So i didnt get into the school of my choice. some people said that its easier to transfer to the UCs, USC etc if you attend community college in cali. I dont want to drop a year and i want to attend college in 2015 only.
can anyone elaborate on the system as to how it works and whether i can still apply ?
The way it works is that you attend a community college for two years, taking general education courses and the frosh/soph courses for your major. Then you apply to transfer as a junior (for UCs and CSUs; USC may allow sophomore-level transfers), with your college course work and grades being the primary selection criteria.
Use http://www.assist.org to check what CC courses you need to take for your major at UCs and CSUs. For USC, look up the course requirements on its web site, then check the course articulation listings at https://camel2.usc.edu/articagrmt/artic.aspx .
There is a whole subforum for UC transfers that you may want to browse and ask questions at.
Note that if you are not a California resident, California CCs, CSUs, and UCs will all charge additional out-of-state tuition, without financial aid coverage. Getting California residency for tuition purposes is difficult.
OP is international. OP seems quite confused, also writing a few days ago
OP, why did you apply to those schools if you had no intention of staying there? You got into good schools (“top colleges”) and should pick one and plan on going there for 4 years. If you are not a US citizen, your visa will need to be accommodated for any new school and that isn’t as easy as you think. You’ll be paying a lot of money to transfer schools and visas.
And, transfers to “ivies” are difficult because you have to hope that someone drops out of the ivy, in order to give you a space.
Oh and btw, our community colleges in California are packed.
There is no guarantee that you will be done in two years at our Community colleges, since classes can be hard to get into.
As well as, there is no guarantee that you will transfer to a UC. Our fees are very expensive (no financial aid for OOS or internationals) and so is our housing. Most of our CC’s don’t provide housing. You haven’t thought things through and are just hunting and pecking.
Plus, people in California don’t call it Cali…
^^^^^exactly!^^^^^ It’s a pet peeve of Californians.
Sorry to be petty, but it’s true. To answer the question, as others have said, the CC’s in California will take 3 years to get through. UC and Cal State require a specific set of classes, typically they want 60 units, which is a lot harder than transferring to a private school. They will accept you after one year.
Try transferring to a school that is not in California.
I hope OP pays attention to the answer he received. I learn so much from fellow CCers.
Usually it is doing all your general education courses in 2 years, for UC schools and Cal States you would complete a curriculum called the IGETC. By completing a certain amount of courses in English, Math, Arts&Humanities, etc, you would satisfy the lower division general ed. requirements for those universities. Some privates accept IGETC, some dont you have to research that yourself.
However, if you know your major then you must also fufill your prerequisites before applying to that school. IGETC can only guarantee that you will be considered for admission. Find the school(s) that is right for you and research thoroughly what they require of you before you apply there. Trust me, the earlier you start, the better.
If you are a STEM major, chances are you will be staying at a CC for a minimum of 3 years ( unless you have a ton of AP credits that can take you out of a ton of classes). I am currently a Nursing major trying to transfer out. Just applying to transfer for two schools will keep me in CC for 3 years, if something goes wrong, or I want to apply for more schools I will be there for 4 years.
IF you are an engineering student IGETC might not be right for you, check to see if the school youre applying for requires it.
As the above posts have said it is difficult to get into classes at a CC. Today I was waitlisted for some classes and its only been 1 day that registration has opened, and I was part of the early registration group. I don’t want this to scare you, going to a CC has its benefits like smaller classes of around 35 and the cost per unit is definitely cheaper vs other universities. (depends on cc)
Ucbalumnus gave you great information, use it.