Can I take classes at two different Community colleges?

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

How do UCs look at taking classes at different cc? Lets say I need to complete a chem sequence, can I take chem 1 at one college then chem 2 at another?

2

I went to 5 different CC’s (but three of them were in the same district) and I got in to all the UC’s I applied to. They don’t care about your going to different CC’s in general, but there are two exceptions:

  1. I think they want you to take a series of classes at one college. The reason is that different CC’s might teach certain material at different times, so it can be problematic if you take Chem 1 at one school and Chem 2 at another.

  2. If you decide to take classes at a different CC (call it “B”) from the one you usually attend (call it “A”), then if B offers classes that are prerequisites for your major, you will be penalized for not taking them. The same is true for taking classes at A.

Let’s say A does not offer a prerequisite for your major (say, Chem 10.) If you only take classes at A, you won’t be penalized for not taking that class (usually - there’s a caveat here too.) But if you take any classes at B at all, you need to take Chem 10. This is because going to multiple CC’s shows admissions committees that you are able to take classes at B, so it looks really bad if you don’t take all the classes required for your major at B.

That said, these issues are pretty easy to avoid if you plan ahead of time.

3

I went to a number of community colleges myself. East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles Trade Technical College, Los Angeles City College, Pierce College, Los Angeles Valley College, and West Los Angeles College. It was a necessity because almost all of the classes at my main college (ELAC) would fill up with such speed and since I had no priority registration, I pretty much had to look at other schools in the district to complete various general education requirements.

I do agree with what is said above though. For the most part, you will want to complete things like science and math sequences at the same school. Luckily for classes in the LACCD system, these courses are generally the same and utilize the same course number system. However, for CS courses, there were drastic differences. At ELAC, the CS courses were numbered in the 200 level whereas at LAVC, the CS courses were in the 800 level. This was incredibly confusing to me and even to the instructors. I tried to enroll in CS courses at LAVC after taking lower level courses at ELAC and it was such a hassle for the instructors at LAVC to make sense of things - I basically had to petition to get into the courses I wanted. So yeah, there’s nothing wrong with going to a bunch of community colleges. Just try to stick with the same one for various groups of classes :slight_smile: In the end, I successfully applied to UCLA, UCB, and UCSD.

4

I took classes at Pasadena City College, LAVC, and Glendale CC, it’s a great way to get additional classes if the ones at your usual college fill up. The UCs don’t care how many CCs you took classes from, as long as you can finish your IGETC, prereq, and have a good GPA you will be fine

5

For series courses, check the listings on http://www.assist.org to see if the courses have one-to-one articulation or series-to-series articulation. If you see series-to-series articulation, then you need to complete the entire series at that community college if you start it there.

6

Do you mind me asking your stats?