Living in Santa Monica vs Pasadena & other questions

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

<p>So from my understanding, doesn't matter where you go for community college... cause as long as you have good grades, school name doesn't matter. </p>

<p>However, since I've never lived in LA before, whats are the differences between living in Santa Monica and Pasadena?</p>

<p>I did some google searching on the two areas and I get these impression:
Santa Monica:
Pro: Beach, more lively at night
Con: Expensive, bad traffic</p>

<p>Pasadena:
Pro: Cheaper
Con: can't find any haha...maybe some ghetto areas?</p>

<p>Can someone who's been to both areas shed some light on this issue?</p>

<p>I keep hearing about SMC or other big CCCs being overcrowded and very hard to pick classes you want. I think a lot of international/OOS students who want to transfer to UC attend SMC because they don't know any other school. They basically did some online searching and find this SMC "#1 UC Transfer" and decide to enroll.
I was wondering if it's better to go to a smaller, less known college with easier classes and less students to compete with? Maybe classes there are more available?</p>

<p>Also..whats the student body like in SMC and PCC? Any stereotypes? I know we shoudln't be generalizing the entire 32000+ population to a few descriptions. My former college Emory University had the stereotype of having many stuck up Long Island Jews and Fob Koreans. While I wouldn't say the entire school is like that, but I do see the truth to that stereotype. So if any one who attended these schools wanna give some input, i'd appreciate it.</p>

2

<p>And whats the demographic for both schools and surrounding areas? Wiki shows that Santa Monica college is mostly white…and is PCC really filled with asians haha?</p>

3

<p>Just about every educational institution in Los Angeles has “fob koreans.” Koreans are one of the biggest ethnic groups in LA.</p>

<p>Santa Monica College has a diverse student body. It isn’t “mostly white” at all. Many asians, latinos, europeans, middle eastern asians…its also overcrowded and overrated. </p>

<p>Can’t say much about PCC.</p>

4

<p>I’m not asking if they have “fob koreans” I’m east asian myself, so yes i do know that asians are very well represented in LA. I’m simply curious if there are any stereotypes at SMC. </p>

<p>do you mind elaborating on why SMC is overrated? If it’s overrated, can you recommend other schools that are good?</p>

5

<p>santa monica= really expensive</p>

<p>pasadena = much cheaper</p>

<p>SMC and PCC are both good, well funded community colleges, so i would pick based on other factors. </p>

<p>the downside to pasedena is that it is kind of out in the middle of nowhere. at least that is how i see it. but i am not a huge fan of santa monica so i would choose PCC, personally.</p>