<p>It seems to me that if you are shooting for the very selective schools then you probably have a better shot tring again in two years with a solid record at a community college (look up TwistedxKiss’ posts to see how she handled a situatio similar to yours or send her a pm). If you are willing to be less selective about your college, I’m sure we could come up with a reasonable list for you with a reasonable mix of colleges/unis with your spotty grade record. There is the third less desireable option of starting at a less selective 4 year and transfering, but that has it’s own set of issues. Your call but time is running short for the 4 years. I didn’t go back to see what you were interested in but if it’s a major that isn’t available at all schools, that’s a limiting factor, too.</p>
<p>Community College can be an advantageous option for high school graduates with non-stellar academic records. You can take the time in CC to prove that you can do college level work. Also, senior colleges look favorably on transfer applicants from CCs who have good grades because such students tend to be more academically focused than many of their peers in the freshman and sophomore classes.</p>
<p>Investigate to determine if your preferred senior college has a transfer agreement with your community college. If so, it usually means that if you meet the GPA/distribution courses standard (usually a 3.0) your transfer to the senior college is guaranteed and you will be admitted with junior-year status with all your core requirements satisfied by your CC transcript.</p>
<p>Terp2014 -</p>
<p>Which community college are you looking at exactly? Is your current plan to do one of the honors programs at Montgomery College and then finish up at U of Md College Park? If so, that is EXCELLENT. MC does indeed run true honors programs that are (except for dorm residences and frat parties) fully equivalent to honors programs at four-year universities. The graduates of those programs get into terrific four-year schools all over the country. Even the non-honors courses are nothing to sneer at. Just make good use of the transfer counselors so that you take the right courses to get into a four-year school that is best for you.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>By the way, if you currently live in Maryland, if I were you I would consider moving across the Potomac River into Virginia because Virginia’s universities and senior colleges have a very generous ‘guaranteed-transfer’ agreement with schools in the Virginia State Community College system. After two years at CC, you enter U of Virginia, George Mason U and others as a junior; again with all your “university core” requirements already satisfied. There may be other requirements regarding particular majors, such as engineering.</p>
<p>ClassicRockerDad: </p>
<p>I take no personal offense to my teaching or my person. I have no negative feelings toward you or feel we have a problem at all.</p>
<p>I stand by my post on behalf of my students.</p>
<p>I feel you are discriminating. You may think that this discrimination is based on solid evidence or academic factors, but I would assert that you are really discriminating on the basis of socio-economic factors.</p>
<p>I think some of the CC students I have seen are more focused and diligent than the students at 4 year institutions, but they have also attended the school of hard knocks or have experienced so much cultural dislocation it takes a while to get their sea legs.</p>
<p>I stand by my opinions just as you do by yours.</p>
<p>But no problem of personal nature between us at all.</p>
<p>I have posted before about com colleges- I do admit that they are very different- for example I drive about an hour everyday I have classes to attend my CC in a small town, where as I have three CC in my city, and one in the next suburb.</p>
<p>There are lots of resources, rigorous classes, excellent instruction, and very involved students.
I also know several students who are peers of my older daughter who attended CC for the first two years, ( one because he was still high school age and would have been young to go off to college- he finished his degree at UCHicago and is now in law school, another attended CC to save money and finished at Oberlin, I think she is in grad school too, others have transferred after completing two years to the UW which gave them the opportunity to have small classes at the CC, instead of the huge freshman level courses, and then relatively small upper division courses)</p>
<p>Many CCs including my own also offer dorm opportunities for students- more similar to a small LAC ( except the library isn’t open around the clock), than a huge public university.</p>
<p>momofthreeboys, I’m not aiming for Harvard or anything but colleges that accept 20-30% of their applicants, so they’re still selective. My major will probably be either Political Science or Economics…so pretty generic.</p>
<p>LakeWashington, will do. Thanks! Ya I heard VA Community Colleges have better transfer options than ones in MD, but I wouldn’t want to pay the Out of State rate in VA though.</p>
<p>happymomof1, I’m not sure if I would make the Honors program at MC, but that is basically what I plan to do. My counselor told me as long as I get As and Bs at MC and don’t get arrested or anything, UMCP will accept me.</p>
<p>I also hire people for entry level engineering positions, and assuming the student graduated from a good 4-year institution with reasonable grades I don’t think it would ever occur to me to check where they went the first two years. Here in CA they have tracks that automatically move kids from CCs to UCs. If a kid graduated from Cal, UCLA, or UCSD (just examples – there are good CSUs too) and did well in upper division work I generally treat them like any other grad. A lot of the work in the first two years is general education work anyway. </p>
<p>Now the real problem is whether the lower division Calculus, Physics and Introductory Engineering courses at the CC prepare the student for upper division work. CCs here in Cal are very uneven – you may have an excellent campus less than 10 miles away from a horrible campus.</p>
<p>Terp, sounds like you have a plan crystalizing in the back of your mind. The honors program at MC sounds like a good plan and one that is financially feasible. I don’t disagree that you still have a small window of opportunity to expand your regular decision applications (if you haven’t already). You still have a couple months to mull the options. Best of luck to you. Like others I’m an advocate for CCs for kids. My oldest is a junior so this year was the year that his friends made the “move” from their CCs to BA/BS colleges. One is the sons of two doctors with two older siblings who are doctors…CC is just their “family tradition.” The others did it either because their families could not afford to send them off to college right away or because they wanted to go to CC for two years. None of his friends were academic slouches. Certainly nothing wrong with any of those kids, it is just what their family does or the individual decision they made. Like others pointed out there are many, many different kinds of people who take advantage of CCs. If they have an honors program, guaranteed transfer, articulation agreements…whatever, so much the better. Again, if you are looking for suggestions for colleges let us know and I’m sure we can overwhelm you with ideas.</p>
<p>Two things I forgot to add-</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I don’t usually do the initial sorting of applications, so maybe someone in HR does look at the CC issue. But we prepare supplementary questions dealing with internships and work experience and how it relates to our work. I assumed they separated based on that.</p></li>
<li><p>The good thing about most CCs is that you can complete the entire application and enrollment process the first day of class if you want. So you don’t have to make up your mind right away. Maybe you’ll get into UChicago, or decide on something else.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>momofthreeboys, it’s not that I don’t want to look into less selective colleges, but when I can go to my local Community College for half the price and almost be guaranteed a transfer to UMD, it doesn’t make much financial sense to go to a less selective 4 year college. Finances are unfortunately an issue.</p>
<p>bovertine, my local CC has a Jan. 22nd deadline for some of it’s programs that seem interesting :)</p>
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<p>I’m assuming that’s a deadline to apply - you don’t have to commit at that time. Because I don’t know if I’d commit to anything that early. Can’t hurt to apply though.</p>
<p>I also hire people for entry level engineering positions, and assuming the student graduated from a good 4-year institution with reasonable grades I don’t think it would ever occur to me to check where they went the first two years</p>
<p>I agree, if the course level and grades from the CC, is good enough for Reed, UChicago and Oberlin , then why wouldn’t they be good enough for most employers?</p>
<p>Not sure how it works in other states, but in CA there are two main feeder routes into the UCs - high school graduates and community college transfers. My own preference would be to go to a 4 year college right out of high school, but for those lacking either the grades or the finances to make that happen, community colleges are a great option and a perfectly respectable Plan B.</p>
<p>If you go to a community college and ace your classes and transfer to and graduate from a good university, there is no reason you can’t go on to any other next step that four-year graduates of the same college can do. Case in point: my neighbor. He came out of high school with no way to afford a 4-year school so he went 2 years to his local CC and then transferred to UCLA and earned his BS. From there he went to UCLA Dental School - financed by military scholarships. He served his obligation as a military dentist and is now out and in private practice. I can’t see where his stint in community college hurt him a bit. Quite the contrary, it made the whole thing possible.</p>
<p>Since your weighted GPA is 4.1 and your ACT is 32, there are 4 year schools that would give you full tuition scholarships. </p>
<p>I would think that would be about as economical as going to a CC and would also provide the full college experience.</p>
<p>Although I think CCs are fine for non-trad students or students who don’t have the stats or money for a 4 year, I don’t think a CC is right for students like you. </p>
<p>When I read your past posts (yes, I looked 
), you seem to want the full college experience. You won’t get that at a CC. </p>
<p>I would recommend getting a full-tuition scholarship with your stats, then transfer to the school of your choice after your second year. </p>
<p>Does your transcript have your weighted GPA on it? If so, colleges that accept weighted GPAs will accept that. And, you say that you have C’s on your report cards. Most transcripts do not include quarter grades. Most either only include year-end grades or semester grades. Have you seen your ACTUAL transcript? What does it look like? Where are the C’s ?</p>
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<p>I believe that is what ClassicRockerDad was referring to; the three colleges that he mentioned (Beloit, McDaniel, and Wooster) are all CTCL schools. The CTCL website is [Colleges</a> That Change Lives](<a href=“http://ctcl.org/]Colleges”>http://ctcl.org/).</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, Ya I’m talking about my actual transcript 
I got the unofficial transcript mailed to me over the summer (the only difference is, the official transcript has the counselor’s signature and a stamp saying “Official”). On the transcript, I have several Cs in Math, Science, English and Foreign Language - they fluctuate between a B and a C with no real pattern. I have a D in an advanced Math class; and ya I’m talking about Semester grades.</p>
<p>About the full college experience, I’m just a little afraid it might be too distracting for my academic life. How many people go around starting clubs when they’re pulling Ds and Cs in classes? Apparently, I did I’m hoping a couple of years in Community College might help me concentrate solely on academics and get me back on track :)</p>
<p>On the subject of ECs, my GC thinks that might be another reason I’m getting rejected. He thinks colleges don’t respond positively to people who neglect academics to pursue Extra Curriculars, and frankly looking at my application, it might appear as if I’ve neglected academics.</p>
<p>What type of schools do you think I can get a full tuition scholarship at?</p>
<p>SodiumFree, thanks!</p>
<p>
Sorry, yes that is what I meant. I think you should seriously consider this route. </p>
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<p>The OP asked if employers discriminate. I do. I felt that he had a right to know. Colleges do social engineering and provide opportunities for those of modest means. These opportunities are competitive though.</p>
<p>Businesses tend to be strictly business. </p>
<p>Mythmom, how would you suggest I change the way I rank the resumes? </p>
<p>I am ultimately responsible for the work that my people do. Also, it is disproportionately harder to fire someone than to hire someone. Furthermore, I have to invest a lot of time in the people I hire. I can’t afford to take huge risks. It’s really the same situation as professors find when they accept graduate students. </p>
<p>I definitely don’t discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability, marital status or any other of the protected categories. As far as socioeconomic background, if anything, I discriminate against privileged kids who would clearly rather be on Wall St and I favor hungry ambitious kids who have worked their butts off to have some actual achievements by the time they graduate. Many of them have a strong work ethic and are from modest backgrounds. I also don’t think that favoring those who have excelled under a high standard of excellence is discriminatory in any way. It’s not a binary decision, it’s a competitive ranking. I need people who are comfortable working to a high standard of excellence. </p>
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<p>I agree. I just don’t see these resumes very often, if ever. I have yet to phone screen a candidate who started out at a CC. If I saw a resume from someone who graduated with a very high GPA from College Park or Penn State (the main campus) after CC, they would probably be higher in the pile. What I typically see more of is something like 2 years of Bristol Community College followed by 2 years at UMASS-Dartmouth, or something like Maryland Baltimore County. That typically won’t get ranked as high. What can I say, it’s a competitive world.</p>
<p>I have been a college transfer advisor at a community college, I have counseled students who are attending CC after high school, to save money &/or to be closer to their family for personal reasons, students who had not done as well as they hoped after attending schools back east like Northwestern and Brown and were trying to get back on track, and students who were attending the local flagship, but had a problem getting into the classes they wanted.</p>
<p>While to some the " full college experience" may mean living on campus and attending Big 10 football games, to others it might mean having a class of less than 20 and getting to work closely with the prof and the other students.</p>
<p>This link is to one of my profs and a class I took for two qtrs last year- </p>
<p>[Anthropology</a> 101: How to Change the World by Tom Murphy YES! Magazine](<a href=“Anthropology 101: How to Change the World - YES! Magazine”>Anthropology 101: How to Change the World - YES! Magazine)</p>
<p>Just one example of what community colleges are like today, they aren’t just places where adults go to get retraining after being laid off ( although they still serve that purpose as well & the diversity in backgrounds makes for an exciting learning experience).</p>
<p>I guess every company culture is different, and people use different criteria for hiring, a lot of it based on their own experiences with employees in the past. But of course, all this talk of hiring practices reminds me of a story. </p>
<p>After the demise of the defense boom in the 90s a lot of us got laid off. I went to a job fair at Qualcomm, which was fairly new at the time, populated by a lot of young whippersnappers. People were in a huge line to turn in resumes – the line went outside and circled the building. All the while, there were people walking around with big signs that read something like “VLSI?”, or “Can you program a blah-blah driver in foobar language?” (I didn’t know what they were talking about so I can’t remember what the exact words were).</p>
<p>If you approached one of the people with these signs they would ask you a couple questions (so I heard), or to finish a little snippet of code they had on a piece of paper. If you did this correctly you got an immediate interview. It was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen. I finally got a job somewhere else, by the way. <g></g></p>