Questions About Being A First-Year CC Student

Hi! I’m going to be attending De Anza College in a few months as a freshman and plan to transfer after two years. I have some general questions:

  1. What are the hardest classes to get into at a community college? Like, do math classes fill up the fastest or what?
  2. How many universities/colleges should I plan on applying to? I have a list of eleven right now but I'm not sure if I should narrow it down to only focus on a few.
  3. What are some of the best/worst decisions you can make at a community college? (e.g. is focusing on GPA a lot more than ECs good or bad?, are on-campus jobs a good or bad idea?)
  4. When should I start organizing/planning to transfer my credits?
  5. How common is it that people don't transfer after two years and instead have to be at a CC for another year? Why does this happen, did they not have enough credits?

Thank you! xx

Some answers to 2, 4, and 5

Our community college has transfer college fairs regularly. If offered, go early, go often. Talk to your college academic advising every term as well. The sooner you know where you want to go and what you want to study when you get there, the better. One safety (easy to get into or guaranteed transfer), and maybe a couple reaches is plenty. It’s hard to keep your eye on eleven school plans when choosing courses, though the transfer recommendations will likely overlap.

Your state system should have transfer articulation agreements that specify the classes that will give transfer credits. Your destination school may have a list of classes they like incoming transfers to have as well. These may not be the same as the classes you need for your associates degree. For example, computer programming isn’t a graduation requirement for my daughter’s associate, but it is a recommended class for incoming students for her major at our state U.

There are lots of reasons most kids don’t finish CC “on time.” In addition to not having enough total credits, it could be the credits are not in the right classes or not paying attention to paperwork deadlines. If you take a year to figure out your major, you may have a late start on meeting your major-specific requirements. Failing to place into the “right” math, or struggling and dropping/retaking classes, or taking a part-time load and a full-time job are other reasons it takes more than two years. Many state schools offer transfer admissions to start in winter or summer, not just fall, so don’t feel you have to stay a full year just to get one or two missing classes.

Some good advice above. One more piece of advice: Expect community college to be more difficult than high school. Show up at every class on time or early. Sit in the front row if you can. Pay attention at all times. Keep ahead of your homework. Do homework and reading when it is assigned, well before it is due. Make friends with other students who are serious about their classes.

Good luck and best wishes.

Harde

1.Hardest classes to get into are the general English, science, and math. Was there on a waitlist for three days once and swore I’d never do that again. Try to plan for those first because they are prerequisites for a lot of classes.make sure you have alternate classes such as electives in case you can’t get into those classes each semester.



2. You should apply to as many as you can but figure out the top 5 realistic options once you get conditionally accepted. Things to consider is cost of living there vs. commuting, expenses such as food, books and supplies, etc., your major if it is impacted at the 4 year, talk to counselors at the 4 year because often the counselors at the community college level don’t communicate with their peers at other schools.



3. Since de anza is a quarter system, it’s a shorter timeframe for school, therefore if you have time management issues, figure that out while at De Anza, not later. Also, what I learned on my own after transferring, is that the drop date without serious penalty is not the same as the four year. At the four year, it is like in the first two weeks of a semester, in a semester system. Either way, in order to not jeopardize your financial aid and your gpa, drop a class at the earliest day according to the calendar. You can focus on the classes you keep and save headaches and serious stress later on.

As far as other decisions, jobs are ok as long as it doesn’t make your grades suffer. Apply to all and any scholarships and grants you can find, no matter what it is. Just be serious about applying. The least expensive it is, the better, plus if you can avoid loans, avoid them.

Rent all your books, bookscouter.com was one of the best, plus you have the option to keep books of you feel they will be good reference material.

If you use www.assist.org, it is a good tool to try to make sure you get the mostly the right classes for transfer. One thing though, double check with all your final options for transfer. I still had to retake classes which delayed my graduation, even though they were on assist.org.



5. It depends. Sometimes classes aren’t offered every quarter/ semester. Don’t stress too much about transferring after two years, just don’t make it too long, especially if you are in a harder major such as science, engineering, etc. this is tied into the drop policy, and assist.org in answer number 3 and answer number 4.

The main thing is to constantly progress forward, not too fast or not too slow. Have a good support system and stay ahead of any issues and you’ll do fine.

Alot of good advice above. To add some things:

  1. Math, "Main Sciences" (Biology, Chemistry, Physics), and English tend to fill up the fastest. Something to keep in mind, if your college allows you to crash classes you can essentially get into any class always. Just stick around (even if the teacher says they will no loner add anyone). Doing this, I have never failed at getting a class. For calculus 2 I had to wait for two weeks, sitting on the ground for the first couple days, but nevertheless I got added. If the instructors see that you are committed to getting the class, they will enroll you.
  2. Imo, the worst mistake is studying a major you are not interested in. It completely saps your motivation to work hard, get involved, and succeed. As for balancing GPA and EC's, your GPA should always be your priority. By all means get involved in campus activities and clubs, these motivate you do work harder and give you an edge on college applications. Just never commit to so much that it starts hurting your grades. On-campus jobs, at least at my cc, were great. They pay above minimum wage and are also exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes most of the time. They also have greater flexibility to cater to your schedule as a student.
  3. As stated above, there are many reasons why students don't finish on time. Some switch majors, while others can only manage to go part-time because of work. Sometimes, the college doesn't offer the classes they need to complete their pre-reqs every semester. Don't be concerned with transferring after 2 years too much. Keep an open mind, meet with you counselors to come up with a plan, and work towards it and I have no doubt that you will succeed and get into your dream school.

Best of luck

“there are many reasons why students don’t finish on time. Some switch majors,…”

Absolutely correct. It is therefore better to pick the right major to start. However, if you do find yourself in the wrong major, at the risk of pointing out the obvious, it is far better to take an extra year in community college than it is to spend you life in the wrong major.

I also went to De Anza! I started at De Anza in Fall 2014 and transferred by Spring 2016 (2 years) to UCLA. Since I went to the same CC as you, I can get more specific with your questions. Apologies it this is too wordy!

  1. The hardest classes to get to are the entry-level English (like EWRT 1A) and math (like MATH 1A). You'll be competing for spots with thousands of other students that are trying to transfer. Look at your classes in advance, write the enrollment codes beforehand, be at your computer at least 15 minutes before your enrollment time, and do your best to enroll in your classes the minute your enrollment time comes. De Anza tries to get a lot of professors to teach those classes, but classes fill up for the good professors that fastest. De Anza students use Rate My Professor to distinguish between the good ones and bad ones.
  2. Definitely have at least 2 safety schools, 2 medium choice schools, and 2 reach schools. Eleven is great! Be ambitious your freshmen year so you're motivated to keep your GPA high. While in community college, do research on the colleges you want to apply to and see if they're a good fit in terms of their department for your major and their student culture. Over time, you'll have a better idea of which schools you'll be a better fit at your list will naturally dwindle down. For example, I also had about 10 or 11 schools I wanted to apply to, but I only ended up applying to 6. I applied to my top choice and I attend there right now!
  3. The best decision I made was to get involved in campus clubs/extracurriculars. De Anza is a commuter school but the extracurriculars are really great. I made most of my close friends through joining journalism and the Asian American leadership club because I was passionate about writing and Asian American studies. I was also happy to get to know my professors because De Anza has great ones. They also wrote me glowing letters of recommendations when I needed them. My biggest regret may have been spreading myself too thin in one quarter. At one point, I was taking 22 units while interning part time and working part time so I would have money to support my unpaid internship. It took away from me hanging out with friends and taking care of my personal well being. Set your boundaries of how much you can handle in one quarter. You don't have to take on everything at once.
  4. Use ASSIST to see which of your CC classes will transfer to the university you're transferring to. If you're following IGETC, most of your classes should transfer and fulfill the lower division requirements at CSUs and UCs so that you transfer as a junior. Before school starts, look at the prerequisite requirements for the major of the school you want to transfer to and take De Anza classes that count for that university's prereq. (Your counselor has more info. on this.) Try to schedule appointments with your counselor often and in advance. De Anza has lots of students but few counselors. Unfortunately, that's always a long line to drop-in and talk to a counselor. Call and schedule an appointment in advice or be okay with waiting for 30-60 min. for a drop-in appointment. Like the DMW, there are peak times where the drop-in line is really long.
  5. At De Anza, it's pretty commom. There's a lot of reasons. One common reason is that a person has to stay for an extra quarter or year to wait for one class they need to transfer that is only offered one quarter a year. Another reason is that they have a job and it's tough for them to take more than 12 units a quarter. (The minimum amount of units De Anza students need to transfer to a UC or CSU is 90 units, which could mean 15 units over the span of 6 quarters. Some people need to work full time to support themselves and taking 15 units or more is too much work.) Another reason is that students take the wrong class for an IGETC requirement (i.e. taking EWRT 1B instead of EWRT 2 for the Area 1B Critical Thinking/English Composition requirement. They see the "1B" on EWRT 1B and think it fulfills Area 1B. However, Area 1B is fulfilled with EWRT 2 or PHIL 3.) Another reason is that they're taking a major that has a lot of major requisites, like engineering, bio, economics, etc. If you're a major an arts or humanities major such as film, art, music, psychology, philosophy, etc. then you'll have an easier time transferring in 2 years becaue classes for those majors have lots of spaces and they less major pre requisites. So pay careful attention to your IGETC, major requirements, and unit count. Meet with your counselor often. Make a 2 year transfer plan at the beginning of the year and keep yourself on track.

Good luck! I’ve had some really awesome times at De Anza. I really owe it to that college to make me feel more invigorated about learning.

I can’t speak to De Anza specifically, but often, the classes that fill up quickly are those taught by teachers who have good ratings on RateMyProfessor.com