Expert: Sarah Sanchez Date: 3/22/2002 Subject: transfer admissions
Question Hi. Here is my story. I am graduating this year from a high school in Orange County. I have four AP courses this year, I have had others and I have always taken honors courses. I am an officer in our chapter of JSA, an attorney for the mock trial team, and I have been involved in leadership positions in all of my schools music programs and have played in college bands. I also worked 30 hours a week for most of this school year. I have plenty of awards and will be a Golden State Scholar.
I have always been horrible at math and I was only in geometry sophmore year, I repeated the second semester as a junior, and I dropped advanced algebra as a senior. The same with chemistry, which I dropped at school and began at a jc and then dropped...
Well, all of this seamed inconsequential because I planned on being a music major and going to CSULB, where they have a good program. But I changed my mind... My GPA is now 3.0- weighted! On the SATs I scored 710 on verbal, but only 550 on math.
I have changed my goals and hope to end up in law school. Berkeley is the perfect match for me, and I would like to study political science or possibly psychology. I am very politically active and a good student (well I can be...) I have completely screwed up though, so I'm only planning on community college for two years and haven't applied to any universities. This is something I am not looking forward to.
Well, now that you know my background in some detail :0), here is my question: Berkeley admits less than 20% of transfer applicants into both the political science and psychology majors. How can I be one of those? I will attend Cypress College, Golden West, or OCC and be in the honors program. I am soooooo afraid because I screwed up in high school and now I have community college to make up for it... But this is my last chance. Do you know anyone who has been in a similar situation? Do you have any words of encouragement, or any ideas for me?
Well thank you for listening and thanks for any help you can offer.
Sincerely,
Casey
Answer Casey,
Okay first of all breath! :-) It sounds like you are doing great, you are trying really hard, and that is what is important. You may not have perfect grades, but that is not all that Berkeley looks at. They want to have well rounded students who have experience in the real world, which it really sounds like you have. I do think that community college is a good idea, so that you can get into the habit of working hard towards this new goal of yours. I wouldn't stress about getting into Berkeley as a transfer student. My advice is just to work hard and get good grades, and at the same time stay involved. Join organizations at the community college, and keep working. Also you should volunteer at a convalescent hospital or a homeless kitchen, etc. That really looks good on an application. As far as your SATs, if I remember correctly I don't think that they matter for transfer students, but your verbal score is amazing. Your math really isn't that bad either, and remember you are not applying to study math, you want to argue and you need the verbal score to be great.
A friend of mine started at Berkeley this past fall as a transfer student in the geography major, and she had barely made it through high school. She worked really hard at community college, got straight A's, and also had a job and did some other activities, and now she is loving it at Berkeley! :-) I see you totally being able to accomplish this because it sounds like you have a lot of drive and motivation.
I hope I answered all of your questions, and if not, or if you think of anymore please email me back. After next year I should be helpful answering questions about applying to law school as I will be going through that process this fall.
Good luck and study hard,
Sarah Sanchez
