semester, and how many units have you accumulated total? Now how many years of school/units/classes must you take at UCLA to complete your bachelors? Also a slightly off tangent question, when should you purchase books for school? Since I don't financial aid I don't want to buy books unnecessarily. While at the same time, I don't want to fall behind in the class.

Hi phammbrenda! You are my first asker! :) Thanks so much for taking the time to read my blog, I'm so glad you are finding it interesting and informative :D!

1) Each of my semesters differed for how many units but here's the breakdown of my transferrable units (some classes I took were NOT UC transferrable, so I won't count these here): First (Fall) Semester: 12.5 units, Second (Spring) Semester: 13 units,  Summer Session: 7.5 units, Third (Fall) Semester: 16 units, Fourth (Spring) Semester: 17 units. If you are on the semester system at your community college, like I was, you need 60 UC transferrable courses to be considered junior level standing at ucla (or any UC). Make sure, no matter what that you will have completed these 60 before you transfer to any UC. If you are even one unit shy, they won't accept you (this happened to someone I know :O). All in all, I had 66 units by the time I transferred (in semester units). Those 66 units translated into 99.1 quarter units at UCLA. I need 80.9 units to complete my major (but I'll probably take more for my minor). Yay! That means I'm more than half way done :). To take all those units at my community college, it took me 2 years. 

2) To finish my B.A. it will actually take me less than 2 years, but I really want to minor and possibly double minor, so I will end up taking the regular two years. It differs for some people, depending on their major though. Most people should be able to graduate in 2 years (after they have transferred).

3) haha, I know exactly how you feel. I had financial aid and I was worried about books when I first started. I always got my books during the first or second week, when I knew I was not going to drop the class. Some people wait a little bit longer, but most professors have you start using them right away. You also don't want to get behind on material. Make sure to always check amazon or chegg first before buying them at your CC, because they are ALWAYS cheaper used there. Also, you can try to get a free trial of amazon prime for students (I'm not sure if they are still running this promotion, but it would give free prime shipping to students for a limited time-- I had it last year haha). If you have an ipad or kindle (or i guess you can use your laptop even), you can see if there are electronic copies of the book you need for cheaper too. But usually, amazon is the best bet :). For textbooks, my professors usually allowed older editions of the textbook (which were SO much cheaper), so make sure to check with them and see if this is okay! :)