Help! I have several questirons about UCLA and college… Desperately needed!!!!!!?
1) I have a 3.6 GPA, counting all my AP classes. I have yet to take the SATs, and I have not done any extracurricular activities whatsoever. What are my chances of getting in? What do I have to score on my SATs for them to consider me, considering my lack of extracurricular activities? This September, I will be a senior at my high school.
2) If I just go to a community college after senior year, what are the advantages? How does it work? I just go to community college and get all my general education requirements done, right? And then after that I can transfer to UCLA (or a good university) and quickly jump into my major, right?
3) What are the chances of getting accepted to a UC (specificially UCLA) after community college? How does it work?
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2) Community colleges offer a lot of support for transfer, but it’s easy to get lost in the system. You have to be motivated and stay on top of your class schedule and transfer progress. In California, completing the IGETC and your major requirement is a big help in successfully transferring to the UCs.
3) Transfer admission rates are about 30-45% for competitive UC campuses and up to 75-85% for less competitive UC campuses. So the odds are pretty good. You would apply in November of your sophomore year (if you are on track) to transfer at the beginning of your junior year.
You absolutely NEED extracurricular activities, you need organizations where you are a leader. There will be at least a page dedicated to this on your college application. You need to put something, so get involved this year. Definitely, consider this as a warning, colleges want people who are in other activities and through them have shown leadership skills. This is more important than your GPA and definitely more important than your SAT’s. Your SAT’s are not anywhere near as important so they could never replace extracurricular activities. I had a friend who had a perfect score on her SAT’s and was first in our class, who got declined on a few schools due to her lack of activities.
If you wish to go the community college route, make sure they are on the same grading system…quarter or semester, or you could be screwed out of some hours. Transferring will transfer the classes you take, but only a pass/fail in your grades. It is possible to transfer, but go to a school that offers the major you would like to pursue, and pursue that, not just general ed stuff.
Get involved with your community college, get great grades, and then your chances could be pretty high. You definitely need to get involved, or you’ll be embarrassed over what you cannot fill in on your application. You’ll be leaving one to two full pages blank. That really does not look good, so make an effort to get involved in as many clubs as you can. Do volunteer work! Get involved in church, do something to put there.
Good luck!
That GPA of yours is pretty good. I heard, though, that you need a 4.0 to get into UCLA. That may have been an exaggeration, but that’s what I was told while I was filling out my applications. I can’t help you on the SAT score thing because when I took mine it was sitll on the 1600 scale.
Community college is a LOT less expensive. And yes, you get your general requirements done and the counselors will help you pick the classes you need to qualify for the specific university you’re interested in.
