<p>I went to De Anza College and was accepted into UCLA and UC Berkeley. De Anza has a very high transfer rate, but I couldn’t tell you how many get accepted into UCLA and Berkeley, specifically. I know you said you don’t mind what the location and students are like, but my family has been living in the city De Anza is located in for the past 13 years so: it’s a fantastic place for immigrants and international students. It’s a diverse city (mostly East-Asian/Asian-American and South-Asian/Asian-American) with many immigrants. I personally know a few international students who were accepted to UCLA and UC Berkeley. That’s not to say other community colleges aren’t friendly to international students, but De Anza’s diversity is one thing I consider to be great.</p>
<p>First, De Anza and Foothill are sister schools. Many people enrolled at De Anza also take classes at Foothill. So if you choose either De Anza or Foothill, it’s never a bad idea to look through the course selections of both schools. They are both pretty close together, and the parking permits work for both campuses. The advantage of this is that they can offer more departments because they can split them up. Departments like English, math, bio, physics, psych, soc, etc are obviously offered at both campuses–but you’ll find much stronger theatre at Foothill and better choir at De Anza, or you’ll find American Sign Language at De Anza but dental assisting and vet tech classes at Foothill. I’ve never had to go to Foothill myself for anything because only the less common departments are split that way, and often the most basic classes of those less common departments still exist at both colleges. I guess De Anza has more students than Foothill, by the way. I have friends who went there they had a much easier time getting classes. De Anza tends to attract a lot of people from San Jose (a large city nearby). Foothill is a bit farther away from San Jose (though not by much) so I think that’s why it might be a bit less crowded there.</p>
<p>De Anza and Foothill are both quarter system schools (DVC and SMC are not). I think the benefit here is that it gives you a few more chances to take prerequisite classes. Then again, some classes (like pre-calc and calculus) tend to have shorter series at semester-system community colleges. So that’s really a matter of preference.</p>
<p>What is your major? Some majors are notoriously difficult to get into (business at Berkeley, for example). You want to focus on GPA, prerequisites, and IGETC (the general education pattern). Prerequisites are especially important for UC Berkeley and UCLA. I have seen a number of people get rejected with fantastic GPAs but a missing prerequisite class. Assist.org can show you which community colleges have classes that articulate to the prerequisites at each CSU and UC. I would check that before making a decision. If you see that SMC has a course that DVC does not, for example, I would say that’s an important factor to consider.</p>
<p>I would check the UC transfers forum, by the way. Loads of good info to be found there! It’s hard to say which community college is the best, because there’s pros and cons for any college, but I think you’d be fine with any of those colleges, they’re all relatively well known as far as community colleges go, I think. I hope some of this long ramble of a post was useful.</p>
