Op,
We are in CA. There are certain feeder CCs to certain UCs, I believe. You may want to figure out which go where. I’ve known many kids who go from CCs to UCLA.
I totally understand the embarrassment about she telling her friends that she is going to a CC. I felt that way when I was in HS and so would never choose a CC because of it. But when my frosh grades bombed at UCLA, and I saw all the transfer kids coming in all used to studying and starting off with a fresh slate GPA, I wondered why was I so scared about attending a CC. Same with my D. She would have been mortified to tell peers that she was attending a CC, but once she started her 4 yr college as a frosh, she too thought it made the most fiscal sense and wondered why she was so mortified.
I totally understand the mortification. If it were my kid, I would have her come up with a wild excuse, that would embarrass the asker but might embarrass me instead of her, because I’m at the age where I don’t care as much what people think as my kids care what other people think. Such as…I’m going to cc. “WHY?” asks rude friend. Because we just found out my dad has breast cancer or we lost all of our money in the stock market or because my parents are making me or whatever.
Not that I disagree with the CC transfer approach especially financially, but Biology is not that specialized at the undergraduate level. Is the researcher job she hopes to get going to be a B.S. Level job or will she need a PhD? Could she do undergrad Biology at a 4 year and Masters or Ph.D at the desired UC?
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@mom2collegekids major biology, career goal become a researcher in a specific field of biology. As for going to a 4 year then to a cc then apply to transfer seems like a lot of work to save face
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My kids would have been mortified to attend a CC, so I understand the stigma and dilemma and flak that is given. My kids caught flak for going to their mid-tier flagship. (why aren’t you going to Vandy or Duke or an Ivy?)
The reason I posited this idea is that likely once she was at the first 4 year, she would like it and stay. But it would at least get her thru this sadness.
Bio degreed people are a dime a dozen, particularly in Calif. So many start as premed Bio majors, are doing research, but because the state doesn’t have enough med school seats even the best of the best get rejected and then move on to PhDs or what-have-you.
What are the chances of coming off the WL? Which UC is this? Can the GC help with this? Are there any updates that can be sent (don’t remember if UCs allow updates.)
Am I correct in thinking that she is waitlisted at 2 UC/CSU schools, and was denied at 4 others in-state?
Are ALL of her backup schools these religious schools that she doesn’t want to attend even if she gets in? (One wonders why she applied to them in the first place. Family/school pressure?) Are there any schools yet to hear from, other than the waitlists, that she would like to attend if she gets in?
If she did decide to go the cc/transfer route, how certain is she of getting into one of the 4 most desired schools afterwards? There isn’t much point in doing that if it is still going to be a reach after one or two years of CC.
I’d also bear in mind that many, if not most, kids DO change their minds about majors, although if your D is already working in the field–marine biology, perhaps?–she may be more settled than most.
It would be a shame for her to (metaphorically) slog through 2 years of CC, living at home, feeling as if she is putting her life on hold in some ways, only for her to not get in where she wants yet again, or to change her mind about her major and have put off the 4-year experience for nothing.
I understand where you are coming from. My DS did not get into the flagship school, and ALL his friends are going there. He could go to a mid-tiered school, but has no desire. He would rather go to the regional campus of the state school and live at home. But he is NOT excited about it and I know embarrassed that he is one of the few that didn’t get into the flagship campus.
What I was telling him was that the year goes fast and then he can transfer. I know that’s not easy to understand or believe, but he will be so far ahead being at home. The transition to knowing how to study at a 4 year is so difficult and different that many of those kids are on probation or get kicked out at the end of the year. He will have some support and learn how to study (the time it takes), work through a syllabus that is 9 pages long and not be distracted. When he goes down his sophomore year, he will be in such great shape. I also tell him he is VERY lucky to be going to college age all…and that it’s paid for. I know it probably doesn’t seem right, but I sort of put emphasis on how many of his peers will play and do awful and can’t handle the freedom, and he’ll be ahead. They have to have something to help them thru it, even if it’s that!
If this were my child, I’d phrase the choice this way: What is more important to you right now, going to a school that is strong in your intended major, or just going away to school so that you aren’t living at home? Both are equally valid, because part of the education that a college provides comes from living in a dorm with peers and being away from home for an extended period of time. (I know not all CC parents will agree with me on this point, but our entire college and university system is set up with this in mind.)
If she opts to go away, even to a school that isn’t strong in her major, she could either find that she wants to study something else, or she could stay for a couple of years and then transfer. Either way, she’d get the experience she wants, and she’d still get to study what she wanted to study.
While it’s true that living away from home is an important experience, if delaying that by just two years allows for a greater future freedom then that could be the best choice. IMO If you cannot find a job in your major and have to move home and struggle to pay for loans then perhaps two extra years away was not worth it.
@gearmom, I thought of that also. But I tend to view an 18-yr-old living away from home for the first time in an apartment as an unacceptably risky proposition.
Actually, biology, even at the undergraduate level, has numerous subarea specialties that can be emphasized by elective choices. Perhaps the OP can describe which subareas are of most interest?
Due to the glut of biology majors, career track research jobs in the field likely need a PhD, and even then, there are probably more PhD graduates than such jobs. A biology major should consider what backup career paths s/he is willing to do.
@Consolation But OP has a girl. She could get a nice roommate and have independent living. If her goal is a certain UC with a certain major, it seems ridiculous to go in a different direction to save face with people that she will only spend a few more weeks of her life with. She might never hang with them in her adult life. Her college is her private business. She could go to a CC for two years then on to her dream college. If she has to tell her friends then just say this is the path I need to take for my career. They’re not really friends if they don’t support her. Use the money saved, if there is an excess, on a grad program. At some point you have to stop living your life for other people.
My kids went to a private Catholic school in California where most families were rather wealthy (we were the exception!) and almost every student went to college (the year they were there, 5 students went on religious missions right after graduation and 1 went to play junior pro hockey, but all others, about 240, went to college). In the graduation program, they listed them and about 50 were heading to community college, and of those about 40 to the CC just across the highway, the same CC where the high school played their football games, where many hs students took dual enrollment classes. Why? Because that’s what they wanted. Cost may have been a factor, but some wanted to stay at home, some actually wanted the programs offered at the CC’s. I was surprised at the number of kids who picked the local CSUs or UC-Irvine (closest), or private colleges in the area (Chapman, USD, Pomona). I think there were only 3 who went to UC-Berkeley, and a handful more who went to other UC’s. I’d guess about 75-100 went to OOS schools, but many chose to stay closer to home. The Val picked Santa Clara over Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth.
I think the OP’s child will find that there is a lot of talk right now of big schools, far away schools, but in the end a number of her classmates will end up much closer to home in either CSUs or CCs. Choosing a CC in California is a lot different than picking one in other states.
We have some of this in Texas, where lots of kids who want to go to UT aren’t able to and are CAP’ped, meaning tht they can start at a satellite campus and transfer to UT if they do well. A former principal used to say, “Do you want a degree from UT? Then this is one way to get it.” It’s like the old joke about what do you call the person who graduated last in their med school class … Doctor.
I went to a juco so I know how wonderful they can be, but I get the stigma. Still, with the agreements in California between the ccs and the top state schools, I think it’s a great option that shouldn’t be so quickly dismissed. I don’t recall the OP talking about money being an issue, but if it is, why go to some overpriced school OOS just to save face? This is one of those teachable moments where your dd can learn to not care so much about what others think.
I use adversity events as a life lesson for my daughter.
I have taught her always to have a Plan B or Plan C.
There are many paths to heaven, and she needs to learn how to achieve her life
goals when there are obstacles. Then I give her examples from my own life.
It is really no one else’s business why she is doing what she is doing.
But she can tell people she decided to stay home for the first year
to save up money for when she transfers next year.
I agree that CC in CA is very different from what it is in many other places.
My area, for example. In my area, CC does not offer advanced classes for advanced HS students, while in other places it does.
In many places, the CC route does not result in successful transfer to a 4-year school for most students who start out with that ambition. (There are always CC students who are aiming at something else.) It can be a lot harder for them to persist. I have the impression that that is much less likely to be true in CA, which has a well-established system.
