Chosing Community Colleges

<p>Hi! I'm planning to chose a community college. I'm a little stuck between Irvine Valley College, Orange Coast College, and Santiago Canyon College.</p>

<p>Now SCC is the one closest to me.
IVC I heard is great and the "harvard" of community college at least around in my area, but I heard it's also very competitive which kind of scares me.
OCC is from what I heard the top transfer school to USC so I'm not sure.</p>

<p>SCC would give me priority registration since my high school is the main (provider) school for SCC. </p>

<p>I screwed around a lot in high school, but I wan't to get serious. At the same time, I want to remain humble, and play to my strengths, as I have not gotten straight A"s but I know I am capable. </p>

<p>IVC is perferred, but like I said, the competitiveness makes me a little scared. It's better to be first at a college, then 5th at an okay college. Im not downplaying or acting unconfident, I'm trying to ask the most realistic.</p>

<p>I want to major in Buisness Administration, and transfer to places like USC, Berkley, or even a huge stretch would be somewhere like UPenn. But it's not going to happen without hard work and dedication.</p>

<p>If anyone has any advice on which one I should attend, and at the same time, maybe some advice on which classes to take tha'd be great. </p>

<p>Thanks Guys
Cheers. </p>

<p>I’m partial to OCC but I’ve taken classes at IVC as well, and I’ve had good experiences at both. IVC isn’t really competitive like you might think (and that Harvard comment made me chuckle. I’ve never heard anyone compare a CC to an ivy, even in relation to other community colleges). I did hear someone once say similarly that OCC was the Berkeley of community colleges, but I dont think they were making an analogy of difficulty.</p>

<p>You will get a mixed bag of difficulty regardless of where you go depending on your professor selection and the courses you are taking. </p>

<p>General Advice for getting into UCLA and Cal:
Complete the IGETC
Maintain a GPA of preferably over a 3.9 (Average admitted GPA of a Business Economics Transfer to UCLA in 2011 was 3.93)
If you want an edge, and you are going to OCC (Idk if IVC offers this) complete the TAP. It will give you priority consideration at UCLA.
Do something else with your life… ExtraCurriculurs, work, preferably both.</p>

<p>Hey! Thanks for your reply, all 3 of the CCs. I mentioned offer TAP. So is it really just a matter of which CC can give me the most availability in terms of classes?</p>

<p>Take a look at the course articulation listings to see which CC has the best coverage of lower division requirements for the majors and four year schools you are looking at.</p>

<p>For California CCs to UCs and CSUs, use <a href=“http://www.assist.org”>http://www.assist.org</a> . For USC, look at <a href=“http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/articulation/”>http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/articulation/&lt;/a&gt; and compare with the requirements for the majors at USC’s web site. For other schools, try searching for “transfer credit” on their web sites.</p>

<p>For example, here is what ASSIST lists for what your three CCs offer to prepare to transfer to UCB business administration:</p>

<p><a href=“Welcome to ASSIST”>Welcome to ASSIST;
<a href=“Welcome to ASSIST”>Welcome to ASSIST;
<a href=“Welcome to ASSIST”>Welcome to ASSIST;

<p>Fortunately, business is a common enough major whose courses tend to be well covered at CCs.</p>

<p>Thank you so much UC Balamnus, the assist report made it very easy to read. This is Orange County and it appears that all 3 campuses are well funded and offer the classes, and like you said Buisness is a common major. At this point, how should i determine which Community College to attend? Should I go down to the campuses and check them out?</p>

<p>I’d say which ever offers the most classes that you need to transfer. </p>

<p>Note that for freshman, it can be a bit harder to get classes at OCC, because you don’t have much of a priority for registration.</p>

<p>Santa Monica College is the Harvard of Community Colleges. </p>

<p>IVC. I have personally never attended. I have a hunch the people there are a cut above most CCs. The reason I say this is I know a few people who have gone there and it seems most of the Newport Beach / Irvine crowd chooses to attend that school. My Econ teacher says he teaches at both schools and said the same thing. </p>

<p>OCC. First of all the people; it’s mostly the Fountain Valley / HB / Costa Mesa crowd. I’ve meet people as far as Beach n Ball and Anaheim Hills that have commuted to OCC. Most departments are strong or easy (minus a few bad teachers) has a REALLY strong honors math department with a Berkeley PHD professor. Has a Crew Team. Getting classes is kinda hard at first (but its kinda like that at all CCs) Massive school which is really good in the sense that you have a wide verity of classes & times to choose from. If you are a hard worker i.e. you want to take winter and summer sessions along with over 12 units a semester this helps a LOT. </p>

<p>Personally I would tell you not not limit yourself to only 1 CC. Go to wherever you can find the class you need. For instance Coastline has a brand new Newport Beach campus (next to Hoag Hospital) and it’s incredibly easy to get classes there. </p>

<p>For those competitive business programs CC and grades alone will not get you there. You will need something else. E.g. at OCC you could sign up to be a tutor at their student success center. </p>

<p>Ok so basically I was thinking of applying to community colleges as well as apply to some universities as a transfer student. I planned to do this is because I felt that would broaden my chances. At the moment , I already have good A level results, however my GPAs from university are quite low( as low as 1.5). so I felt that most unis might consider the low GPA and that might hurt my chances. Now I wanted to find out if community colleges will accept my A level grades for transfer into 2nd year since the grades were okay. In view of this, do u guys think I am better off applying as a transfer student to community colleges or I should apply to unis. is applying to community college a good idea? </p>

<p>I have been told that one cannot apply for visa using i20 from a community college and only university i20 is accepted for obtaining visa. so I felt if I was going to apply to community college, maybe I can use the i20 of another uni to gain visa and thereafter transfer to community college. do u guys think this is a good idea? are there any possible implications?</p>

<p>I am sure y’all can tell that I am rather confused, yeah , it cos I am rather new to the American system . so any contributions from you guys will be more than appreciated/ Thanks yall.</p>