<p>So I am just wondering if I have what it takes to make it at UC in general but more specific Davis, coming from a community college.</p>
<p>The level in difficulty usually goes, CC > CSU > UC.</p>
<p>UC, being renowned to be rigorously difficult, sorta frightens me, because I am wondering if these easy assignments I receive in CC are going to hurt me when I get to UC.</p>
<p>Will one typically notice a sudden change of pace and feel alone and confused on the first few weeks while you're surrounded in an upper division science class with a bunch of admitted-since-freshman-year students who are already up to speed?</p>
<p>If you live close enough to a UC or even CSU see if you can do cross-enrollment. I did it with UCSD and it allowed me to take one class a semester at the the CC price. It was great cause I was able to get a jump start on my upper division courses and get a feel for the pace and rigor of my major at UCSD.</p>
<p>I understand where you are coming from UCkitty. But just think about all those new incoming freshman who have to adjust much more so than we do. It does make me uneasy but being and adult and seeing how life really is outside of the classroom makes me want to do my best. </p>
<p>Yes, UC’s are hard. But so was working a full-time minimum wage job stocking supermarket shelves for 60 hours a week, three years straight. I’d rather be studying my ass off in a library somewhere lol. </p>
<p>I’m sure you’ll do fine though. We all just have to adjust our study habits, etc.</p>
<p>This is not true. You get your mix of hard and easy teachers anywhere you go.</p>
<p>Also there is a flaw in choosing all easy classes at the UC’s. If the class is easy, usually there is no curve. That means you have get an average of 93.5% of higher on all the work you done in the class. This means you have to go into each exam and try to get a perfect score each time. It could come down to missing one question on the test that flips your grade to A to A-. </p>
<p>Hard classes on the other hand will probably have a curve. So it is okay to go into exams and and miss a few questions.</p>
<p>Sometimes it is harder to get that 93.5% + in the easy class than it is to stay on top of the curve in a hard class. </p>
<p>You also have to remember that you are on the quarter system. Most likely you will only have 2-3 exams. So there isn’t a lot of chances to recover from a bad grade. You need to get an A throughout if you want that A.</p>
<p>Another thing is exam time. Classes on M W F are only 50 minutes long. This means your midterms will be 50 minutes long also. Exams will be short and worth a huge chunk of your grade. You can already tell what the exam is going to be like before going in, 30 MC questions, 20 MC and 5 short-answer, or 6 essay/problem-solving. </p>
<p>Now if there is no curve what do you need to get on the exam? 30 question test you can only miss 2 questions. 20 question test you can only miss 1 question. 6 question test you can only miss a half a question.</p>
<p>@UCkitty, yes, I’m an Aggie. Transferring in this fall. :)</p>
<p>@iTransfer, good post on the breakdown of things. This is my first time on the qtr system so I know it’s going to take a bit of adjusting on my part to stay on top of things.</p>
<p>Based on the number of students who successfully complete a degree program you might think that the level if difficulty is indeed CC > CSU > UC since graduation rates are generally: UC > CSU > CC </p>
<p>However, I think the actual level of difficulty of coursework would most likely be CC < CSU ~ UC. The UCs have a very rigorous selection process for freshman admits that results in more students being rejected than accepted at most UCs and that makes it highly likely that the great majority of students they do accept are capable of doing college level work and eventually graduate. The CSUs also have admission standards that result in a significant number of applicants being rejected but it is less selective than the UC process and the CSUs accept more students who are really not capable of doing college level work than the the UCs do resulting in lower graduation rates. </p>
<p>There are no admission standards at all for CCC students with essentially all CCC applicants being accepted which results in some very capable students going to CCCs but also a very large number of students who lack the intellect, motivation or both to do college level work resulting in only only about 25% of CCC students either transferring to a four year college or university or earning an AA degree.</p>
<p>It’s probably going to be harder but you’ll adapt. Alone and confused? Nah… get that celestial view of universities out of your head and you’ll be good to go. Although if you’ve chosen your classes for their renown easiness, you might be overwhelmed. Funny really, because most people I’ve known these last couple of semesters have done that but I don’t know how they’re doing now.</p>
<p>Anyway, have any of your past teachers taught at universities? Who better to ask than them? They assign the ***** so they’ll know. Also, I once took a really difficult philosophy class in which I met two peculiarly nerdy UCSD fellows who luckily enough had taken at least one phil. class at the UC and both said the CC course was harder. So it’s going to depend at least in part on your teachers.</p>
<p>What I wonder is if we’d make it a few decades ago. My teachers are certain that we’ve gotten dumber. I’ve asked them.</p>
<p>I planned on cross-enrollment for UC Berkeley from CCSF last spring for a GE class, but I could get it to work with my schedule and decided I didn’t want to commute across the Bay for one class.</p>
<p>One thing you have to worry about when you do cross-enrollment is unit caps. Once you take a class at a 4 year, you have a unit cap as a transfer. Just warning anyone who plans to do that.</p>
<p>I did not know the unit cap was applicable to cross-enrollments, since your home campus is still your CCC, not the other school you’re taking a class in.</p>