<p>hey guys i am a international student going to a state university in the US, i don't like the university , so don't want to stay there for more than 1 sem. i am planning to transfer after 1 sem most probably and go to a college in california, don't know community or other type. after completing my 2 years at a college i am planning to transfer to University of California, Berkley, or LA, most probably. this will greatly help me with my cost.</p>
<p>So which college in California will be best to attend if i wish to transfer to UCB or UCLA after 2 years. please do mention some colleges which have strong academics and tradition of sending transfer students to Berkley or UCLA.</p>
<p>I heard a lot about Pasadena City College.. but I second M1L17.. Any one of the community colleges would work fine as long as you have a great academic achievement as well as the ECs..</p>
<p>De Anza College(especially if you want to go to Berk), Foothill College, Diablo Valley College(also great for Berkeley), and SMC(if you want ucla). </p>
<p>Having attended all of those colleges other than DVC, I strongly recommend De Anza College.</p>
<p>Just find a CC near your home with Tap program, if you wanna go to UC. Statistically, there is no big difference. Even though SMC has a higher number of students who get in to UCLA, the admission rates between different schools are same, around 50% or lower. That is the result of more applicants</p>
<p>De Anza College! 2nd best community college in the US! great amount of international students there, though the living expense in the city Cupertino is quite expensive!</p>
<p>West Valley College (Saratoga, just outside of San Jose) honors students regularily get into Berk and UCLA. Use honors for Berk, combo honors/TAP for UCLA.</p>
<p>@ what rrshow said--while the admit rate may be similar I wouldn't disregard the statistic about the number of students a school transfers to Cal and UCLA. In my experience I have found that these top community colleges have much better professors, greater course selection, higher academic rigor which prepares students better, and numerous other programs that are unique. I don't think the question should only be about getting into UCLA or Berk, it ought to be about academic preparation. I can personally attest to the notion that De Anza has superb professors. One of the Econ professors teaches at Stanford, currently consults for the Italian government, and has worked with nobel laureates. One of the political science professors(my favorite) has extensive experience in grassroots organizing, has worked on prestigous campaigns, is an elected official, and could very easily teach at Stanford or Berkeley but chooses to teach at De Anza. I could go on but my point is that you'll find professors at De Anza who match the qualifications of professors at top notch universities, care very much about their students, and prepare you very well for transfer. </p>
<p>My point isn't so much about De Anza being great, but that schools like De Anza, DVC, and SMC definitely offer something unique and I would encourage prospective community college students to exploit that.</p>
<p>Does DeAnza have a TAP program with UCLA? That would probably be a criteria to check out with any ccc if UCLA is a goal. </p>
<p>DeAnza does <em>not</em> have an Alpha Gamma Sigma organization (it is defunct/non-active), which I think is a downside to that particular campus. AGS is one of the only ECs that shows up on the ccc <em>transcript</em> each semester of active participation and is very well known up and down the state. (West Valley does have TAP and AGS, etc... thus, check out each college individually.)</p>
<p>De Anza will have TAP for UCLA available starting this Fall. </p>
<p>I have no idea bout AGS, but it is not a factor in admissions or academic preparation. Oh, and if you're comparing De Anza to West Valley College, consider that De Anza sends over triple the number of kids to Berk and UCLA(De Anza's population is bigger, but not 3X the size). So really, AGS clearly isn't the important factor here.</p>
<p>I like the smaller campus size of West Valley... I felt mobbed at DeAnza the few times I visited there. The reason I cited AGS is that as an organization (that lands on the transcript), it also works great as an campus related extra-curricular. Bottom line is that someone in the south bay area has a choice of several good cccs and should check out each if they have the time (Foothill, West Valley, DeAnza, etc) to weigh pros and cons.</p>
<p>Wannabeabear - where do you have the side-by-side stats for students getting into Berk/UCLA from DA vs WVC? (And what are the numbers comparing? The only real stat that makes a difference is % of actual applicants denied or accepted... not raw numbers of those accepted vs campus size.) Please share the URLs for these stats!</p>
<p>It's NOT TRUE that the better community colleges have better professors. I went to West Los Angeles College (not a highly ranked community college) - and so many of the professors teach at SMC as well, and some of the professors teach at UCLA as well!</p>
<p>In addition, almost all community colleges have a 50% transfer acceptance to UCLA, but SMC has more applicants in number. My classmates were accepted to all the UCs (including Berkeley) that they applied to...</p>