<p>Hi. Just wanted to know if someone could be kind enough to steer me in the right direction. Going to a local community college for two years and then transferring is pretty much what I'm set on. It's most likely my only option. I've done pretty mediocre so far in high school (3.0 W GPA, 1880 SAT (retaking for 2000+), only taking 2 AP classes this upcoming year, not a lot of ECs) so I obviously won't procure a ton of merit based aid if I were to apply to a four year school. So I was wondering if someone could come up with a pros and cons list of attending community college first. No need to mention money saving/campus life, as those are obvious. And if that's too much to ask, here are my biggest concerns:</p>
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<li><p>Will it matter in the long run? What I mean is, trying to break into a career. Will companies prefer those who attended 4 year universities over transfer students?</p></li>
<li><p>How often are credits unable to transfer? I just want to make sure that all the credits I earn at CC will be able to transfer to the 4 year school. </p></li>
<li><p>Are the AP classes worth it if I'm not going to a 4 year university right off the bat? I really do enjoy learning so I don't think I would drop them, but I'm just curious.</p></li>
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<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>At graduation, it won’t matter per se. However, during the first two summers, companies recruiting interns are more likely to target four year schools that they consider “good”, rather than community colleges. Quality internship experience may affect job placement at graduation.</p></li>
<li><p>For state universities in the same state as the community college, there are usually pre-arranged articulation agreements that you can look up to see which community college courses are accepted at the state universities. For example, California has [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) , some other states use <a href=“http://www.transfer.org%5B/url%5D”>http://www.transfer.org</a> , Florida has a common course numbering scheme, and other states’ universities have the lists on their own web sites. Transferring credit to out of state or private universities may be harder to find out in advance.</p></li>
<li><p>AP credit can still be used to place into more advanced courses at the community college, though you may have to check to see if the four year universities you are considering have different AP credit policies.</p></li>
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<p>Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it. Another question just popped into my head. I plan on transferring to an AACSB accredited school for a major in Accounting and eventually obtain a CPA license. If I were to say, take a few accounting courses at the community college, would the credits transfer? This is actually a quote from the CC’s website:</p>
<p>“This program is designed for those students desiring to transfer to a baccalaureate program in business administration. It should be noted that senior institutions accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) may not accept certain upper-level business courses without validation.”</p>
<p>So, what does it mean by validation? Anyone have any advice for my career path? I really could use it.</p>
<p>Check the articulation agreement between the community college and four year schools you are considering transferring to. You should be able to find articulation agreements if the four year schools are state universities in the same state as the community college. These will let you know which community college courses are accepted as equivalent to which courses at the four year school (you can then look up the four year schools business major to see which courses its needs and whether the community college courses are equivalent to those which fulfill the requirements).</p>
<p>If there is no articulation agreement (perhaps because the four year school is private or out of state), then you won’t really know until after you transfer and the four year school evaluates your community college course work. For this reason, transferring to a four year school without an articulation agreement with your community college may be riskier than transferring to one with.</p>