<p>Hello, i'm a senior in highschool and i'm definately interested in going through a community college then transferring to a UC. Many people refer to community college as a continuation of high school if not easier, my question is if that is really true? It seems that transfer admissions is no different than freshman admissions and it is based on essays and GPA. So how hard are community college courses and is it really that difficult to maintain a 4.0 along with other ECs?</p>
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<p>It IS different from freshman admission. Transfer students do not need to take the SAT/ACT, high school doesn’t factor in, and admission criteria mainly based on GPA, major prereqs, and IGETC. ECs are not as important for transfer students, but don’t help. </p>
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Depends on the class and teacher. Some teachers grade harder than others. Because the class transfers, it is “suppose” to cover the same content. If you are worried about not being prepared, you can always spend a little extra time on the side teaching yourself material.</p>
<p>Don’t give up on ECs completely, but focus on your GPA, major prereqs, and IGETC.</p>
<p>use [url=<a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com%5DRateMyProfessors.com%5B/url”>http://www.ratemyprofessors.com]RateMyProfessors.com[/url</a>]</p>
<p>(find your school and then find the teacher that your taking)
you can see if the teachers good or not…so when your picking classes look at all the teachers rating before doing so.</p>
<p>This helped me alot and i got to choose the better teachers from look at their ratings (but remember those are students opinions their not always accurate lol)</p>
<p>cc can be easier than hs in the sense that you have more control. for instance, you have more control over how many and what classes to take. however, cc will be more difficult than hs if you are not used to being independent. professors tend to spend less time with students one-on-one and some could care less if you do well or not. also, the courses usually require more writing, research, reading, and critical thinking. you will also be expected to write at the college level - something I have discovered many cc students straight out of high school lack. </p>
<p>be responsible/accountable for yourself, budget your time wisely, get as many prereq’s out of the way as soon as possible, and keep your eyes on the prize: UC transfer. Do these things and you should have no problem succeeding in cc and becoming a competitive transfer applicant.</p>
<p>oh, and one last thing…utilize the resources at your cc! keep in touch with counselors, transfer center, etc. this will help you stay on track and develop a clear path to your goal.</p>
<p>yea try meeting with a counsler often…even the summer before you start school. also, try meeting with different counslers…i meet with three and found that the last counsler i met was very helpful than the other two counslers i met before. The first two didnt give me much information and the second counsler i thought was great, but the last counsler i met was even better she gave me alot of information and i wish i met with her earlier. So try experimenting</p>
<p>My parents think that it would be a bad idea to go through the transfer program because the work load at a community college is widely considered easier than university type work. They worry that after I transfer, I might get used to the rigors of a community college and not that of a university and that I might not be able to do well. Is this a valid argument?</p>
<p>Community College is ridiculously easy. Just use ratemyprofessors.com, pickaprof.com, and campusbuddy.com for 100% of the courses you take, and you’ll approach or get a 4.0 without breaking a sweat (assuming you do your homework and show up to class)</p>
<p>To respond to the question you just asked, the argument is definitely valid. Just be prepared to really step it up once you get to a stronger school and you’ll be fine. I’d still go to CC, just know that isn’t what college is actually like. Oh, and explain to them that your GPA will get super inflated and help you with grad schools.</p>
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<p>No that’s a terrible argument. If anything you’re even better off bc all these kids who went straight out of high school had to deal with uni course loads immediately. CC classes are definitely tougher than high school courses and prepare you more for higher level courses at a university.</p>
<p>It may arguably be easier, but something like 60% of community college transfers graduate with honors at the UC they transferred to.</p>
<p>I don’t care what anyone says, community college is VERY easy. There are a few reasons for this. </p>
<p>First, for the most part from my experience a lot of kids at CC are there to get their parents off their back and have something to do, these kids do not care about school and in every class I’ve taken at CC 1/4 of the class had dropped after the first midterm in my Programming with C++ class less than 1/3rd remained at the end of the class. Why does this make things easy? Because just by showing up everyday you’re already in the top 10% of students, teachers like students who care and when teachers like you things go your way. All my friends take school somewhat seriously and I haven’t seen a single case where a teacher wouldn’t bump us up a grade if we were close.</p>
<p>Second, for the most part you will be taking easy classes. Unless you’re into something math based (hard sciences, engineering etc.) the majority of classes will be basic intro to so and so to complete IGETC. Intro classes for the most part are SUPER easy. In fact I haven’t taken a single 3 unit class that wasn’t a breeze.</p>
<p>Unfortunately that doesn’t make CC not suck. I slacked off in high school (2.8 GPA and no foreign language classes) and had no other option but CC, now I finally have a goal for myself (B.S. Comp. Engineering at UC) and at CC I’ve got a 3.778 (would be a 4.0 except my first semester I got 2 B’s because I was one of the students I mentioned earlier who was only there to get their parents off their back) and I don’t work significantly harder than in high school. All I do differently now is go to every class and do the assignments… hard to call that a ton of effort. I don’t put in any extra time studying or anything, I just do the assigned work and show up to class and that is enough to get A’s. In a way I find it demotivating, it doesn’t feel like an accomplishment when it’s so easy, I really can’t not WAIT for more challenging courses when I get to UC as I would love to actually get an A I really had to work for. Add in the fact that most kids just go home after class so you don’t meet to many friends and it pretty much seals the deal.</p>
<p>Fingers crossed I get in this year as I REALLY don’t want to spend another year at CC.</p>
<p>Cliffs: CC is easy, none of the students care, we all just go home after class, I want out 
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<p>/\ I completely relate to this. Last week my fellow classmates slaughtered Faulkner by interjecting dumbed down interpretations and irrelevant discussion. I seriously wanted to just walk out of the class. What was worse was my professor, who tolerated and even encouraged the idiotic discussion. I am so ready to move on…the lack of challenge here is slowly chipping away at my sanity.</p>
<p>Yeah CC is definitely easier for SOME classes. But for stuff like O-Chem I don’t see why it would be. We use the same book as a lot of universities (our book is the same as UCB), only difference is the class size. </p>
<p>But yes there are things I despise about CC. Like I have to take a history class and my professor ACTUALLY factors participation into your grade, meaning you have to raise your hand and say something to get credit in that part of your grade. So basically all class period we have stupid ass kids who pretend to act like they care about the material and ask stupid questions that are so blatantly insignificant just to fill their participation grade. It makes me feel like I’m in high school. </p>
<p>Also social life = non-existent. I have friends but none that I would hang out with on the weekends or go to parties with (there is NO party scene if you go to CC). It really is terrible in that regard.</p>
<p>Unfortunately it’s taking me a long time to transfer as a bio major since my garbage school makes you take a ton of pre-reqs to take the classes I need.</p>
<p>^ I agree that the material is the same, I mean Calculus is Calculus, but how much your expected to know and are tested on it is most likely much more rigorous at a UC.</p>
<p>Ha, yeah “participation” grades are a joke. It’s sad that Professors have to resort to that to get kids to come to class, I mean actually learning the material well enough to do well in class isn’t reason enough to go, kids actually need a point reward for showing up…</p>
<p>I might be stuck here another year too (school was stingy with Pre-Reqs and wouldn’t let me skip Pre-Cal to go to Calculus, and that delayed all the Physics I need to take by a semester etc.), so I’m hoping my GPA and perfect GPA in all pre-reqs I have taken will be enough to get me into UCSD or UCSB (well a counselor at UCSB said I should get in, but as anyone thinking about admissions knows you never stop worrying haha).</p>
<p>anyone see the new community college show on nbc, ■■■■■ way to perpetuate stereotypes…</p>
<p>It really depends on what classes you take.
CC can be easy with a lot of joke classes. </p>
<p>If you are going to take linear algebra, calc3 and diff eq, physics3, chem. It’s not going to be easy. The calculus tests at CC were much more difficult then the ones I took at a public university. So they weren’t exactly easy.</p>
<p>There are people who care that go to CC. There were a lot of serious kids in my physics and calc classes, not all of them were able to pull of an A. Out of the students that lasted and cared about their grades, only a fraction of the class got As.</p>
<p>They don’t always get a 4.0. You see a lot of people on college confidential that think they are going to get a 4.0 and never do.</p>
<p>But, the big public university I went to a few years back was much easier than CC, one hard class a semester(which was calc1 my first semester, I pulled out the first test from my closet a few days ago and it was a joke compared to my CC calc tests). So who knows. It may just be my experience.</p>
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<p>Sounds like my situation. To transfer to UCSD I need a higher level Physics class than I’m taking right now but to take that Physics class I need Calculus, which I don’t have. Currently taking Pre-Calc (which is a joke of a class). But the Physics class I am taking right now is good enough for UCSB (according to assist.org). </p>
<p>What’s your major? I plan on applying to UCSB for 2010’ Fall even though I won’t have all my pre-reqs done or even IGETC for that matter but I just want to see what happens. I will still need to finish up my bio sequence (it’s taking me FIVE biology related classes over the time I’m spending at CC to cover Gen. Bio I and Gen Bio II, it’s absurd). I’ll also need Calculus and some joke IGETC classes like Cinema and random History courses. </p>
<p>Even if I got in I’m not so sure I would want to go without completing all my pre-reqs+IGETC though. Granted I’ll officially be a year behind by staying at CC for three years instead of two, but it will save a ton of money. My parents are paying a lot of money for my brothers med school tuition so keeping the burden off them for as long as possible is the plan.</p>
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<p>I’m a computer engineering major. I’m going to apply to UCSB, UCSD and UCLA for Fall 2010, I’m hopeful about UCSB since the counselor says I have a good shot because they admit as pre-majors.</p>
<p>Yeah Pre-Calc is pretty easy, and what really sucks is that so far in Calculus we haven’t really used it. I mean sure the refresher course on your algebra is useful for some of the nastier problems but for the most part it wasn’t that useful. Luckily for me it was 5 unit class I got an A in so a big GPA booster.</p>
<p>I’m finishing IGETC this semester (well almost, all I’ll have left is Phys 1 which is a pre-req that I’m taking anyways) so at least I’ll have that when I apply. I would be focusing on more pre-reqs, but none of the programming or other pre-reqs I can take without Calc 1 being done were offered this semester, so since I need to be a full time student I just figured I would finish off IGETC (taking Art History, Physical Anthro and Sociology, I didn’t know my major right away so I knocked off IGETC classes until I did so I only have these left). I have to say I’ll be glad to be done with IGETC as the GE classes aren’t too exciting for me haha.</p>
<p>Next semester will be tougher, Calc II, Phys 1 and a programming class. I’ve been at JC for a year and half already so it’ll be 2.5 years in June and I’m not eager to be there 3.5. If I get in I will go in a heartbeat, my parents both went to UCD and they want me to get as good a college experience as possible and they’re OK if I can’t get it done in 2 years since I’m an engineering major haha.</p>
<p>I’d say the main difference is that most CC professors don’t expect as much from their students.</p>
<p>The difficulty of a community college class relative to those at universities are almost certainly going to be based on the subject of the class and how high it is. If it is a GE class that students are just taking to fulfill IGETC then the students aren’t expected to work very hard simply because they don’t care about Ancient Middle East Architecture. If you are taking an advanced Calc3 based physics course on Electricity and Magnetism, you are a science major.</p>