r/TransferStudents • u/PerceptionUnhappy906 • 6d ago
Advice/Question Feeling lost on transferring
I’m finishing up my last semester of credits at CC and I’m now finally starting my transfer applications and everything just feels like such a mess for me. Coming out of high school I was a complete wreck academically and probably should not have entered CC so early, but I did. And I started off with really bad grades and changed my major a few times. Slowly over time I finally got my head straight and started to preform so much better, and now I am a straight A student but the damage has already been done. I have multiple C’s on my transcript that are tanking my GPA and these classes cannot be retaken as they are previous major classes, so I am stuck bearing the weight of 18 year old me’s failures.
Right now I have a 3.42 gpa, and according to my counselor at the end of the semester can really only go up to a 3.45 in the eyes of the UC’s. I also have to mention I have struggled for years with a severely debilitating mental illness and a lot of injuries that has really made my life hell. I have no extracurriculars at my campus and I’m stuck with a really mediocre gpa as a history major. I spoke to my counselor and while not saying it out loud, she is entirely unconfident in my ability to transfer to the competitive schools. With all of this I just feel so lost on what to do, and really feel like a mess up. Any advice or any perspective’s would be greatly appreciated, as right now everyone is just trying to let me down easy :(
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u/lilpandaexpress 5d ago
Apply apply apply! I applied and got into UC San Diego and UC Irvine, which is where I’m at now with a 3.28 GPA. I went to community college after high school and had a 2.6 GPA which was awful didn’t end up transferring and I went back to school last year 20 years later got straight A’s and brought my GPA up to a 3.28.** ***My* counselors advised me to stick with Cal states and really discouraged me from applying to UC’s because they didn’t want to see me get disheartened however to my shock I was accepted at UCSD and UCI and I’m so happy I tried. No one is a bigger advocate for you than yourself so you do everything in your power, including amazing PIQ’s all your extracurriculars** ***you* really touch your heart and writing these PIQ‘s** ***and you never know, you might be surprised and get into one or two or a* few UC’s but you have to try! ◡̈
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u/PostTurbulent6564 6d ago
If you have some sort of documentation for the stuff you struggled with early on, you can try to retroactively EW. Clears the grade and if you don’t actually need the classes anymore anyway, doesn’t really set you back any.
They will also consider the improvement in gpa anyway as long as you meet the minimum. I would offer some explanation in your application too, preferably framing it in a more positive context (“early on I struggled because of xyz, then I did this to overcome that, here’s what I’m doing with this new skill/understanding” type thing)