<p>I'm wondering how much farther behind transfer students are in coursework compared to those who entered as freshmen. My question applies not just to the UC's but also schools like CalTech, Harvey Mudd, Cal Poly, Stanford, and USC. By the way, I'm majoring in the sciences, so this is critical as far as which school will best prepare me for grad school admissions</p>
<p>Well, if you have finished the IGETC, then you shouldn't be too far behind because in my understanding, that means you have satisfied the lower division GE requirements at the school you will be transferring to (you are exempt from them), which makes you on par academically with the students who attended there as freshman. The disadvantage may be that the University environment is much different than the CC environment. There are a lot more people on a much larger campus. You aren't living at home. Many students who attend CC's live at home with parents. You also have not been exposed to University type classes, which are larger and more competitive in many cases. However, it depends on the college you attend.</p>
<p>according to this chick who goes to caltech(getting a 4.0)....her math skills, which she learned from our cc, are just as good as the ones who attended caltech since freshmen year</p>
<p>she said that the students are much much more competitive and there's no life at caltech since everyone has to study day and night</p>
<p>my friends who transferred to ucsd and ucla also agreed that the classes aren't any harder, just that the student body is much more competitive</p>
<p>i sure hope they're right</p>
<p>well it probably depends on the person. how well they can adjust, etc. i never attended a CC and went straight to a university my freshman year, so i just wrote down things i have heard in the past from people who have attended CC's.</p>
<p>thanks for the replies. any more comments?</p>
<p>Main difference between the CCs and the Universities is the grading. Usually when you get to your upper-division work, a lot of professors grade the classes in really tough curves (i.e. giving only 10% of the class A+, or something like that). The material you learn is basically the same; there would be absolutely no point for Universities to accept CC transfers if the classes they take wouldn't prepare them.</p>
<p>Just to be safe, I always tell people to develop good study and work habits so that by the time they transfer, they won't experience the same culture shock that a lot of my friends had. A lot of the people I knew took the CC route for granted (got easy A's) but faltered during their first semesters because they were not ready for the competition that laid ahead.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! And this applies to all the big universities, not just the UCs?</p>
<p>pellman, upper-division classes have more lenient grading systems (usually scaled). That's why there are many people who hate transfers because they have it easy compared to those who take the weeder classes at the university.</p>
<p>Oh lol so I have it reversed? I guess thats much better for us.</p>
<p>my friend transfered to berkeley and said the courses were as easy/as hard as the CC classes he had to sfcc...which isn't exactly the harvard of CCs....</p>
<p>transfers generally do as well, if not better, and sometimes worst than freshman admits.</p>
<p>guys....people have been taking the CC route and transferring to and getting out of top UCs (UCLA and Cal) for decades....so relax</p>
<p>plus the statistics show the transfers do well</p>