For sure. It would be difficult. I was tearing my hair out at my 18 unit summer but I got all As. At the end of the day, it wasn’t too bad. Every CC course I have taken except for Calc 2 has been easier than my APs in HS. A strong student could do 18 units a semester rather easily if they didn’t work and focused on only school and had positive mental health.
I also did it while I worked in the summer before I left for basic training so I had the added on stresses and I still lived thank the lord.
I sincerely hope OP reads my post about the National Guard. 6 years of maybe 40 days out of your year for zero tuition and $50-70k after bonuses, kickers, basic training pay, and then veterans benefits at the end, is significantly better than the insane idea of going six figures in debt at 18.
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They check at initial enrollment, but not while continuously enrolled at the same school. But if the student transfers (e.g. in the community college to CSU or UC scenario), there will be another check when enrolling at the new school. Same if the student takes a gap (fall or spring) semester and re-enrolls later.
However, if the OP graduates high school in California after three years of attendance, then they may qualify for waiver of non-resident tuition and the possibility of in-state financial aid through AB540 provisions.
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Very limited Veterans benefits for Guard. Only for active duty time.
You are right. And so many 4.25 GPA and above and dual enrollment at local colleges with CS classes still got rejected to CS.
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VA loan is all that matters at this point because of the CA housing market. If he’s gonna do CS, he’ll be fine for money and insurance and all. All he needs is the guard tuition waiver and cash to get him through college.
Note that the 4.25 GPA threshold for CS at SJSU is the weighted-capped calculation. Many HS students make the mistake of comparing their high school’s weighted GPA, which typically uses a formula that gives a higher result for the same courses and grades, to weighted-capped GPAs found on most CSU and UC web sites. This results in overreach in making a college application list.
What CSUs and UCs can do better is show past thresholds or frosh profiles by major or division. SJSU is a model for CSUs in how this can be done; unfortunately, few CSU campuses do that. Interestingly, UCs are more transparent about profiles by major for transfers than for frosh; it has Transfers by major | University of California for transfer admissions, but no equivalent for frosh admissions.
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@LilFruch so…did you apply to University of New Mexico? Today is the last day…get going.
Also, you seem to think a CS degree in CA is the only way to go. Do you honestly think that all CS majors are from CA schools…or that is the only state from which companies looking for CS degrees come from? If so…you are very wrong. There are thousands of CS majors with degrees from states other than CA who have terrific jobs.
CA isn’t the only means to your end.
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My main suggestion is to not get into big debt because you think it is the only option you have. Many times young people are misled into believing the right college will be a ticket to a dream but it is not the case. You can make an alternate path. You sound like you are very considerate to your family and sensitive to their needs and that is a wonderful trait. Sometimes the path has more bends and turns but if you are determined you will find a way. Companies also respect prospective employees with life and work experience. There are hundreds of cookie cutter applicants with perfect scores, schools etc. If you show your tenacity and perseverance in other ways it will matter. Look at alternate paths via lower cost schools and states as people have advised, don’t listen to friends in high school who are obsessed with name brand schools or only think one path is best. I know people who are now surgeons, lawyers etc who made their own way and did not have the best grades in high school or attend the best colleges, but they matured and found their passion/path and did really well.
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@thumper1 I was going by Op’s original statement of 37k/yr for CC. Majority of NC colleges are less than that OOS. But I was only using NC as an example since OP is on the west coast.
Community college in California for California residents is probably about $3k per year for tuition and books. To get to $37k, that would have to include living expenses that are quite high compared to those listed at California public universities and community colleges.
Yeah, that was the confusing part because the OP said his family can afford to pay $37K/year but then talked about how he needs to take out massive loans for college.
Which makes no sense when we are talking about publics.
No. First 2 years for CC is free tuition. But the OP is concerned about the fee, which should be almost nothing. My impression is he just doesn’t want to go to CC.
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Yeah, a concern over relatively small fees doesn’t match up with a family that can afford to pay over 30K/year.
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Update
I have talked to my mother about all of this for a few hours
We went over pretty much every option all you guys suggested from Military to trying the WUE schools.
Plan: My main goal was to go to a UC which I obviously didn’t get from freshman applications. So to compromise, my mom will stay for sure in CA for another year where I can go to a CC and get 30 UC transfer credits and then use the TAG program for CS to transfer into either UCM, UCR, or UCSC.
I’m still figuring out which CC to go to, but housing will not be a problem as my mom will let me stay at home for the year at no cost etc.
This is hopefully the plan I can pursue, and I’m very glad everyone here was able to give me valuable insight on colleges etc. Thank you very much everyone for the input because I really needed advice and exposure to different pathways I could take after not getting into the colleges I wanted.
I will keep you guys updated and or if I need more advice about which CC I go to!!
Thanks again everyone and I hope you guys have a great rest of your day!
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Of course man. Best of luck in all that you do, and please do not hesitate to reach out if you need any help. We’re all rooting for you to succeed. If you have any questions about CC and the transfer process, please feel free to speak to me since I’m a CA CC transfer.
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What excellent news!
Do you have enough credits (AP, dual enrollment…) that transfer that you’ll be able to handle the CC TAG requirements over a year? You’d need to enroll for the summer but go easy so you get used to the pace and depth required (and get As or Bs, nothing below that). Then you’d apply to transfer in September (only possible if you enrolled in a CC in the summer) for Fall 2022, with your registration for the Fall and your plan for the Spring.
A good thing about UCSC: they’re very good for CS and they have 6 CS-related programs that I can see, which should give you some flexibility.
We’re all rooting for you and hope you’ll return and post along the way. 
This might even become a “pinned” post!
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You realize you need 60 semester units to transfer but a minimum 30 at the time of the TAG application so 2 years not 1 will be needed.
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Yeah please do heed the warnings of the other two. Knocking out all of the transfer reqs in one year IS possible, but would be quite hard. And you would need some AP credits for sure, as well as take a normal semester load for this whole 2021 summer too.
And even then, there’s go guarantee, because you’re going to have a ton of required classes IP for spring and when your classes are IP, they have to guess what grades you’ll get, which can impact decisions.
Best of luck though dude, you can do it. Rock on and stay strong. You’re going to be doing probably 18 units minimum the next 3 semesters, but it can be done.