<p>I'm currently going to be attending a community college in New Jersey called Essex County, with the goal of transfering to a 4 year university.</p>
<p>I always thought you have to finish community college and get your associates degree and with that and (if) you have a decent GPA, you can transfer to a 4 year university. (My high school grades were very poor).</p>
<p>My aunt and uncle whom I am living with at the moment are professors at Essex County and Pace University. They both tell me that if I get a good GPA on just the first semester of community college, I can use that to apply to 4 year universities, even without SAT. They said I need to write an essay explaining or rather lying about why my high school grades were poor and showing them that I am determined to do well by showing them my (if) decent first semester transcripts. </p>
<p>Is this true? Will 4 year universities (the main schools I want to attend are higher tier SUNY schools like Stony Brook, Binghamton, Buffalo, and Albany, or any UC school) actually consider and/or accept my application just based on ONE semester of community college if my GPA is high?</p>
<p>Would finishing my associates degree and THEN applying increase my chances, or is it the same as just applying with 1 semester. </p>
<p>I’d suggest a middle way: apply first year during your second semester, after getting all A’s at Community College your first semester and getting nothing below a B second semester (so choose your classes strategically with classes you’re confident you’ll do well in first semester, and more uncertain prerequisites second semester).
However, if your grades were poor in high school, it means you’ll have to change your work habits in CC in order to succeed. You can’t just “wish” very hard you’ll do better. Even working hard may not be sufficient to get A’s after years of slacking off in high school, but if you don’t work hard you have no hope of achieving straight A’s whatsoever.
Unless your parents make a lot of money, forget about the UC’s (55K/Year and you can only apply during your second year.) If you have 35k you could apply to a few CSU’s but why do that when you have SUNY’s for much cheaper? What’s your parents’ budget for college?</p>
<p>I’ve not heard of anyone transferring from a CC in their first year. I could be wrong but to transfer you need a certain amount of credits that takes at least two years to earn. </p>
<p>You said your high school grades were very poor. If I were you, I would stick it out at the CC for the two years. That would help you get used to college coursework. Even if you are able to transfer after the first year, if your grades at the university don’t improve from your high school grades, you would have wasted so much money. Don’t forget you also need to maintain a certain GPA in college to stay enrolled. </p>
<p>Another thing to remember is that you DO NOT need an Associates Degree from the CC to transfer. That is usually for students who don’t intend to go on for a Bachelors. (Though some students who do go on, also collect an AA degree.) It’s not necessary. To me, it’s just a degree that says you completed and passed all the general requirements for a BA. The other thing to consider is that you might have to take a few more classes in order to get an AA because the course requirements might be different from the requirements for the university you want to transfer to and every university is going to be different. </p>
<p>Just make sure you take all the required classes to transfer. </p>