<p>Hey guys I'm currently a freshman engineering student at Penn State. Applied for transfer to USC but after this semester I'll have about a 3.5 gpa and if I don't get in I'm going to transfer to an LA community college to try to get into USC or a UC. I was wondering if you guys had opinions on which CC would be the best. Like best for location, living, transfer, and even sports because I may try to play basketball or football. I keep hearing about Santa Monica</p>
<p>SMC all the way. I’ve only been a student there but my friends at LACC say it sucks. SMC has lots of clubs and stuff. Don’t know about sports but it’s pretty easy to join the track team I’ve heard. True it is really crowded but people seem to know what they want to do with their lives and are pretty motivated I believe.</p>
<p>DO NOT GO TO SMC.</p>
<p>I know too many people that go there that tell me the same thing.</p>
<p>Classes are a nightmare trying to get.</p>
<p>You’ll spend more than 2 years trying to transfer out of that place into a UC or any 4 year college.</p>
<p>They’re raising tuition prices too.</p>
<p>On top of that they’re cutting 15% of their classes this upcoming Fall 2012 semester.</p>
<p>They got over 30,000 students and they’re cutting classes? Not a wise choice.</p>
<p>It is horrible.</p>
<p>A lot of my friends are transferring out of there to attend a different CC like WLAC or Pierce College.</p>
<p>Interesting. I’ll have to look into that.</p>
<p>^^GCeresti. I gotta say you have a very high chance of transferring to USC from your University because USC is a private university. They aren’t as restrict about University-to-University transfer as UC/CSU’s are. </p>
<p>Also note, if you can, try to avoid California Community College as the education budget cuts are cutting classes, increasing fees, and cramming large amount of students into small classrooms.</p>
<p>Anywhere I look says SMC, Pierce, or Pasadena.</p>
<p>@CGeresti</p>
<p>SMC and Pasadena both have over 30,000 kids.</p>
<p>Pierce is around 20,000 kids.</p>
<p>LACC and WLAC are the lowest.</p>
<p>GO with WLAC.</p>
<p>And it doesn’t always have to be in LA.</p>
<p>You can always find smaller CC’s in Southern California.</p>
<p><strong><em>CAUTION, BEWARE OF GIANT BLOCK OF TEXT BELOW</em></strong>
You hear about SMC the most because apparently they spend a fortune on advertising. Pretty strange for a CC to do. I definitely wouldn’t go to LACC as previously mentioned. From what I’ve heard about SMC, classes are hard to get in and I’d imagine traffic around the area would be terrible. I’ve been to a few CCs around the LA area (actually 6 different ones) most north of downtown. As far as the overall campuses are concerned, I’ve found that Pasadena City College and LA Pierce college both have beautiful campuses. Pierce College in particular is in a pretty nice area of the San Fernando Valley in Woodland Hills and much of the campus is brand new: the quad, science building (brand new and really nice), library, administration buildings, business center, etc. Traffic can be bad though if you’re coming from a few miles out as the 101 and 405 freeway are dreadful in the mornings/afternoons, but that’s just like most freeways in LA. Class availability depends on what you sign up for, the more advanced your classes are, the easier it is to sign up without priority registration. I was able to find an open General Chemistry II class at Pierce without any problems just a few weeks before the semester started last Spring. But then trying to add Anatomy there was nearly impossible, there were something like 100 people on the waiting list. I found that signing up for classes at PCC wasn’t that hard either when I tried last year. I needed to sign up late as a back up plan and got into English 102 and General Chemistry II during open registration. Classes seem to fill up more quickly for the introductory/lower level courses, but it’s like that everywhere. Currently, I go to Glendale Community College, which I’ve been going to for awhile. If you plan to major in Biology or Chemistry, GCC is probably one of the best in the country. The Bio department and Organic Chemistry department have amazing professors. I’ve heard PCC is also pretty strong in the sciences and just looking at their schedule of classes they seem to have a wider variety of them because they’re a larger CC. Also, I’d say the LACCD system is pretty convenient for getting classes. LACCD, Los Angeles Community College District, comprises of nine colleges: LA Pierce, LA City, La Valley, East La, LA Trade-Tech, LA Mission, West LA, La Southwest, and LA Harbor colleges. For admissions purposes all of the records are kept together online so that you get one registration date for all the colleges in the district and you can effectively sign up at 9 different CCs at once. It also makes it easier if you have to take classes at multiple campuses because they’ll have your transcript on file for any college in the district. Also a huge advantage in getting classes at LACCD colleges is that many of the courses DON’T have wait lists. So even if you have a late registration date you have the same chance as anyone getting into a class once it’s full. Most of the other CCs have waiting lists which can vary from 15-100 spots long. The LACCD campuses vary in how spread apart they are from 10 miles to about 40-50 miles so it may not be practical commuting, but if you desperately need classes and you don’t have priority enrollment your best bet is through the LACCD system. You may have to do some commuting, but it should be possible to put a schedule together among the 9 different colleges. I’ve been to four of them LACC, Valley, Pierce, and Mission, which are all in the northern part of the county, north from downtown, and Pierce by far had nicest and the newest facilities. That said though, of the four mentioned classes fill up the quickest at Pierce for that same reason. Also farther northwest, kind of outside the LA county area are Moorpark, Oxnard, and Ventura college. My experience was that it was relatively easy signing up late and registering for higher level courses, I registered for General Chemistry II and English 102 also as a last resort. </p>
<p>Ultimately, as far as what CC is the best option, they all are going to serve a similar purpose and you should be fine transferring from any of the CCs in LA county to USC/UCLA. Admissions at those places are familiar with nearly all of the colleges in the area and all of them keep up to date articulation agreements with those universities so you shouldn’t have too much of a problem finding transferable coursework. There can be a problem at some of the very small colleges as they don’t offer as many classes and sometimes you might be missing a pre-req or two from them. The main differences of the CCs are obviously location and the relative size of the colleges. The larger CCs PCC, SMC, and Pierce enroll more students, but they also typically offer more classes. Class availability tends to be hit and miss at every CC just because of the economic climate we’re in. </p>
<p>This might be a helpful tool also, here’s a map of most of the CCs in California:
<a href=“http://www.destinationca.org/images/contents/colleges/collegesincal_map.jpg[/url]”>http://www.destinationca.org/images/contents/colleges/collegesincal_map.jpg</a></p>
![http://www.destinationca.org/images/contents/colleges/collegesincal_map.jpg[/url]](http://www.destinationca.org/images/contents/colleges/collegesincal_map.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>Oh and as far as sports, I played football my first year of CC. I can tell you Mt. SAC, Mt. San Antonio College, is a CC football powerhouse. They send tons of players to D1 schools and always finish high up in the state playoffs. College of the Canyons, Fullerton, Bakersfield, and El Camino also consistently have good teams and tend to send players to D1 universities. However, all of them are relatively far 30+ miles outside of downtown LA. I can’t really say much about CC basketball because I didn’t play or follow it. And as far as living goes, just my completely biased opinion, but the farther west and north from downtown the nicer the areas tend to be. Santa Monica/West side area will probably be one of the nicer places to live, but also one of the more expensive ones. The San Fernando Valley is ok in areas and is mostly suburban, also the farther west you go in the SFV the nicer it is. Around GCC, Glendale/Burbank, is a nicer area but fairly boring. I can’t say much for anywhere else though. </p>
<p>Hope this helped, good luck where ever you end up.</p>
<p>What is wrong with finishing your degree at Penn State?</p>
<p>Use [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) to determine which CCs have the best coverage of courses needed for your major at your target UCs and CSUs. It is fine to take courses at more than one CC for UC and CSU transfer purposes. For USC, use [USC</a> ARR : Articulation](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/articulation/]USC”>http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/articulation/) to check course coverage at CCs.</p>
<p>As others have noted, getting into courses at CCs may be difficult due to cutbacks.</p>
<p>Note that some UCs do not accept transfer students with too many credit units if they have any credit units from a four year school.</p>
<p>I’m a student at SMC. Do not come here. We already have a MASSIVE problem with overcrowding and horrible, HORRIBLE traffic. You will get the same quality of education at a different CC in Los Angeles with less hassle.</p>
<p>It’s all hype and a REALLY good marketing team. If I could, I’d go back to LBCC. I enjoyed my time there and never drove around for four hours looking for parking. And any time I’ve tried to crash a class, I always got in because I was only battling two other people - they got in the class too. And I’ve only had to crash TWICE.</p>
<p>WORTH REPEATING: DO NOT COME TO SANTA MONICA COLLEGE.</p>
<p>Wow. So pretty much forget Santa Monica haha</p>
<p>East Los Angeles college has a good amount of students. THere’s usually not too many people competing with you to get classes. I just came in here from UCR and it’s my first semester, got 17 units easily. Any questions PM me.</p>
<p>I just stopped by a sandwich shop across from SMC and saw this article in the student newspaper. </p>
<p>To make up for budget cuts, they are attempting to set up a two tier tuition system for SMC!! Read this article in SMC newspaper–then tell me what you think? </p>
<p>[The</a> Corsair : Two-tier blowback](<a href=“http://www.thecorsaironline.com/news/2012/03/28/two-tier-blowback/]The”>http://www.thecorsaironline.com/news/2012/03/28/two-tier-blowback/)</p>
<p>It will basically be “pay” big bucks for the classes you need to transfer into a 4 year; if they let this happen the cost of a CC will be close to a CSU and for those who can’t afford it…you will basically be out of luck.</p>
<p>This could potentially change the landscape and affordability of the community college system statewide.</p>
<p>@ragingzero I’ll definitely look into that and let you know if I have any questions. Thank you.</p>
<p>And is it difficult to transfer courses from a 4-year to a cc?</p>
<p>Everyone hating on SMC- just register for classes early.
The school is tier one and you’ll meet students from all over the world . WLA is a ghetto place , SMC is worth any trouble you spend getting classes. As for parking, ride the bus, save money . </p>
<p>REGISTER FOR CLASSES DAY ONE IF YOU WANT TO TRANSFER ON TIME. When I had a plan I always got the classes I needed . I meet some of my best friends at SMC, I’ve had the chance to meet FRIENDLY people from all over the world.( Unlike UCR at where International Students seem to be very cut off from the rest of the student body . )</p>
<p>Remember, register EARLY , DON’T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MOMENT 3 DAYS BEFORE CLASSES. This is the only reason people whine about not getting the classes they need . If need be stay up ALL NIGHT up until your registration date, and you will get your classes .</p>
<p>^ I agree</p>
<p>I never had to crash a class because I always planned my schedule out and registered literally seconds after my time to do so. I’ve taken one class at WLAC and it’s just not comparable to SMC. Want to avoid traffic? Take night classes. This semester I’m taking a night speech class (a class that’s considered “hard” to get because it’s required for CSUs) and my teacher added 5 of the 6 students that showed up to crash it. By taking at least one night class each semester I’ve been able to hold done an almost full time job while going to school for two years and am now waiting to hear back from UCs. Just don’t wait until the last second to try and get classes and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>I’ve even had good luck crashing classes when I had too , my French teacher brought this up, but kids have no respect for the amount of money it actually cost to run the school . What we pay as in-state students is an extremely small portion . </p>
<p>Plus the online classes/ weekend classes / night classes make it very easy to work full time and go to school at least part time . Thats what I miss so much at a UC , since here I don’t have that option to drop to half time and accept a job offer !</p>
<p>I’m sure every SMC student would register early if they were allowed to. How can you even register early for SMC when we all get priority enrollment dates? A person who gets an enrollment day 2 weeks after the start of enrollment, will have a very hard time finding open classes especially when you’re competing against thousands of students for a few 5 classes per subject.</p>
<p>people need to quit hating on LACC</p>
<p>I loved SMC and I would recommend it to anyone who is serious about transferring. Register on your assigned date and time and you should be fine. The classes will eventually fill up so register on time.</p>
<p>I agree that WLA is ghetto, but I only took online classes there and they were organized pretty nicely.</p>