<p>I am a junior currently taking Spanish 4 Honors at my school, but my previous teachers were very incompetent, and I am having a hard time (and it's only the third day of school). Will colleges think it's bad if I take the class at a local community college instead of my high school? Thanks for helping</p>
<p>Interesting question. You would think that taking courses at CC would be viewed very positively by colleges. However, believe it or not, it is a mixed bag. Here are the pros and cons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Pros: If you do well, it does show that you can do college level work. Secondly, unlike AP courses, if you get a "C" or better, you have a decent chance of getting college credit. With AP exams, the availablily of credit is mainly dependant on the AP exam score. Moreover, many colleges either don't accept AP exam scores, or require higher scores than a "3" to get credit.</p></li>
<li><p>Cons: If you take too many courses ( around 10 community college courses), you may be classified as a transfer student and have a totally different approach to admissions. In addition, colleges prefer to see AP courses over community college courses. I think it is because many kids take AP courses, and they can use it as a standard of reference in comparison. Most importantly, however, many colleges won't give you college credit if the course that you took at CC got you out of a required course in high school. Thus, if you are required to take English in high school to graduate, they many not accept CC English if it replaced high school English. However, you won't need psychology to graduate, thus, phychology would be transferrable.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My suggestion is to take some AP courses to show that you can do well in them, and take CC courses that won't replace required high school courses.</p>
<p>The community college nearby is charging me 350 usd for an Economics course which I wanted to take in place of an AP economics course ( not offered by my high school ) . </p>
<p>Even though I like Economics, do you think its worth the money or should I jsut self-study and appear for the AP economics exam?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>AZM:</p>
<p>in Calif, the UC's consider most community college classes "easier" than a corresponding AP class. But, due to scheduling and other reasons, many students take a cc classes instead of AP and still get accepted at Berkeley and UCLA. </p>
<p>You have a very good reason to go the cc route (you and teacher not clicking, for whatever reason), and, you should pursue that idea if your HS approves.</p>
<p>bluebayou, why do you say the UC's consider CC classes easier than AP classes?</p>
<p>Here's what the UCLA website says, for example:
[quote]
Which is better to take: honors, AP/IB, or college courses?</p>
<p>A: UC-certified honors, AP/IB, and transferable college courses are equally meritorious in the sense that they are all challenging courses, and they all add extra weight to an applicant's GPA. If you are still in high school and are interested in completing college courses, you can access a list of UC-transferable courses offered at California community colleges at <a href="http://www.assist.org.%5B/url%5D">www.assist.org.</a> (taken from <a href="http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/Prospect/Top10/FAQgeneral.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/Prospect/Top10/FAQgeneral.htm</a>)
[/quote]
As for taxguy's comment about being considered a transfer student if you've completed too many units, this is something that's probably going to vary college by college and you'll have to check at the schools you're considering. It's not true in the UC system. They say
[quote]
You are considered a freshman applicant for admission purposes if:</p>
<pre><code>* you are still in high school, or
* you have graduated from high school but have not enrolled in a regular session at any college or university.
</code></pre>
<p>If you plan to attend a college summer session immediately after graduating from high school or have completed college work while in high school, the University still considers you a freshman applicant.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>mike:</p>
<p>of course, the UC's can't discriminate against the community colleges in official written policy....but every GC and private counselor I've spoken with said that classes at cc's make great sense for students where AP's are not available, or where a specialized class is not offered at the HS (say, Astronomy).</p>
<p>Other than those examples, the counselors claim that the HS Strength of Schedule component is more rigorous with an AP/IB course (at a competive HS), than with the same cc class. The reasons mentioned are: 1) competition; and, 2) unknown cc grading policies vs the nationally-normed AP score. </p>
<p>Anecdotally, every local kid I've spoken to said that our local cc is much easier than their HS honors/AP courses. Indeed, B+ kids typically take a few cc courses (instead of HS honors/AP) to bolster their gpa for the UC's, or take Physics at the cc instead of AP Physics. The former is a much easier A.</p>
<p>I AM a California resident, and am planning on applying to UCB, UCLA, UCD, etc. Anyone know what UCs specifically think about something like this, or even only 3 years of a language? Also, Spanish 4 Honors at my school is NOT an AP class. Thanks</p>
<p>if you were my child, I'd recommmend the cc route in lieu of a bad teacher experience. Just make sure your GC concurs.</p>
<p>btw: UCLA has a foreign lang requirment, so they obviously look favorably on 4 years of language other than english.</p>
<p>bumpity bump</p>
<p>Uh - here in California (at least where I live), the state pays for my CC classes since i'm a full time HS student.</p>
<p>bump it up</p>
<p>last bump if no one wants to help me :(</p>
<p>The UCs recommend 3 years of foriegn language, and require 2. Many students at my school have only taken 3 years and got accepted into top UCs. But if your current high school course load is not too bad, I would think that taking
spanish 4 @ a CC not a bad idea. The class would be time consuming, but dont forget that it doesnt last for a whole year like high school classes, so it's definately worth your time. While reading your posts, I can see that that you lean more toward taking the class @ CC, ;]</p>