<p>i am an international student from china, and planning to attend to a cc for 2 years before transferring into UCB/UCLA...(Any School that has a good computer science academy).
I'm sure that i'm going to take up computer science for my major.
In Fact I have a high sat score but I cannot afford a university (most scholarships are not available for international students). There are more than 100 CCs in CA and it's really hard for a student like me to make a choice.
I've heard that SMC,Foothill... Which is the best pick for me? Other CC recommendations are welcome.
Thanks ~</p>
<p>If you goal is to transfer to CS at Berkeley or UCLA, start here:</p>
<p>[Exploring</a> Majors](<a href=“Welcome to ASSIST”>Welcome to ASSIST)
[Exploring</a> Majors](<a href=“Welcome to ASSIST”>Welcome to ASSIST)</p>
<p>Now look for community colleges that cover the greatest proportion of the major prep courses for the CS major at Berkeley and UCLA. Sometimes, you may need a combination of community colleges to get all of the major prep courses.</p>
<p>In the San Francisco Bay Area (since you mention Foothill), consider the following for good coverage:</p>
<p>Diablo Valley College
Laney College</p>
<p>For UCLA only, also consider Chabot College. In general, it appears that equivalents of the Berkeley CS 61A and CS 61C courses are particularly hard to find; equivalents of the UCLA introductory CS courses are not as difficult to find.</p>
<p>In the Los Angeles area, Santa Monica college has good coverage of UCLA introductory CS courses, but not Berkeley introductory CS courses.</p>
<p>The companion community college to Foothill in NorCal is De Anza geographically: F in the incredible Los Altos Hills; DA in the not-quite-as-nice Cupertino – not that C’tino isn’t incredible, just the location of F is super nice, and both situated in Silicon. Foothill is a lot smaller doesn’t have as many xfers to various UC’s and private c’s and u’s as De Anza but is probably more foreign-student friendly, has a bigger % of foreign students. Acceptance rates to UC’s would probably be the same. </p>
<p>The companion college to De Anza wrt xfers to UC and various private c’s and u’s in SoCal would be SMC. DA leads in NorCal; SMC leads in SoCal wrt pure numbers of xfers. SMC is also foreign-student friendly, a lot of whom are there from all over the globe because they desire to xfer to UCLA. </p>
<p>Diablo is a good choice, though, has a good no. of xfers, and it’s in the Eastbay, forgot which city. Berkeley CC is surprisingly not very good.</p>
<p>OP/JC, you have to check out Santa Barbara City College. Incredible campus, if it were a four-year, people would be all over it … much better than UCSB wrt location on the shore and architecture and such.</p>
<p>Other notable community colleges: Pasadena CC, Pierce, Glendale; and in NorCal, even San Francisco CC, though SFCC is really busy. San Diego area? I’m not sure, but there are some good ones.</p>
<p>While the community colleges named above may be good, CS is often a very difficult major to match lower division courses for (in contrast, courses like math, English, and physics are available everywhere).</p>
<p>Berkeley CS is probably the hardest to cover; Foothill has no equivalent courses, and De Anza has only part of CS 61B (this is typical of most community colleges). UCLA CS is somewhat easier, though Foothill and De Anza do not cover UCLA CS as well as some other community colleges. Santa Barbara City covers UCSB CS well, but not Berkeley CS or UCLA CS.</p>
<p>You can take courses at more than one community college before transferring.</p>
<p>Use [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) when checking community colleges.</p>
<p>Agree, both UCLA and Cal generally take mature xfers – those who are ready to step into their majors – with averages of ~ 3.70 and 3.75, resp, and even higher for engineering/CS, and impacted majors.</p>
<p>I can’t find Cal’s acceptance rates, but here are UCLA’s:</p>
<p>2010:</p>
<p>Acceptance rate of xfers: 28%
Acceptance rate of School of Engineering: 23%
Acceptance rate to CS: 47/247 or 19%</p>
<p>2011:</p>
<p>Acceptance rate of xfers: 27%
Acceptance rate of School of Engineering: 18%
Acceptance rate to CS: ?</p>
<p>Generally, some of those, say, from cc to UCLA would undoubtedly not have the prereq classes completed and would be rejects based on this. Others wouldn’t be competitive wrt gpa.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that all the 47 who were accepted in 2010 had ALL the CS lower-division reqs done at the point of xfer. If a cc doesn’t have the required lower-div courses, I think that’s a hardship both might be willing to overlook and have the student take the courses at the U, instead of having the student hunt for those cc’s that have all the prereqs. But you sound like you know more about CS xfers than I would, so I’ll defer to you. Assist should help in the matter.</p>
<p>The real issue is that a transfer student lacking the lower division courses from community college will have to take a lot of “catch up” courses before taking the upper division courses in his/her major. This may make scheduling all of the desired courses more difficult within the allotted four semesters or six quarters.</p>
<p>The more lower division courses that a transfer student can cover before transferring, the fewer problems s/he will have in scheduling after transfer.</p>