Dropping out of LAC to go to community college, then transfer to a UC?

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

I’m an incoming freshman in college (c/o 2022) and I’ve realized I made a huge mistake. I chose to go to an LAC (Colby College, if it matters at all) over staying in-state and going to a UC. As time passes, even though school hasn’t even started yet, I just know in my heart that Colby is not the school for me.

I don’t mean to sound completely ignorant, but I’m anticipating my drop-out of Colby after the first year. My ideal plan would be to drop out after the first year, go to community college back home for a year, and then transfer to a UC.

I don’t want to drop out before I go because my plane ticket and some fees were already paid to Colby, so I might as well give it a try, but I just know I won’t really like it. Like I’m excruciatingly homesick and I’m home still.

Please tell me if this is a practical approach to everything, regarding transferring credits and my chances of getting back into a UC (preferably UCLA or UCSD)

2

going to three different colleges in three years will not look very good on your part. why the sudden change of feeling? the only problem i see is you believe you’ll be homesick, but you won’t be the only one. nearly every single incoming student will be feeling the same way you feel. colby is a great, great school. why do you feel as though you won’t like it? what made you pick it over Cal and UCSD? you stated in other posts that you were growing increasingly excited about attending ever since you committed… what happened?

3

I agree with the previous poster. Three schools? Not going due to homesickness? This all seems a little extreme. There must be some other reason you don’t want to go away form home?

IMHO, if you truly know you do not want to go to Colby I think losing money on a deposit and a plane ticket is minor compared to the cost of tuition. Go to CC now and then transfer.

Good luck!

4

Yeah agreed, the deposit and plane ticket can’t be that much. either go to CC or take a gap year and reapply as a freshman.

5

This is a solid plan that many students do and transfer successfully to a UC. Do the one year at Colby, then transfer to a CA CC. Or do all at a CCC.

As long as you complete 30 lower division units (add a summer at a CCC, if needed), you can TAG a UC in Sept 2019 for fall 2020 admission. That’s Transfer Admission Guarantee and you can choose one of 6 UCs and be guaranteed a spot. But you need 30 LD by end of summer 2019 from anywhere to get in the program. Then do your remaining 30 at the CCC (this gives you priority consideration). Approx 92-95% of transfers to a UC come from a CCC.

Determine your major and then go to assist.org, choose your CCC and a UC and try to match a few major required courses at Colby. Take one English composition course (just one). Then fill out with gen ed courses, such as Econ, US history, intro to psych, sociology, anthropology, poli sci, bio, physical science, etc. etc. You’ll then be in a good position when you transfer.

6

Sorry, but I think the above advice of @Ohm888 is extremely poor. Your parents will save literally tens of thousands of dollars if you cut your losses now, and don’t go to Colby. Colby’s deposit isn’t that much, and the plane ticket, well frankly, when you’re talking about $68,000, who cares if you lose a plane ticket? You can probably get most of the fees you paid to Colby. The UC system may not accept all of your Colby credits. That’s a lot of money to be wasting on a “failed experiment.” As a parent, I would simply say “there is no way you are spending that kind of money for a year, knowing that you plan to transfer to a community college for the following year.” What’s your parents’ opinion on this?

Stay in California and go to CC, then transfer. Or, take a gap year, work, save money, and apply again to UC whatever for Fall 2019.

OR, you pull yourself up by your bootstraps and stop letting fear of the unknown rule your life. The College Life forum will be filled with posts in about a month’s time with students all lamenting their huge mistake. The majority of those students will realize they didn’t make a mistake and will enjoy their college. Your post sounds like panic to me. It’s completely irrational to be homesick before you’ve left home. You are allowing your imagination to run wild about things. So think about all the sound reasons you chose Colby. Ask yourself what you stand to lose, or gain by attending Colby, vs attending a UC, apart from saving a lot of money if you are full pay. You may simply not be ready to leave home, or you may not be considering why Colby has a great reputation and a very high freshman retention rate. Kids are happy there. But they can also be happy at a UC. Make a rational decision based on your head, not your heart.

7

@Lindagaf first off, for many families, as odd as it sounds, it’s no biggie about a year’s high tuition. Don’t assume it is.

Second, your statement “The UC system may not accept all of your Colby credits. That’s a lot of money to be wasting on a “failed experiment” simply is not based on facts. If OP takes standard courses, they will transfer.

Thirdly, OP may actually decide he/she likes Colby and will stay. This sounds a lot like freshman jitters, so it’s not crucial to impulsively dump the baby out with the bath water.

At the end of the day none of us knows OP’s situation. There are options. As I noted she CAN go to Colby and transfer to a CCC or could go to a CCC straight off. Both variants happen all the time. It certainly will not be a failed experiment.

8

Have you spoken with your parents about it? What made you choose Colby in the first place? Why didn’t you choose a UC? There are alot of freshman jitters out there right now, you’re not alone.

But please, if you do plan to go to Colby, then don’t plan to “fail,” meaning transfer in this instance.

9

I definitely think that you should talk to your parents about this.

I don’t think that you should worry about the cost of the plane tickets plus the deposit that you have already put down. This is a very small percentage of the total cost of four years of university. It is more important to get the four years of university right.

That being said, I am thinking that you might want to give Colby a chance.

We were looking at small universities in the northeast (including the northeast of the US, and eastern Canada). As such we did look at Colby as well as at Bowdoin College. Colby is a very good school. We didn’t choose it partly because of the cost (for us, based on what we saw on the NPC) and partly because of the randomness of admission at highly ranked LACs and universities in the US. However, it is a very good small school, and it seems that you are already past the admissions part and you seem to have figured out that you can afford it.

One thing about small schools is that you get to know your professors, and you get to know your fellow students. Smaller classes allows more interactions between professors and students. The academics at Colby is top notch. You will also find your way around campus quickly and get to know the local restaurants and so on.

When you arrive for your freshman year, there will be a lot of other students who are in the same situation as you. There will be many others who don’t know anyone on campus, and who are far from home. Even students who are from Boston or New York will still be too far from their families to see them (and you will be able to text or phone your family just as well as if you were from Boston or NY). As such there will be many other very smart and highly motivated students to talk to and to get to know.

I spend quite a bit of time in rural Maine. I find the people here to be very down to earth and solid hard working, honest people. I think that you are likely to like it here. It will also give you a view into another part of America – which is of course a very large and very diverse country.

As such I am thinking that you might like Colby a lot more than you think.

“But please, if you do plan to go to Colby, then don’t plan to ‘fail,’ meaning transfer in this instance.”

I agree with this. If you do go to Colby, then plan to succeed there. Also, don’t start any class at a LAC or university as strong as Colby without planning to work very hard and keep ahead in classes. It is an academically strong and academically very challenging school. If you really are certain that you won’t stay there more than a year, then you might be better off cancelling your enrollment, losing your deposit, and starting at community college in California in September.

10

I do agree with the comments to go with an open mind if you attend. Likely by mid-year you will know, but starting with the clear decision that you’re leaving is not a good start. I actually have the feeling you might enjoy it more than you think.

11

If you look at the OP’s earlier thread from March it sounds like Colby was never a fit so I’m not sure why she applied there or decided to enroll once offered admission. See http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/colby-college/2067096-questions-about-colby-regarding-location-food-social-life-entertainment-etc.html

12

Great find, mike!

13

^^^ thanks. Often a post I come across is just one in a series of questions on a topic a person has posted so I think I can give better advice if I can put their post into context. Here I was hoping to find a person that recently got cold feet but in the past was enthusiastic about the school, to which my response would have been reassurance and to trust their judgement in the past. Instead it looks like she consistently had deep reservations about Colby.

14

OP says in her other thread that Colby is more affordable than a UC. You need to talk to your parents @rachelnguyn . I think they will probably have an opinion about this. This might be a waste of time though, because OP hasn’t returned to the thread.

15

if you only wanna give it a try cuz you paid fees already, then I’d say go to a CCC, since your mind is gonna most likely be set on a UC the entire time at Colby. But if you’re genuinely willing to give Colby a shot, then definitely try it! I don’t agree with some of the people who are freaking out over the the “three schools” thing. Technically, it’d be more like two schools, since everyone goes to a CC to transfer anyways.

16

In one of your other threads you said finances are an issue. You need to talk to your parents to see what you can afford. The financial aid packages you’ll be offered as a transfer will probably be much less than what you received as an incoming freshman, so be careful about turning down Colby if it’s affordable unless you know your other options will be affordable too.

17

@kalons I’ve always had my doubts about Colby, I was just kind of pressured into choosing it because at the time I felt it was the right choice for me academically. It took me the summer and a bunch of conversations with others to realize it really isn’t, putting my homesickness aside as well. I picked it over the UCs because 1) it was cheaper 2) I honestly have no idea what I want to do career-wise, and Colby advertised themselves as being this amazing liberal arts college that would help me explore my options, while the UCs are pretty STEM and major oriented.

18

@Ohm888 thank you so so much, that is the most reassuring thing I’ve had to hear throughout this entire chaos. Don’t get me wrong, I feel incredibly irrational for my thought-process right now; I know I probably sounded insane in my original post, but I just needed to hear that if I were to drop out after a year and go to CC I wouldn’t be completely stupid. Thank you again

19

@Lindagaf Colby has offered me a lot of financial aid, so weirdl, I would be saving money by going here rather than if I had went to a UC immediately this year. Obviously it’s more expensive than a CC though. I’ve talked to my dad about it, and he’s very supporting of my decision either way, but he definitely wants me to test Colby out first.

20

@sushiritto I’ve talked to my dad about it, and he just wants me to test it out first and if I genuinely don’t like it he is okay with my decision to drop out or not. I chose Colby because it was a lot cheaper and it isn’t as STEM-oriented as the UCs (being it a liberal arts college), so it would help me explore my options. I now realize that I can do the same at a CC. I know that for sure, I’ll genuinely test it out and stuff, but I know myself pretty well and I really think that I belong at home or somewhere similar to grow (big city, diversity, etc.) I also don’t know what my future career plans on being, but I’ve always been on the creative side and I presume I will pursue a career in the “creative” industry of some sort, so being at home near LA seems more rational to me as well.