I am currently attending a community college in San Diego. My major is computer science and the top three schools I would like to be admitted to are Cal, UCLA, and UCSD. My choices had to be narrowed down to UC schools because for community college students, we are required to follow a specific breadth for each school types: UC, CSU, privates all have different required course-list.
Spring of 2019 was the first semester for me. I plan on staying here for until the end of Fall 2019, at least. I looked at my school’s average GPA and was shocked to find it at the bottom with a baffling 2.5. Seems like the students in my community college just don’t care about grades all that much. I feel like the overall level of the students at a school dictates the quality of the classroom and the lectures. Professors, even if they didn’t want to, would have slowly adjusted to the low level of the students taking his class. In my math class, which is not high level, I have 100+ with very minimal work put in. I actually feel bad because I did so little work and I don’t feel like I learned much. However, I see students who are failing or being very close to it and shrugging it off as if they don’t care. Shocking.
I would like to move to a place of close vicinity to San Francisco because the school I have my eyes on, De Anza, is located there. My second choice, Diablo Valley College, is also located in close vicinity of SF.
Most people say community colleges are all the same and I should just attend the one that’s closest to me. Well, I can’t say I agree, and the statistics related to each of the community colleges say otherwise. De Anza is one of the best community colleges in the state of California, and they have one of the highest transfer rates to top schools like Cal, UCLA, Stanford, etc. Also, De Anza’s student demographic is mostly made up of Asians, with them taking making up nearly 50% of the school’s students. I’m someone who believes it to be critically important to have fellow students with similar goals in mind. Which in my case is doing as well as I can in CC to have a second chance at getting admitted to a prestigeous school of my dream.
Also, moving is not a problem for me. I’m not even from California to begin with and my whole family lives in Atlanta except my brother who’s in Tronto. I will become a resident in December 2019.
IGETC is mostly the same for UCs and CSUs, except that UC adds foreign language and CSU adds oral communication.
De Anza is in Cupertino (a very expensive area, even by regional standards) and is not that close to San Francisco. Diablo Valley is a BART ride away from San Francisco.
If you are targeting UCB CS or EECS, Diablo Valley or Laney has better coverage of the first few CS courses than De Anza, according to http://www.assist.org .
De Anza (and Foothill) are on the quarter system (similar to UCs other than UCB and UCM, a few CSUs like CPSLO, and Stanford), while most other community colleges are on the semester system.
I live two miles from De Anza, so if you want to be around Asians, that’s your place. However as ucb pointed out, how are you going to afford it? Do you have support from family for it, money saved up? Apple and Google have pretty much made that place unaffordable for the working class, students et al. I recommend going on craigslist bay area/sf to get an idea on the rents. And even though Cupertino is expensive, the neighboring town are even more so, Los Gatos, Saratoga etc, so look at West San Jose as well which is close by. Good luck!
If you’re looking for top community colleges in the Bay Area with a large Asian population in the vicinity, there are 3 that are head and shoulders above the rest - DeAnza, Foothill and Ohlone. All are in expensive areas but you can probably find shared housing for a reasonable price if you look hard enough.
I’m going to be a contrarian in this case. If you have a high GPA in your community college in San Diego, you may get noticed by your instructor. Which would help in your future transfer plans if LORs are needed.
As the cliche goes, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. As noted, Silicon Valley is going to be expensive rent wise and there are very few apartments in West San Jose and Cupertino with reasonable rents. Sunnyvale might be the cheapest alternative, but it’s pretty expensive there as well.
Also don’t think that your classmates in San Diego don’t care about their academics. A lot of them are working adults with family to support/military and for them they need to balance school and life. You’re a full-time student so school is your job and you have the time. Imagine an active duty marine/sailor trying to balance school with a potential overseas deployment to a combat zone.
Does your cc have an Honors program? If so, join it, and take honors courses where you will find like-minded students.
Are you financially independent? In other words, can you support yourself financially and receive no help from your family? Are you on your parents health care plan? Lotsa questions bcos there is no guarantee that you will become a resident for tuition purposes after one year. To do so, you have to be able to prove (to UC) financial independence, i.e., have income or a bank account to pay your own rent & tuition & food & health care & …
I did a brief craigslist search to gauge the living cost in Cupertino, and although it is indeed more expensive ($1,000) than where I am right now ($700), it isn't as bad as I expected it to be and is manageable for me. I live in Chula Vista, which is a little south of San Diego. I live in the northern part of Chula Vista and pay $700 for rent. If I were to get a room near UCSD, the cost would rise to a similar range as Cupertino.
I am 100% independent. I work while going to school right now. All of my bills, the tuition that's tippled due to being a non-resident, grocery costs, extremely high California gas price, insurance, car payments, rent, etc... I pay them all myself. Of course, if and when I move up north to Cupertino, I will still be working while attending school. However, I'm doing some marketing stuff on the side right now and have a chance at setting up some passive income. If I can get this taken care of with the passive monthly income high enough to cover my monthly expenses, I might not have to work for my sophomore year and onward.
Are LORs really difficult to obtain? I am asking because I'm oblivious as I've never attempted to receive one. Also, when should I try to get them. When I'm ready to transfer or after each semester? I'm sure my math professor would give me one if I asked.
Most of my classmates are young kids. At least, the ones I interact with are, and they simply don't seem to care about GPA and seem to be satisfied enough with barely passing. The few older friends I have as well are doing very well in school while working on the side. One of them even won 2nd place in a small writing contest that served a dual purpose as an extra credit assignment.
$1000 in Cupertino will probably be something like sleeping in the living room in a house or something like that. Maybe your own bedroom in a house if you’re lucky. If you come up here and go to the bulletin board outside of a Ranch 99 or Marina (almost everything written in Chinese), you might be able to do better.
If you want to go to Ohlone, you can probably find cheaper housing in the less affluent parts of Fremont and Newark.
Are there a lot of Chinese people in Cupertino? I noticed Chinese letters on craigslist listings so I had a feeling but your comment regarding everything on a bulletin board being in Chinese pretty much solidified my assumption. So… you don’t really have to answer my question, but you could provide more in-depth details if you so desire.
I’ll add to @bluebayou’s comments:
You have to be independent and NOT have attended school. The UC’s are strict. Once they note that you were not educated in California for high school, they will follow your paper trail. (Community colleges run their instate statuses differently.)
If you came to California and immediately attended a community college, then you entered the state for educational purposes. That means non-residency status for your future complete time at a UC or a CSU. You entered the state to attend our public schools. Your family did not have a history of paying California State taxes for year, like the rest of us residents.
My daughter lives in San Francisco and goes to school there (in the city). She (we)pays $2500 per month for a shared one bedroom studio. They have a bunk bed because there is not enough room for two beds. Yep, that $5000 for a 1-bedroom. You will need a deposit and 1st/last months rent and a high-paying job.
@ProfessorPlum168 is spot-on about your probable living situation in the city.
Chula Vista is NOTHING like the city of San Francisco in terms of rents.
Also, you may want to “adjust” your elitist opinion of the CC’s in SD county.
Every CC is different. Did you already explore the options in other parts of the county?
Cuyamaca? Grossmont? Mesa? Miramar? Palomar? Mira Costa?
All 3 of my children took classes at San Diego county CC’s during their summers at home. My son (Caltech) commented that he met local students from UCB, UCLA, USC at his summer CCs, taking units to augment their coursework at their schools.
Cupertino is majority Asian in the demographics. And yes most of the Asians will be Chinese, along with Indians.
For a better educational experience, I would advise that you stay in San Diego. It’s better to be outside your comfort level and in the long run you will be a better person to be exposed to more diversity.
And for the OP-if you aren’t a US permanent resident, you aren’t legally authorized to work. For apartment rentals and similar experiences credit checks are required. Be careful if you’re working under the table so to speak.
@“aunt bea” Sorry about my elitist view on San Diego’s community colleges. I admit having jumped to a conclusion a little too quick since I’ve only been here for one semester. And I’m at Cuyamaca right now. I said I go to Southwestern because I will be transferring to there after the spring semester is over (which it technically is because we have one week left). Previously, I chose Cuyamaca, which is 20+ minutes away from my home compared to Southwestern that is 7 minutes away, because I heard Cuyamaca-Grossmont is one of the better districts in San Diego, and many people were talking bad about Southwestern, saying it’s just like an extension of high school. But I’ll be transferring to Southwestern for shorter commute time and because of my disappointing experience at Cuyamaca.
@Hamurtle I’d actually be more comfortable here in San Diego. I’ve settled down pretty well and even though I’ve only been here for around 6 months, I feel at home, enough. I’d be more out of place in Cupertino because I’ve never been in a situation in which I was surrounded by Chinese. I’ve also never had many Chinese friends or co-workers. Lastly, I have a feeling that the materials would be more challenging at De Anza.
I am authorized to work and I pay full taxes. I don’t get under-the-table payments.
My credit score has plummetted because collecting credit cards is my hobby… So I went on a spree not even a year ago. I have 10+ credit cards, with most of them sitting in my drawers with a balance of 0. I think 3 of my cards carry a balance on them and sees regular use. My credit score is still 690, according to credit karma. Which is not good, but not horrible either, I guess.
Ugh! I just wrote an essay in response to @“aunt bea” and @Hamurtle but for some reason, it vanished. Rest in peace, I will reattempt after spending some time to regain my composure.
PS - I submitted it but it vanished while I was trying to edit some grammatical errors. If anyone got an email or notification with my message intact, please copy and paste on here.
Save your money. You will need it. Stand out at your CC, get to know professors, be involved in whatever campus life there is. The colleges admit an individual, not the college they attend.
AFAIK, you don’t get to just move to CA, start attending college, and then get residency. Otherwise they wouldn’t have OOS tuition, right? Your residency needed to be established well before you began college in CA. You need to find out exactly what tuition rate you will have to pay when you transfer.
“If you are not dependent on a California-resident parent, you must be in an eligible immigration status and satisfy the “Physical Presence,” “Intent to Remain in California,” and “Financial Independence” requirements.”
I still can’t find a statement that says if I was admitted to a community college immediately following a move to California, I would be barred indefinitely from being able to be considered a resident for tuition purposes.
And this is what you claimed in previous comments.
If this is the truth, it is kind of a big deal for me since I moved to California in early December and started attending school in late January.
PS - Oh, and it looks like my comment is back. Is this the work of a mod? Thank you
@Lindagaf I agree with your statement regarding the complexity of getting residency for tuition purposes.
However, after having taken a look at Cal’s requirements for being considered resident for tuition purposes, I will be able to satisfy all of them with little to no difficulty.
Thanks for your input on whether I should stay in San Diego or move to Cupertino. I will take your opinion into consideration when the time comes to make the decision.
