<p>I am going to be an incoming freshman in the fall. I am currently debating weather to start at my local JC then transferring to a UC, where I have always wanted to go or starting at SFSU and either transferring to another CSU or hopefully a UC. My two concerns are not experiencing the "college experience" and ultimately being able to graduate in 4 years. I know SFSU is extremely impacted so I heard that after freshman year it is almost impossible to figure out how to graduate in 4 years. If anyone has experienced transferring with either of those scenarios please let me know how your transition went and such. Thanks! </p>
<p>If you really want a UC than a CC is better. The UCs have agreements and policy preferences to take CC students as transfers. I looked recently at UCLA’s transfer acceptances for 2013 and 28% of CC (JC) applicants were accepted, 21% of UC to UC applicants were accepted, and only about 10% of ‘other’ transfer applicants were accepted, including from CSUs. The down side is if you don’t make the grades, but you could apply to transfer to CSUs as well, as a safety.</p>
<p>I know you can get a residential college experience at some JCs/CCs you just have to pick them carefully.</p>
<p>I think the transfer section might have people who have more of these answers.</p>
<p>Providing your major would be a help as it is a consideration.
To both ideas there are pros and cons. A pro to community college is higher acceptance rate. Statistically, the most transfer students are from CC, as schools have agreements. If you go the CSU route and then want to transfer you will need to compete with other students (from everywhere) to get a limited spot as a non cc transfer. And from my personal xp the transfers who get accepted get accepted because of not good stats, but also because their school didn’t offer the program they wanted. Additionally, if you go the CSU route, you will be limited 70 transferable units. This won’t be much of a factor if you are a humanities or social science major, but if you are a stem major, this might pose more of a challenge.
The disadvantages to CC can be many. If you go to a weak CC, you won’t be prepared to do the upper division coursework as you would have been if you went directly to CSU or UC (of course this depends and major in rigor). Additionally, CC are also still getting hit by the money crunch. So there are less classes every year. So you may not transfer in 2 years (again, this is dependent on major). I don’t know where you live, but some CC in the greater L.A. area get between 1-2 classes a semester. At my school, the money problem isn’t that bad yet, but the limited classes did ruin my four year plan. Chemistry is always closed, so I had to spend my first few semester taking useless classes just to get my reg date up to be able to take Chem. If you’re a Stem Major, you are most likely, going to have similar problems getting all your classes on time, if you don’t get priority registration or something. </p>
<p>Although one thing you need to consider is placement. If you get placed in a remedial class, you won’t get out in 4 years, unless you take summer classes. Additionally, the cut classes is an issue most schools are experiencing. The 4 year plan is becoming the 5 year plan, and if you’re a stem major (particularly engineering and physics) the 4 year plan is somewhat uncommon. In those majors, the common time to graduate is 4-6 years. I’m not saying this will be you, but this is a consideration you should take. </p>