Need Advice on California CCs

Hi all, need some advice as well.

As my daughter,s score on SAT was not superb, she finally decided to go to a California CC first for the 2 years and then transfer to UCs or other better rank universities in other states during the remaining 2 years. So far she has in mind Foothill/De Anza, Diablo Valley college, and College of San Mateo/Canada College.

My questions are:

  1. Which of the above community colleges has a better reputation and better transfer rate to top or better ranking universities?

  2. I heard that some California CC has a transfer admission gaurantee(TAG) agreement with UCs and CSUs, how does that work?

  3. If my daughter wants to transfer to UW after 2 years, is it better to go to a Washington CC instead? However, my rationale to choose a California CC is that my daughter will have a better chance to go to a California University (just on public universities there is already 9 UCs and 23 CSUs. Even if she choose those at higher tiers, there are still 4-5 UCs and CSUs to choose from? But in Washington, the best known ones are UW & WSU only).

  4. How are the chance like if my daughter study at a California CC and transfer to UW versus study at a Washington CC and transfer to UW after 2 years?

Thank for your advice in advance!

  1. You can use this link to figure out the # of transfers accepted by the UC’s for each CCC of interest.

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-source-school

  1. CCC students can TAG to 6 of the 9 UC campuses: UCM/UCR/UCSC/UCI/UCD and UCSB. Some majors at UCSB no longer accept TAG. Here is a link to the UC TAG Matrix and another link on general information for TAG.
    If the student meets all the TAG requirements, they are guaranteed admission to their school of choice. You can only TAG to one campus, but can apply to all others as a regular transfer student.

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/tag-matrix.pdf

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/transfer/guarantee/

For CSU’s, there are AS-T and AT-T agreements and unlike the UC’s, transfer applicants are given priority at their local CSU.

http://www.calstate.edu/sas/onestopkiosk/documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf

http://www.calstate.edu/transfer/degrees/AAAS-TDegreeRequirements.shtml

UCLA and UCB have TAP where transfer students are given priority but not a guarantee. Not all CCC’s offer TAP.

3 & 4) Not sure about transferring to UW, but as a California resident, your daughter would be paying OOS fees to attend a Washington CC so it would be expensive with no guarantee of admission vs TAGing to a highly ranked UC instead.

My daughter is not a CA resident, so I guess tuition is not much difference if she choose to transfer to UCs//CSU/UW?

The reason that to start off at a CA CC is that I think there are more better rank choices in CA for junior and senior year

If she is not a resident then yes, it will not make any difference where she attends a CCC except for TAG or AS-T or AS-T agreements where she would have to attend a CA CCC to qualify. Paying OOS fees for 2 years at a CCC in CA and then Full fees at a CSU/UC seems very expensive. If she comes to CA for the purpose of education, she will not get CA residency while attending these schools.

Hey @Gumbymom You don’t have to have in-state residency to utilize the TAG agreements do you? And follow up question regarding CSUs. You’d only get local preference if you were actually an in-state resident right?

BTW to OP: I’m looking into transferring to UW Seattle from california community college and the UW administration are super helpful - I would suggest asking them any UW specific questions that you do not get answered here.

You do not need in-state residency to apply for TAG, just attend a California CCC and complete at least 30 semester/45 quarter units prior to applying.
Local preference for CSU transfers are for in-state applicants.

Does anyone know if there are any Washington CCs got TAG agreement with UW?

Back to the CCC question, does anyone has comment on the following CCCs?

De Anza
Foothill
San Mateo
Canada
Diablo Valley

@ebsclsgs My daughter attends one of the CC’s on your list and I’m familiar with and know kids attending each of the community colleges you listed except Diablo Valley and Canada.

Rather than consider a community college based on transfer rate, I suggest you select one based upon which community college offers the most courses that you need for your major at your target UC’s/CSU’s. Check out assist. org - http://www.assist.org/web-assist/welcome.html

College of San Mateo, DeAnza and Foothill are all known as very good community colleges and I know kids that have transferred successfully from each.

I agree with your first 3 in the list. However, you should factor in cost of living too.

@boyetusa Are there much difference on the cost of living between De Anza/Foothill/San Mateo?

@ebsclsgs Housing is expensive everywhere. You can use craigslist to find rentals.

For simplicity in housing and meals, have you checked her major’s articulation with Santa Barbara Community College and the CSU/UC she wants to attend? The simplicity of SBCC – they have off campus residential housing with meal plans available and the CC is located next to UCSB. http://www.sbcc.edu/housing/Dorm_Stryle_Living.php .

This is my personal preference, but I hate Isla Vista. If going to SBCC I highly recommend not living inside of it.

Between De Anza, Foothill, and College of San Mateo housing costs will probably be pretty similar, and all slightly inflated because of the proximity of Silicon Valley. As MLM recommended - if you want to figure it out right now, just use craigslist to check out what the avg prices are like.

@ebsclsgs As stated by others, there is not much difference in cost of living between the three colleges unless you’re willing to settle down in a not-so-nice neighborhood.