<p>I'm going to be a freshman in college this fall, and I'm planning on going to a community college for the first 2 years and then transferring to a 4-year university.</p>
<p>However, I was wondering if it would be better if I went to a community college (Oakton Community College) for the first 2 years or if I went to an affordable public 4-year university (Northeastern Illinois University) and then transferred.</p>
<p>Do universities care if you went to community college or a university the first 2 years, or does it really not matter? Will it affect my chances of getting accepted into a top university (like Northwestern)? Do you think schools like Northwestern (and just all schools in general) like CC transfers better or university transfers?</p>
<p>I don’t know NUs transfer policies in particular. </p>
<p>In general, colleges take all aspects of your academics into account: school, grades, difficulty of coursework, etc. </p>
<p>There are relatively few merit scholarships for transfer students compared to fr applicants, and the amounts given are not also usually not as substantial. Some schools do have scholarships via PKB for CC students.</p>
<p>Since there is minimal merit aid at NU for fr admits, I doubt there is much if any for transfers. See the Resources sticky thread at the top of this forum for a link to a thread with merit aid for transfers.</p>
<p>The thing is, I’ve already pretty much decided that I’m going to go to a more affordable school the first two years. I was just wondering if Oakton Community College or Northeastern Illinois University would be the better option.</p>
<p>Community colleges only offer the first two years, so they are set up for transfers.Everyone there has experience helping students put together a transfer application. You would not be on your own two years from now. Make an appointment with the Transfer Counselor at Oakton, and talk with that person about your longer-term goals. He/she should have good ideas for you.</p>
<p>I think Northwestern states that, as a matter of policy, institutional aid is not available to first-year transfer students. Vanderbilt reserves the right to be need-aware in transfer admissions decisions.</p>
<p>Are you competitive for top schools? If so, why didn’t you go for major merit scholarships at good but not tippity-top schools? Many colleges require your high school transcript/SAT scores for transfer admissions; a stellar performance at The University of Nowhere at Middle is not going to make up for poor high-school stats. </p>
<p>Also, where do your concerns of the cost of college come from? Is your family full-pay or low income? Because most top colleges meet 100% of demonstrated need.</p>
<p>Except for a very few 100% need schools, most have a loan components, including NU. OP, you need to go to the websites of any schools you’re interested in, take a look at what NU says about FA for transfers:</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all the helpful replies! My family isn’t low-income but isn’t incredibly rich either. So I might not be able to get too much need-based financial aid. But anyway, entomom, after looking at the quotes you posted, I think I should just forget about my dream school (i.e. Northwestern).</p>
<p>But in general, do you guys think I should go to Oakton for the first two years or Northeastern? Or does it really not matter? If you think one of them is better, then why do you think that? What are the pros and cons of attending each of them?</p>
<p>Haha if I actually do get into NU I’ll try to let you know about aid since I currently go to Harper College. If you can afford the extra 10k(I think?) for the two years you should go Northeastern IL since I think more of the credits transfer, thought I could be wrong about that.</p>