Hi everyone,
For financial reasons, I’m strongly considering 2 years of community college then transferring to a university. Does anyone with experience doing this like to share any pros/cons about doing community first? I want to have 1 major and 2 minors - will doing community first affect this in any way? I know what I want to major/minor in, but don’t exactly know which specific career yet. In community college, are you strictly limited to taking gen. ed. courses, or are there elective (don’t know if that’s the right term) classes I can take in community college to focus on my major/minor interests too?
Best advice is to meet with the on-site Transfer counselor at your CC as soon as you can, hopefully before selecting classes. They will be able to help you navigate the courses and timing you’ll need to transfer at the two-year mark.
They can help you to decided - based on your potential major - if you want to follow the IGETC or a major-specific pathway.
Note that there are a few requirements (in the Communication and Critical Thinking categories) that the CSU’s have and the UC’s don’t. Be sure you have your end goal in mind (UC, CSU or private) as you plot your course.
Good luck
It depends in part on what you want to study. If your areas of interest all have intro classes at the CC level, then you can potentially get a start on a double major. (You could take, say, both physics and anthropology classes that exceed what you need for your GE’s, even though the AA will be in only one of those subjects.) But if you are looking to study subjects where you can’t get a head start through the CC course offerings, then the cc-transfer route could slow you down. What are your interests?
The caveat here is that, while it takes 60 credits to finish the AA in a single major, the maximum number of credits you can transfer is 70. So even if the college offers additional classes that will count toward your desired major, you have to plan carefully to get the maximum bang for your buck out of those 60-70 transfer credits. You can pick your distribution classes to be in your areas of interest, but then you’re only going to be able to add an extra 2-3 electives before you hit the limit.
If UC is your goal, choose a CC with an Honors program if at all possible, as they’ll be more skilled at UC advising. And also make sure the college you choose offers AA-T programs in all of your areas of interest if possible. Use this tool to look at CC-CSU transfer paths: http://adegreewithaguarantee.com/en-us/abouttheprogram/findyourpath.aspx
And here’s the UC TAG program: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/transfer/guarantee/index.html
Thank you for the detailed info! As for my interests, I’m likely going to major in psychology.
Note that the 60-70 units specified in post #2 is semester units. It’s 90-105 in quarter units.
The primary cons of attending CC first for a well qualified and motivated student IMHO are:
- no freshman dorm experience
- lots of your peers aren’t as focused and motivated and you will find most people at most CCCs don’t make their educational objective in a timely fashion. (that doesn’t mean it’s not possible but, you are swimming up stream).
- it can be hard to gain progressive experience (think internships, club officers, etc) when you switch communities part way through
- you do risk that you won’t make your transfer target either due to a poor grade, limited class availability, a series you didn’t know about or another unforeseen item.
- Many CCs are pretty vacant after hours and most students work so, it can be hard to establish relationships, then when you transfer, most of the students have been there a few years so, they already have relationships formed.
- some schools are really hard to transfer into (CP SLO and SDSU for example)
The pluses are::
- Big Savings on tuition
- it give the immature student a chance to develop a little self discipline at home before you head out with no rules (this was me many moons ago btw)
- it can open the door to schools that wouldn’t have considered you as a freshman.
https://scorecard.cccco.edu/scorecard.aspx
This will allow you to find your CC and see what the transfer success rate is (They define success as 6 year window) You will note that there is a lot of variability school to school so the tool may help you select the CC that’s most attuned to your objective.
I don’t know of any school that will consider your minor during admission. They are pretty easy to sign up for when you arrive.
http://www.assist.org/web-assist/welcome.html
Assist will help you map your CCs classes to your target school’s requirements.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major
That one will show you the admit rate and GPA for applicants for each major at each UC.
similar view but, shows how transfer date from each CC to each UC
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-source-school
Also, i would make an appointment with an admissions person at a couple of your target schools and see what they have to say about the courses you need, GPA and other things they consider.
At most CCs, transferring into a mid tier UC within 2 years is totally doable if you begin prepared and stay focused on your studies. It won’t be easy but it is very doable. With sufficient AP credits, some students can TAG qualify in a year. You need to be laser focused but, it can be done.
Good luck.
To @NCalRent 's point about missing out on the residential student experience…
If you can afford to live away from home, you could consider the options of, for example, getting a spot in one of the private dorms in Isla Vista (where many UCSB students also live), enroll in the Honors program at SB City, take extra courses toward your major/minors in the summer at UCSB when enrollment is open, get your GE’s done, and transfer seamlessly to UCSB. Then you can be part of the student community and have more social continuity. Of course this doesn’t save as much money as living at home, but it’s still a lot cheaper than four years of UC. (Same can be accomplished in the vicinity of other UC’s as well, but I gave the SB example because Isla Vista probably offers the richest social blending of UC and CC students.) http://www.sbcc.edu/housing/Dorm_Stryle_Living.php Just fwiw…
In addition, a big positive for the community colleges is smaller classes that are taught by professors, not TAs. A class that might have 400+ students at a UC may only have 40 at the CC, so you get more interaction with the professors.