I have an ignorant question - how would an employer know that a student started out at CC? Wouldn’t a student just have the school that issued their BS on their resume? I can see where it could be an issue for the first summer internship but if the student is in a gateway program, that should be on the resume too.
I am sorry if this is going way out of topic for this thread. I will just reply to the above two posts quickly and would be happy to discuss further in a separate thread or via PM.
There are many companies (e.g. those in quant or AI) that strictly hire from T50 or T25. It is not that these companies started with the elitist notion that we will only hire from T50 or filter out people from community colleges. It is that over the years, we found that we were spending too much time and resources on interviews that were not going anywhere and decided to put some filters in place. We may be missing out on some real gems out there but that is the trade-off you have to live with.
Edit: Again, I am not stating that you cannot get a job out of CC. All I am saying that this option limits the opportunities. Providing examples of the companies that do not practice such filtering does not disprove this.
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They just need to ask for a copy of their unofficial transcripts to be attached to the application or on-campus interview signup.
My D came into college with a number of AP and DE credits. Nowhere on her Purdue transcript does it say where those other credits were earned. They just don’t have letter grades associated with them. Is it different for community college classes?
This sounds crazy to me. I have worked in tech and have friends who head tech companies. One CEO is a college dropout. At the companies where I have worked, the programmers came from top schools, from international schools, from the military, and from no name schools. While upper level managers may have been more likely to have degrees from big name schools, there was little to no discrimination among programmers/middle managers. This goes for a friend in robotics, too. It’s all about what a programmer knows how to do, not how he got to that point.
To the OP, I do not thing your 2 years at community college will in any way impede your career, if that’s the path you choose.
Here is another thread for that subject: Employers that reject applicants because they started at community college before completing a BA/BS at a university - #2 by momofboiler1
As a practical matter, would Purdue or UVA be elite enough to begin with for the employers in question, even without the starting-at-community-college issue? Of course, that also presumes that the OP is interested in such jobs and can pass whatever other selection criteria that these employers use.
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Job applicants commonly put all of their colleges on their resumes.
Also, if a resume shows that the person attended a four year school for two years to complete a BA/BS, someone will probably ask, so it is not like starting at a community college will remain hidden.
I could be wrong but most out the school abd years of attendance so if you put 2918-20 it’s leave a gap.
Maybe less resume. More job app.
I don’t think cc is a big deal. If you get a CS degree, you did something right.
People know CCs are to save $$ etc. especially if you are smart enough to get a CS degree.
Maybe an elite place won’t hire you but 98% of places will.
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This is a fair point. I will edit my post to OP above to make it more clear.
Does OP stands for optimus prime?
My goal is to get into top swe. All else being equal is purdue cs 100k(full pay) better than uva?
Will only stay in cc for 1 yr, mapped schedule with counselor. Do top employers discriminate against cc?
Family is apprehensive about purdue because
59% acceptance rate correlating to bad learning environment
child going away, losing self control in new environment; performing academically unwell shown by college admissions
having anecdotal evidence of purdue cs grads failing
low overall ranking not gaining enough prestigious for good jobs
Family not willing to take 100k risk having these questions unanswered or answered by more familiar cc-> uva route.
While I’m at cc, I also want to apply as transfer. If I maintain a good enough gpa under the guaranteed admissions agreement, could I recycle essays and apply to schools again?
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In this case, yes, 
. In other cases, it (I believe) is original poster.
Your family is wrong about Purdue, but I do not know if they could be reasoned with. While I am a big fan of UVA, Purdue engineering and CS grads are well-received and highly respected in the tech industry, perhaps more so than UVA.
However, as above posts have said, your job opportunities are not going to suffer taking the CC to UVA route.
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I’m hearing more and more of successful transfers among my daughter’s peer group. It was rarer a generation ago, but it seems many more schools use transfers to manage their budgets. So you might as well try.
I wouldn’t recommend recycling essays because you will want to show you are one year older and more mature. But you might find success in targeting 3-5 schools (including UVA) for a transfer. That “market” seems more predictable than the entry level college process.
Good luck!