Transfer Student- How am I doing?

[Jack-Kennedy35]

Hello everyone,

My name is Gary and I am currently an incoming junior at UC Berkeley. I am transferring from a community college in southern california where I obtained a gpa of a 3.83 overall and a 3.74 science gpa. Prior to transferring, I finished all the lower division courses including: Gen chem, Ochem, Physics, Calc, and Bio.

This upcoming fall I will be transferring to major in Molecular Cell Bio, and to finish my upper division courses. I am kind of stressing because I feel like coming from a CC I am expected to have a 4.0, however I challenged myself and took very hard classes and even had a 3.95 prior to my last semester where I received two B's and fell to a 3.83

My parents keep telling me, if you didn't get a 4.0 at the cc how can you get a high gpa at a 4 year school. I tell them my last semester I took Organic Chem, Physics, Bio and a health science class and I had a ton of commuting to do, and thats why I got A's in bio and the health science but B's in ochem and physics. Prior to this semester I had a really high gpa.

How do you all think I am doing so far, am I still okay with my current level coming from a CC? My gpa starts from zero at Berkeley so I have to have a strong showing here. Any advice and comments are highly appreciated

Thanks,
Gary
@Goro @Catalystik @gyngyn @WedgeDawg

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[Goro]

Tell your parents that you love them, but if that they love you, they'll knock off the pressure and let you find your own path. You're fine.

Also, please get your parents an account on SDN, so they can see how their well-meaning advice will sabotage your medical career.

Your performance so far is outstanding.

Also tell them that the median GPA for an MD acceptee is around 3.7 (~3.4 for DO).

Hello everyone,

My name is Gary and I am currently an incoming junior at UC Berkeley. I am transferring from a community college in southern california where I obtained a gpa of a 3.83 overall and a 3.74 science gpa. Prior to transferring, I finished all the lower division courses including: Gen chem, Ochem, Physics, Calc, and Bio.

This upcoming fall I will be transferring to major in Molecular Cell Bio, and to finish my upper division courses. I am kind of stressing because I feel like coming from a CC I am expected to have a 4.0, however I challenged myself and took very hard classes and even had a 3.95 prior to my last semester where I received two B's and fell to a 3.83

My parents keep telling me, if you didn't get a 4.0 at the cc how can you get a high gpa at a 4 year school. I tell them my last semester I took Organic Chem, Physics, Bio and a health science class and I had a ton of commuting to do, and thats why I got A's in bio and the health science but B's in ochem and physics. Prior to this semester I had a really high gpa.

How do you all think I am doing so far, am I still okay with my current level coming from a CC? My gpa starts from zero at Berkeley so I have to have a strong showing here. Any advice and comments are highly appreciated

Thanks,
Gary
@Goro @Catalystik @gyngyn @WedgeDawg

 

[JustAPhD]

Might want to remove your name, anonymity is a nice thing to have.
Anyways, you're doing absolutely fine! Don't worry so much about what your parents are saying, just keep your head down and keep doing well. Cal can be a hard place, so if you do happen to find yourself struggling seek help from others (professors, tutors, academic adviser, friends, etc) as soon as you can. It'll make the transition much easier.

 

[efle]

If you can continue to make a 3.8+ at Cal you will be in great shape

 

[Jack-Kennedy35]

Tell your parents that you love them, but if that they love you, they'll knock off the pressure and let you find your own path. You're fine.

Also, please get your parents an account on SDN, so they can see how their well-meaning advice will sabotage your medical career.

Your performance so far is outstanding.

Also tell them that the median GPA for an MD acceptee is around 3.7 (~3.4 for DO).

Thanks for the reply, they do mean the best for me and i guess they're just trying to get me to give it my all and work hard. I will tell them to get them an account! I know that the stigma is declining of Community colleges, but I just feel like since i took my all my prereqs except biochemistry here and got a 3.83 and not a 4.0 that might be a disadvantage. Do you reccomedn I take mainy science upper divs after transferring to show that i can handle it, or is taking a few sciences and more psych upper divs okay? The reason i say psych is because I was thinking of switching to psychobiology, which has many psych upper divs and a few sciences. While my current major: Molecular cell bio is all sciences essentially.

@JustAPhD @efle @Goro

 

[Goro]

Thanks for the reply, they do mean the best for me and i guess they're just trying to get me to give it my all and work hard. I will tell them to get them an account! I know that the stigma is declining of Community colleges, but I just feel like since i took my all my prereqs except biochemistry here and got a 3.83 and not a 4.0 that might be a disadvantage. Do you reccomedn I take mainy science upper divs after transferring to show that i can handle it, or is taking a few sciences and more psych upper divs okay? The reason i say psych is because I was thinking of switching to psychobiology, which has many psych upper divs and a few sciences. While my current major: Molecular cell bio is all sciences essentially.

@JustAPhD @efle @Goro

Invest in MSAR to determine which schools do and don't accept pre-reqs from CCs. There's no rhyme nor reason as to who does what.

 

[Hopefulpremed123]

I chose ucla over berk , just because of the opportunities. I heard berk is super cut throat, but I think ur doing fine bro. Just aim for a 3.9 at cal and kill the mcat and ull be fine


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[DBC03]

I can't comment on the difficulty of the schools there, but I do have a friend who did poorly at a community college here in Florida and then did quite well when he transferred to a four-year university. It sounds like you're doing well so far and you've crossed the toughest hurdle - learning how the study in college (which is very different from high school). Buckle down, study hard, and conquer those classes!

 

[Hopefulpremed123]

I think OP is referring to how he is doing thus far, as in how his performance at the cc with all the classes he took is going to be viewed


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[Joemm426]

My situation is very similar to your situation. Peers from my community college have transferred to Cal and performed better there. I hope you enjoy Cal!

 

[PreMedMissteps]

My gpa starts from zero at Berkeley so I have to have a strong showing here.

It only starts at zero at UCB. Why does that matter? It won't start at zero for med school apps.

You have a very good GPA from your CC. The question I have is: will your chosen major for UCB jeopardized your upper division GPA? If so, AND you really want to go to med school, why major in that? You don't get brownie points for getting a degree in a more difficult major. Is molecular cell bio a very difficult major? If so, is there another bio track that you'd like that you'd likely get a better GPA?

Yes, I know some will flame this for game-playing, but if someone is serious about going to med school, particularly a CA resident, then getting the best GPA you can is very important.