Hi everyone,
I am a senior in high school right now considering my college options. One of my options is attending a community college in my state, California, and then transferring to a UC or out of state college. My local community college is Modesto Junior College but I have a brother who lives in San Diego and has offered to let me stay with him while I attend a community college there.
Is there any benefit (besides location being better); for example, are community colleges better than others? Is there like a ranking system or should I just stay in Modesto because there is no benefit academically for moving?
Sorry if this is the wrong area, I just didn’t know where to post it!
There can be some benefit. For instance, Santa Monica College sure seems to do a good job of getting its students into UCLA. It could just be the case that everyone at SMC wants to go to UCLA, but nonetheless, they seem to have a lot of success stories. I also saw a lot of transfers from SMC during my recent orientation at USC. My guess is that the CC in San Diego might have a pretty good thing going on with UC San Diego, so if that’s where you want to go, maybe you should stay with your brother. Other than that, most community colleges are probably quite equal and your chances would be the same if you perform decently well. Some may be more transfer oriented (such as SMC) or others could be a bit worse. At my CC, for example, my Java professor stated that she was stunned to learn that the average student spends six years there before transferring - yikes.
http://www.assist.org can help you determine which CCs have better coverage of the frosh/soph courses for your intended major(s) at your target UCs and CSUs.
Some CCs do have larger cohorts of pre-transfer students. This can be more socially beneficial if you are a pre-transfer student, and can result in more pre-transfer course offerings, but can also result in pre-transfer course offerings being full.
It looks like the San Diego area offers much better community college resources. I am going by the websites of the FOUR San Diego community colleges and my personal familiarity with and website of MJC. San Diego’s CSU and UC surely cause a lot of good instructors to be at the community colleges. San Diego is far more academically minded and is also more generally upbeat than Modesto. (Bachelor’s degrees of 25+ year-olds 42% San Diego, 18% Modesto, per http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045214/00,0648354,0666000). Of course, San Diego is more expensive, but it looks like that won’t be an issue for you.
Generally I would say no.
Some CCCs are major feeders to specific UC schools, but I don’t think students who go here are looked at any more favorably than those who go to other CCCs. Part of it might be that the school offers a lot of major pre-reqs compared to other schools that might just offer one or two out of the several needed.
Other reasons might be things like counselors having more knowledge of articulation agreements, transfer rules, the UC doing more outreach on the CCC campus, etc. The main UC feeders usually seem to simply be those closest to the UC.
A CCC is a CCC. You won’t be looked at any different or weighted any differently because you went to one CCC versus another.
@HeyItsNick Some CCCs are better than others IMO. Look at the respective websites for each of the colleges you’re considering attending (look at their campuses, surrounding areas/environments, courses offered, and so on), and try to pick whichever is the best fit.
Anyone can do well at just about any CC (with some exceptions - i.e. there are CCs that don’t offer many articulated classes for certain majors like engineering, so if one goes to one of those while planning to major in engineering, they’d likely be unable to transfer anywhere).
Given the opportunity, personally, I’d opt for living in San Diego over Modesto any day. It’d probably be a nice change as well. But it’s totally up to you - either school would likely serve you well if you’re determined to transfer.
Also, post on the UC Transfers thread if you have any other questions specific to CCCs, transferring to UCs, etc. Many of the people on there are very helpful:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/
San Diego has a lot of community colleges and they seem to do a really good job of getting people into their schools, and not just the UC’s.
Mesa, Miramar, City are part of the SD Community College District.
East County has Cuyamac CC and a really good CC in Grossmont College.
North County has Palomar and Miracosta.
South Bay has Southwestern college.
These are all popular CC’s with huge student populations, but they do well in transfer placements to the publics and privates.