u/Laxun0

Reply with vents, chance mes, hellos, questions, whatever, I just want to feel some solidarity. It’s rough out here 😢

Would any successful CSU to UC transfers be willing to share their stats and/or essays?

I understand CSU transfers have lower priority than CC and UC

Edit: thank you for your responses, but I don’t really need help with the process itself or deciding whether or not I should try haha 😭 I’m just wondering how my profile compares to successful transfers

I know it’s going to be rough. Anything I could do to improve?

GPA: 3.9

Major prep and GEs mostly done/in progress. Will ideally be finished by fall but we'll see how the waitlists work out

California resident, transferring from a 4 year (CSU)

Currently urban planning major + Anthropology minor, hoping to transfer to UCB urban studies

Leadership:

• Events Coordinator and Cultural Ambassador of the Japanese Student Association 
  • Coordinate weekly cultural and social events as part of a five-person planning team 
  • Develop and execute event concepts including festival tabling, community-building activities, and weekend programs 
  • Collaborate with other student organizations to organize joint events and outreach opportunities
  • Translate the club's weekly newsletter for Japanese speakers
• Individually host Hon Circle, a book club dedicated to reading works by Japanese or AAPI authors
• Project Manager in the university’s urbanism club
  • The club is recognized by the American Planning Association
  • Active collaboration with the City: Helping with research for SRTS Plan, assisting with community engagement/surveying, etc
  • Participated in the city’s annual Point-in-Time Count (a one-night local count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness) as a volunteer

   

• UI/UX intern 
  • Collaborate with a team of student designers to develop solutions for a real client project with [client name]
  • Conduct user research and usability testing to create mood boards, wireframes, low-, mid-, and high-fidelity prototypes in Figma
  • Communicate or advocate for the new prototypes, and revise according to client feedback and survey results from active users.
• Independent, but faculty-advised research project about east asian ethnic identity/expression in suburban environments 
  • (“Independent” as in I designed the project but refined it with a professor from time to time)
  • Literature review, built original dataset, self taught arcGIS and created a few maps, adjusted methodology w/ feedback, spatial analysis
• The professor has invited me to speak at a student conference but that will likely be after UC applications close
• In the process of putting together research paper, hopefully publish in student-run built environment/architecture journal in October

Somewhat unrelated volunteer service (from high school):

• Library Assistant (2 yrs)
  • Organized shelves in alphabetical order and category, directed guests, and assisted with preparations for events hosted at the library
• Summer education docent at the aquarium of pacific (6 mo)
  • Managed various stations such as carts and touch pools located around the aquarium, engaged guests about ocean life and conservation, and provided locations of exhibits and facilities as necessary
• Tall Ship Maintenance (1 yr)
  • Maintenance and repair of a historic tall ship
  • Learned skills such as working with power tools, woodworking, painting, oiling, varnishing, and rigging

Other

• President's honor list (maintain 3.5+ GPA throughout all three quarters)
• Upper division anthropology classes as a first year, both passed with an A.

PIQs (Feedback appreciated!): 

• PIQ 1: Leadership- Talking about my experience as an event coord, “Leadership isn't about getting people to follow you but rather fostering an environment where people feel comfortable connecting and collaborating”. 
• PIQ 2: Creativity- I’ve been writing since I was a kid. Follows old stories in my childhood google drive and how my ability to reimagine complicated questions via creative fiction have strengthened over time. Creativity is understanding that there's multiple ways to perceive and resolve a problem.
• PIQ 6: Academic Subject- Research project! Brief mention of feeling a little out of place at a PWI, sort of as a lighthearted “why I began to wonder” intro. Realizing that even the most “boring” cities are complex systems and products of history, culture, and economy. Deepened interest in the relationship between urban planning and globalization.
• PIQ 8: “Other skill or opportunity”- Messy atm but I’m planning to talk about how I evolved as a student/person and how I gained the courage to follow my curiosity rather than “playing it safe” (and how those two things are in a constant positive feedback loop)
  • I was very lost during high school and in a terrible state of mental health, especially with the stigma around pursuing humanities. Initially went into urban planning for its relation to sustainability/enviro sci but quickly fell in love with the social/political aspect (outreach, community engagement, etc.).
  • It was a sort of lightbulb moment where I realized my passions aren’t useless and that I didn't need to be so scared. Hence things like the research project and anthro minor

I’ve been thinking about writing on a small research project I designed and conducted over the summer for this prompt (Just some simple arcGIS maps and spatial analysis)

I know you’re generally not supposed to talk about the specifics of your ECs in your essay, but then it feels like I’m not answering the prompt bc I start talking about “what I learned as a person” rather than “how I furthered the interest”

Any tips? How do I find the right balance? Should I even bring up the “problem solving/adapting” lessons of research design or should I just talk about the process itself (ie, reading books/papers, reaching out to professors, etc) and why I’m interested in it?

PIQ 6- Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Described how you have furthered this interest inside or outside the classroom

I hear Cal is unpredictable when it comes to admissions, but I want to gauge my chances lol

I want to become more familiar with museum studies and anthropology, but I’m not really sure where to begin!
Most yt videos I’ve seen so far kind of just repeat the same basics (the most interesting ones don’t even realize they’re talking about anthropology)

Any suggestions for books, channels, websites, news, films, etc.? I think I’m most interested in museum ethics, ethnography ethics, and film studies atm

I want to become more knowledgeable in museum studies and anthropology, but I’m not really sure where to begin!
Most yt videos I’ve seen so far kind of just repeat the same basics

Any suggestions for books, channels, websites, news, films, etc.? I’m most interested in museum ethics, ethnography ethics, and decolonization. Then again, I can’t say I’m too familiar with any other topics besides those

I'm mainly curious about people who transferred from a four-year university, but I would appreciate any feedback from former CC students as well!

I've been able to speak to one person in real life who made the transfer, and she told me the grade deflation and class difficulty aren't as terrible as people say, but the constant "I regret coming here" posts on the Berkeley subreddit are definitely scaring me a little, haha.

How do you feel about the classes and your peers/How does it compare to your former school? Do you regret transferring to Berkeley?

(Not sure if this breaks rule 7 bc I figured this one to be a genuinely subjective thing, but I’ll take this down if it does)
I’m not in contact with this friend anymore so I can’t really talk to her about it, but I’ve been thinking about it lately.

I used to be friends with this biracial girl who would throw around the n word every other sentence.
The reason I started questioning it is because she seemed to actively avoid being perceived as black otherwise. Using excessive skin lightening filters/cream, obsessing over straightening her hair, and telling us about how she got “mistaken for being Asian AGAIN ahh so annoying 😭” any chance she got. I once told her, after she asked, my first guesses for her would be mixed or latina and she got defensive with over it.

I guess that would’ve been fine by itself, it’s hard to escape Eurocentric beauty standards and whatnot, but at the same time the only time I ever heard her “evoke” her black side was to tell people it’s okay for her to call black people monkeys and to say the n word bc she’s part black. She looks pretty ambiguous, so she had to do that pretty often.

For more context, we live in a majority white suburb and she was also raised primarily by her white parent, so it’s not like she was doing this in conversation with other black people.

I can understand being jokingly racist to your own race and I’m obviously not one to police “who is black enough” to say it but idk I guess I was just wondering if there’s a definitive line, if any.

TLDR: Feels like mixed ex-friend only wants to be perceived as black when it’s to make racist jokes and to say the word