So I’m going to start my first year at community college this summer. My plan is to eventually transfer over to USC and get my bachelors degree in Film and TV Production. I’ve decided rather than finish all my courses in a year and transfer ASAP, I want to take three years at my community college and get my associates degree before I transfer. I already looked at the transfer agreement between my school and USC and I know all the classes I have to take before I transfer. The way I set up my original plan was to take the 9 of USC’s GE classes over here at my community within the first year. And then once I transfer to take rest of the GE classes and my major classes at USC. The main reason I dont want to go to USC after one year is because of money. My dad is in between jobs right now and my mom is a teacher, so we don’t get paid too much money. USC is super expensive, about 80 grand a year! However, my dad just finished his teaching program and will become a teacher this fall. Currently we are living in a small house but since my dad is finally going to get a job, we will also go looking for a new house in the fall as well. And on top of that, my parents will be getting me a new car. So even with both my parents working, I’d still have to take plenty of loans if I wanted to go to USC. So I decided that taking 3 years at community college would be plenty of time for my parents to save, for me to save, and for me to build up my resume and have a chance for scholarships. Now that I have decided to take 3 years, the first year will be the same, taking only USC’s approved transfer courses. But then the following two years is what im worried about. My community college also offers a film and tv production degree but sadly it isn’t transferable to USC. I would spend the last two years at community taking the film classes they offer as well as learning some skills I have always wanted to learn. I would take film classes, spanish classes, guitar classes, and even acting classes in those two years. And since I’d be there for 3 years I would also plan on getting my associates. I understand that getting a film degree at my community college just to take some of the same classes again at USC might seem pointless to some people but I disagree. First of all I’d go into USC ahead of other prospective film students. I would probably be re learning some lessons but then USC branches out in their film program way more than my college does. So yes Id be re taking some intro level classes but then Id also learn way more. Would having a film degree and 2 years of film school experience decrease my chances for getting into USC’s film school? My logic being that they want students with no experience and they might see me as someone who already knows film. And also, would taking 3 years overall hurt my chances? I saw on the USC website their prospective transfer students take about 1 year of rigorous course work before transferring. Yeah my first year would be hard but then the next two years might hurt me. It would look like Im just taking a bunch of elective courses for two years. Although I would have about 5 classes per semester, just because the classes would consist of film, spanish, guitar, and acting; Im not sure if USC would consider that as rigorous work.
also, this is all hypothetical. obviously i am not guarenteed to get all the classes i want and im not guaranteed to get into USC. and obviously, i cant tell what will happen in the next 3 years. but still i would appreciate an answer. Im going to talk to a counselor about this in a couple weeks but Id like some second opinions, hopefully before then. and sorry it took so long just to ask the questions, but I didnt want a generalized answer. thanks!