Did anyone of you start at community college? If yes, what was your experience?
I know in Rochester, students can start at Monroe community college for their first 2 years then transfer to Univ of Rochester. I don’t know what the requirements are.
You should check with the community colleges that are closeby a school of engineering you want to attend and see if they have those type of programs. The first 2 years, in Mech Eng, have many classes you can do at a community college so it is definitely a way to save money.
In the end, your diploma says where you graduated from, not that you spent 2 years somewhere else.
Typically, Community Colleges do not offer much in the way of the foundational engineering courses. I’ve seen some that offer CAD and/or a Statics course, but that’s it. It’s the math and science coursework that can be easily completed at Community College; Calculus I and II, Vector Calculus, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Organic Chemistry I and II. Satisfaction of those basic courses should make you eligible for admission to most Engineering universities (likely as a Freshman; MAYBE as a sophomore, depending on the university), as long as you are otherwise qualified.
This is a link from Monroe Community college. It claims that it can fulfill Freshman and Soph year with those type of prereqs LakeWashington lists.
Some of the NY community colleges have excellent engineering programs (at least they did 30 years ago). When my husband restarted college as engineering major, he went to Hudson Valley in Albany area. It had partner programs with other engineering programs, including Clarkson.
@LakeWashington yeah my community college offer a statics course, CAD, and a materials course.
@colorado_mom I don’t live in NY so I don’t think going to community college there would worth it paying the tution and the cost to move there or would it be? I I never heard of people doing it.
Where do you live? Some CCs are set up for this, but many aren’t.
Sometimes it helps if you contact someone in admissions at your target school and get their recommendations on CCs they have worked with successfully in the past and what they expect from transfer students. It would be better if the CC has a full articulation agreement, but this is another option.
The obvious path is to look into the CC->4 year public university path in your state. There are likely clear guidelines on what to take, in what order, and what grades are acceptable and your GPA will tell you if you are close to getting into say Berkeley as a transfer engineering student (or say hope for Riverside …).
This is actually a good path for many, especially somewhat ill-prepared potential engineers, since you can sit for years in CC, taking say Calculus, Chemistry … then a different semester say take Physics , etc. And any pre-calculus, etc. Low cost, ability to work part time, lots of good things about this.
However …
My biggest worry would be that you / they would be successful in community college, maybe even get a 4.0, and then transfer and then
get your clock cleaned. Junior year in ANY ABET accredited program is wildly hard, and you are coming in from that cushy, I can get an A because I am top 5% here, community college environment. Everyone else has learned to bust their butt working hard to keep their 3.0 GPA and has as a consequence learned a lot more than you.
A self-starter with high academic skills, sure why pay more for the same credits (Ibut CC->state flagship is a guaranteed path, why would you not take it !).
The NY programs above seem like they are very tailored to provide this path to some people. I would think there is a good size attrition rate, like 70% possibly … getting all the first 2 years of engineering done in 2 years is actually HARD. But the schools some people (see self-starter, likely either poorer or just more frugal than all the other people at flagship, or needing just more time) … get into are pretty impressive.
If you really want to go to Columbia or a top say 100 school out of state, you may be better off at a cheaper 80-160 ABET accredited program. I think CC->Harvard is sort of a hit-by-lightning kind of idea.
Why is financial aid or merit scholarship not a possible path ? Why not a 50-100 school with merit aid ?