<p>Hey,
So I'm finishing high school this year, I'm an international.
I plan to get a business related degree.</p>
<p>Would you suggest I go to CSUN or SMC?</p>
<p>SMC is only 2 years... if you suggest SMC, is it easy to transfer to CSUN?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Yes, SMC is an excellent 2-year community college and you could easily transfer to CSUN after 2 years.
CSUN has a good business program. If you’re happy with CSUN, I would go ahead and enroll there.
If you aren’t quite sure of an academic major, or if CSUN is not your top choice, or if you want to save some money, enroll in SMC and then transfer to a different 4-year university.</p>
<p>You should goto SMC and transfer to CSUN. It’s easy to do so. </p>
<p>Thanks…</p>
<p>Dose that mean, If I do 2 years in SMC, I have to do 2 years in CSUN to finish bachelors? or do i have to go 2 + 4 ?</p>
<p>I’m not very familiar with US Colleges.</p>
<p>I just have a bad feeling about SMC , beacuse it’s very cheap, makes it look like a very low quality University? I mean it’s like 4x cheaper than CSUN… (which is a state cllege)</p>
<p>in California, you can do the first two years at a community college, then transfer to UC’s or CSU’s, depending on your grades there. The community college quality is fairly good and many students choose it as a way to get into the more selective UC’s if they didn’t make it in high school. It’s cheaper because it’s designed for everybody - it can be a second chance for students who didn’t do well in high school, it can be a way to go to school near one’s family, etc. In addition it has fewer amenities like housing, clubs, facilities, etc.
So you would do 2 years there and depending on how well you do you would finish the last two years at a larger university. Check on the website to see which ones SMC has agreements with.
Are you sure it’s 4X cheaper though? Could you be comparing costs for one year with costs for one semester, or total cost of attendance (which includes tuition, fees, housing, food, miscelaneous) with tuition costs?</p>
<p>Hey,
Thanks MYO, I’m going business.</p>
<p>Is the quality of SMC as good as for example CSULB/CSUN?
Would you rather go to CSULB or SMC? I’m worried about SMC being considered a low quality college, but love the fact that I’d be able to live in SM (Yep I know it’s not cheap).</p>
<p>Non-resident is $7,560.00 per year … and CSU is like 17k-19k , so about 2.5x cheaper, which worries me.</p>
<p>bump once.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d rather go to SMC, do extremely well there, and transfer to a UC, provided I’ve got the money. If I didn’t have money fo a UC, I’d calculate whether CSUN for 5* years would cost the same as SMC for 2-3* years + 2 years elsewhere then I’d go where it’s cheapest.
<p>Thanks.
If money wasn’t really an issue (And BTW, I don’t want to go to UC for personal reasons, not only money, but I wouldn’t want to pay $40k-$50k/year).</p>
<p>But if UC was out of question, would you go to CSU right away, or SMC first? if you are accepted to both, and if money wasn’t really an issue? Is there a big difference?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>@CollegeGuyx I think you would automatically get accepted into SMC since it’s just a community college. Either way you go it’ll be expensive for you. </p>
<p>Just to let you know CSUN accepts a lot of international students (I go there, but I’m not international). I think my coworker said she pays 8,000 a semester. </p>
<p>Actually CSUN is $17k for internationals, depending from degree to degree I believe, but on their site it says around $17k I believe. But I’d personally not go to CSUN since I don’t wanna live in Northridge, really not my type, I’d like to live by the beach, santa monica on north ridge.</p>
<p>I’d debate between CSULB vs SMC… I just have a bad feeling about SMC because as you said, it would autoaccept me… and anybody can get it, and very cheap compared to others… seems like educaiton is very low quality or so… which kinda worries me? But I gotta say, commute would be awesome since it would be short.</p>
<p>So yeah my question is (i’m an international btw)</p>
<p>If you were accepted into CSULB and SMC… and money (paying $17k/year) wasn’t an issue… would you go to SMC 2 years then do the other 2 in LB… or would you go to CSULB right away?</p>
<p>My worry is that SMC is very cheap, making it look like low quality education…anyone gets accepted… i mean it’s 2.5x cheaper than a state college in terms of tution.</p>
<p>1 BIG Pro would be I could live in Santa Monic … saving a lot of commute time…</p>
<p>Bumppppppppppp</p>
<p>I think we’ve all replied already: SMC. It’s very nice. It’s cheaper because it’s not the same type of college as the others, with fewer amenities. But the classes are just as good.</p>
<p>@CollegeGuyx - Look at it this way, SMC is probably one of the best community colleges in California, if not the United States. Remember I said COMMUNITY college. So yes, there will be big differences. The level of education is not "low-quality’ it is certain students that do not take advantage of the great education at SMC that make it seem low quality. SMC has professors from UC’s, privates (USC, LMU, etc), and Cal States teaching the classes there. So no, it is NOT low quality education.</p>
<p>There is a reason that SMC is the top school for transfers to UC’s, because of the level of competition and the help provided at the school. The reason SMC is cheaper than the CSU’s is because it is a community college and as such there are few amenities and activities that you would easily find at a CSU or UC. If you are not interested in living in a dorm, joining a frat/sorority, or staying at the same school throughout your college experience than SMC is a great option. Personally to save money, I would go to SMC (make sure you dont waste time and finish in 2 years!) and transfer. Also, its not like CSUN is a HIGHLY rated school either, shoot to transfer to CSULB or Cal Poly Pomona. So if you are worried about “name appeal” than CSUN is not the place for you either and you should look into a UC or a Private.</p>
<p>$17,000 is not a realistic budget for CSU for a non-California resident.</p>
<p>Tuition and fees are about $16,000 for non-California residents. That does not include books, room, board, transportation, and other expenses. While many commuter students living with their parents are being subsidized by the parents for such expenses, these expenses (e.g. food and utilities that the student consumes at the parents’ house; usual estimate between $5,000 and $9,000 per year) are non-zero, even if the parents are not billing the student for them.</p>
<p>Living on your own to attend a CSU as a non-California resident will probably cost $30,000 or a bit more per year.</p>
<p>A year at community college will cost less, but still will be a non-trivial cost for a non-California resident, especially if you live on your own.</p>