<p>My son did this: he went to CC for two years, finished his Associate’s degree & maintained a 3.5+ gpa. He took advantage of our state’s Guaranteed Admissions Agreement (GAA) to transfer to UVA. (His grades & stats were not competitive for UVA when he was in HS). He graduated from UVA in May 2010.</p>
<p>A few things to consider:
Do your homework. Find out what requirements you need to fulfill to transfer. In my son’s case, there were certain required courses needed to meet the GAA requirements. Also find out which of your CC credits will transfer. The CC & your transfer university should be able to answer this question.</p>
<p>2) If you do transfer to a 4-year school, you may enter as an upperclassman. My son entered as a 3rd year & had to declare his major immediately. Don’t be caught off-guard: Your studies at CC should be focused & you should anticipate declaring a major soon after your transfer.</p>
<p>3) Going to CC & transferring has some clear financial advantages. It also has some logistical disadvantages. When you transfer, you enter a school as a new student, with peers who had a 2-year headstart to establish friendships & relationships with other students & professors. You, on the other hand, will be the new kid on the block, learning a new campus & institution. You will be at a disadvantage when it comes time to ask professors for recommendations for internships or study programs in the critical summer between junior & senior year. My son did not know any professors well enough to ask for recommendations to a 5th year master’s program (BA=4+1 MA) after only one semester. You will need to work a little harder & get involved with the school to compensate for this disadvantage.</p>
<p>4) Another logistical disadvantage is if you would like to study abroad. Transferring from CC to another college can interrupt the flow of when students often consider study abroad programs (ie. summer between soph-junior year or junior year). Perhaps study abroad is not important to you, but if it is, transferring from CC to another school could present some challenges.</p>
<p>My son says that he has no regrets about the route he chose. And the money he saved by going to CC is still available for graduate school. It’s not the route for everyone, but it worked well for him.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Anytime you leave something obvious off your resume, it WILL be noticed. If you show you only attended the college for the last 2 yrs, the first question will likely be what did you do prior to that? I would look for a 4 yr college within your budget so you can attend the entire time. Fitting in after your second year with others you don’t know can add additional challenges to your college experience. Planning on how you will transfer when you are still in h.s. doesn’t seem like the best plan.</p>
<p>my friend got accepted to all the UCs in high school but he decided to attend a CC to save money. Best decision he made! he got accepted to MIT after 2-yrs of CC!!</p>
<p>Bottlecap…How have you received offers from the schools you listed in post #7 when you could only apply early decision to one school at a time. I am not familiar with the admissions of the other schools but I do know that Cornell and Columbia have early decision and students can only apply to one early decision school. Have you been accepted to all of the schools you have posted? Could you provide more information regarding how you were able to do that?</p>
<p>To the OP,</p>
<p>You should select a college that you will be happy to attend and can afford. If you have very high stats than you will have greater options when it is time to apply. If you choose to attend a community college than you should meet with an advisor as soon as possible to discuss what options are available to you. The top schools such as the Ivy’s and like do not accept many tranfers from a CC and many don’t accept transfers from CCs at all. The information you are seeking is best had by doing your research prior to making a decision regarding attendance at a community college. You are asking information and many of the replies are coming from highschool students just like yourself.</p>
<p>a lot of 4-years are today are really tightening who they admit to become freshman so find a CC with a contract with a 4-year of their choice gives them a better chance to being accepted to that 4-year.</p>
<p>the risk going to cc and later on transfer to a top school like UCB is that some times things happen to you out of your control and if you screwed up your gpa, the hopes will be dashed. It could be family accidents, such as a divorce, or some thing that depressed you and cause the fall out.
If you can get in and afford a top U, you should go for it. If you can carry through your plans in a cc for sure, then save the money and work hard.</p>
<p>artlover. Also falling prey to college life is one of the biggest problems amongst students. Many of them tend to dropout and start over at CC’s after a fallout.</p>
<p>While acceptance rates for transfers from community colleges are typically higher, that’s probably just correlation, not causation. CC students are usually transferring because they have to in order to complete a bachelor’s degree, which means that a higher percentage of high-quality CC students transfer than high-quality students at four-year schools.</p>
<p>I don’t know about other states, but in California, it is an advantage to start out at a CC over a 4 year if you’re planning on transferring to a state school (UCB, UCLA for example). The transfer admissions process is very geared towards CC students here.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if that’s true. My dad went to CC for two years, then UC Berkeley, then Harvard law. No one has ever asked him about his community college experience I don’t think, and he doesn’t list it on his LinkedIn (just dates he was at UC Berkeley). I mean, granted he went to law school so I guess it would be a bit silly for employers to concentrate on his first two years, but I’m not sure if they even know? You should call the registrar for a school or two your thinking of and see if it’s the schools policy to list where transfer credits came from on a transcript. </p>
<p>Either way, whether they show up or not, employers care a lot more about GPA and experience than where you transferred from. </p>
<p>Moreover–unless its a job in the computer science field where they might care heavily about specific courses at the undergrad level–often you don’t need to show your transcript until already offered the position (and sometimes not at all) if you list your GPA on your resume.</p>
<p>Bottom line: don’t let the fear of employers looking down on first two years at a CC (especially not if you plan on grad school).</p>
<p>If money is an issue for you, then I highly recommend you taking the CC route. You save soooo much $$$! You seem like a pretty responsible student, so take 2 years at a local CC to complete your pre-reqs, ace your courses, and then apply to top universities! I attended a CC and will be going to UCLA this fall as a transfer admitted student. The key is stay focused and be extremely well-rounded/involved in your college while studying to transfer!</p>
<p>I’ve been contemplating this recently. I went the cc route, however I wish I didn’t.</p>
<p>The thing to understand about community college is that transfer is not guaranteed. This might seem like a drastic statement considering many cc have matriculation agreements or whatever they call them, but there is a lot of competition within these programs. </p>
<p>I don’t know exactly what cc you are planning to attend, but my advice would to check out the transfer rate before attending. After all it is a college, obviously you would not apply to a college blind, so why would a cc be any different? Many cc have a transfer rate of about 45%, however depending on the cc it could be as high as 60% or low as 20%. Basically this means if you feel that you are in the upper half of your class previously you will not have any trouble transferring to 4year, however if you feel that you are below average to around average, there is a chance subsequent transferring will be difficult. IMHO more difficult than worth the money; spending a little/lot extra of money may be worth it when considering you do not have to worry about risking your chances of ever obtaining a bachelors.</p>
<p>Ultimately the cc system is a bit of gamble, depending on how you feel you could potentially save thousands of dollars. Just be sure to keep in mind the risks. While you end with the same credits in the end, just like all things in life you get what you pay for.</p>