Hello,
For a student trying to transfer out of Bakersfield CC (she’s not from Bakersfield) to a place that has similar rents as Bakersfield, what are towns in California that have the lowest rents AND a community college?
Thanks!
Interesting question. Looking thru the list of CCCs I’m going to guess that Imperial Valley in Imperial, Palo Verde in Blythe, and Reedley would be amongst the very cheapest places in California. Somewhere in the Central Valley or in the desert.
Maybe College of the Redwoods in Eureka would be an option? Cheap rent = avoiding any of the large metro areas and the coast south of Medocino.
Adding Copper Mountain in Joshua Tree. That’s close to the city of Twenty Nine Palms which is on this list of Top Ten cheapest places to live in California. This has been a really interesting exercise. Never been to most of these places.
https://www.homesnacks.net/most-affordable-places-in-california-126800/
What’s weird about that website is that if you click on the most expensive places to live in California, the list makes zero sense. But there must be some rhyme and reason to it.
I’d think College of the Syskyous in Weed and Yreka (near Mt Shasta ) would be in the running.
http://www.siskiyous.edu/
Chances are that a lot of them are in the San Joaquin Valley – which means that they may be similar to Bakersfield in many respects.
For example, a school like Modesto JC probably has a low cost of attendance, comparable to Bakersfield CC. But if she is looking to transfer because she doesn’t like the Bakersfield area, then the Modesto area may not be what she is looking for either.
Presumably, there is some other unstated criterion that Bakersfield and/or Bakersfield College does not meet?
There are plenty of places in California away from the well known expensive metro areas that have community colleges (there are over 100 in California). But without the full list of criteria, it is not possible to say which, if any, are better than Bakersfield.
Thank you! I’m going to investigate all of these.
Her reasons for trying to leave Bakersfield include air pollution, climate, students who aren’t sufficiently interested in their studies and seem to use college as a place to hang out.
But she’d be ok if the community college offered stem (pre engineering) and was located in an area with cheap rents or were even cheaper than Bakersfield, preferably less polluted.
http://californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/findacollege shows a map of California community colleges. From there, you can explore locations (cost of living, weather, pollution levels) and the colleges (course offerings, articulation on http://www.assist.org ).
However, “students who aren’t sufficiently interested in their studies and seem to use college as a [place] to hang out” tend to exist at any college.
^yes - that’s a “wouldn’t it be nice” criterion. The real criteria are rent costs and stem classes.
For most people, my suggestion would be Shasta College in Redding. Decent-sized city in the Central Valley, like Bakersfield – but while Bakersfield is at the far southern end of the Central Valley, Redding is at the far northern end. Climate is cooler (though still hot in summer) with noticeably more rain and better air quality. While they are both parts of the Central Valley, the Sacramento Valley (to the north) always feels generally greener and wetter to me than the San Joaquin Valley (to the south).
Shasta College is relatively big (enrollment ~ 10,000). It’s not as large as Bakersfield College, but should still be large enough to have everything you need, including pre-engineering.
From College Navigator:
Estimated cost of attendance, Shasta College, 2017-18, in-state tuition, off-campus housing: $18,633
Estimated cost of attendance, Bakersfield College, 2017-18, in-state tuition, off-campus housing: $20,713
You could maybe get even cheaper at particularly small and remote CCs, like College of the Siskiyous in Weed or Palo Verde College in Blythe. But I suspect that most people would be more comfortable at a relatively large school in a relatively large city, if the price is reasonably low. Shasta College seems like a good balance; far enough away from the big urban areas to be cheap, but in a large enough city that you won’t feel too isolated.
I think other than the environmental issues she’s going to find those issues at most CCs. She might find better weather elsewhere.
Looking strictly at climate she could look at Mendocino College in Ukiah (gets very hot in the summer), Feather River College in Quincy, Hartnell College in Salinas (more costly), or Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, as well as the aforementioned College of the Redwoods in Eureka.
If she doesn’t like Bakersfield’s climate I doubt she’d like the Imperial Valley locations.
I like that one. Basically due west of Bakersfield, nearly to the coast. Mild coastal climate, good air, vineyards. City of Santa Maria is decent-sized but not particularly noteworthy (except for barbecue). However, it’s only 20 miles to Pismo Beach, or 30 miles to the fun (but much more expensive) college town of San Luis Obispo.
Allan Hancock is relatively large (~12,000). It should be good for pre-engineering, because it has a solid reputation as a transfer “feeder” into Cal Poly SLO.
Cost seems competitive with Bakersfield College, according to College Navigator.
Estimated cost of attendance, Allan Hancock College, 2017-18, in-state tuition, off-campus housing: $20,732.
Thank you very much ! I will check it out.
Feather river, redwoods, Mendacito, Modesto crossed out due to not having stem programs. College of the Siskiyous in the running. 
Will let you know what he thinks ofbAllan Hancock.
Thank you again.
What do you mean by “stem programs”? According to http://www.assist.org , Feather River and Mendocino are lacking for calculus-based physics courses, but Redwoods and Modesto seem to be able to cover them.
She’s already taken all the physics and calculus classes they offer apparently? She still needs statics and differential equations.
I looked the latest monthly rent report at apartmentlist (dot com).
Median rent for 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom apartments:
Bakersfield: $721, $936
Redding: $758, $1,019
Santa Maria: $1,353, $1,636
Santa Maria is cheap by California coastal standards – for example, it’s a bargain compared to San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara. But even so, the housing there is probably not going to be competitively priced with inland cities like Bakersfield or Redding.
I would expect Sacramento City College to be a top pick for STEM in inland California. They send lots of transfers to UC Davis; in fact, SCC actually has a satellite campus at UC Davis now. So you can actually start taking lower-level classes on the Davis campus as an SCC student. However, Sacramento rents ($946, $1,200), while inexpensive relative to most California cities, are going to be higher than in Bakersfield.
Civil or mechanical engineering major?
Differential equations is not that hard to find, but engineering courses like statics, materials, and electronics may be harder to find, and not necessarily the same at all UCs and CSUs (so harder for community colleges to match all of them). Any particular UCs or CSUs she is targeting?
http://www.assist.org can help show which community colleges cover the target majors at the target UCs and CSUs the best.
Allan Hancock is a good pick but rents seem much higher than Bakersfield. I suggested it to her, as well as Reedley. I’ve also been looking at CC’s with housing, since this tends to indicate a more rural CC which would thus have lower than average rents.
Thank you all.