Transfer from community college to save money.

Parents Forum
1

<p>I am finding that this path is becoming much more common for the children of my friends and acquaintances. As a whole ( the parents), they are a fairly well educated group (advanced degrees), and would be full pay, even at schools that are $50,000+. The kids have their heart set on schools that would be expensive - Cal for OOS, NYU, Uchicago, & would probably not qualify for substantial merit aid.
The kids also don't really know what they want to major in, and want the flexibility to take a few classes here and there without worrying about finishing up in four years.</p>

<p>They start off living at home, but move closer to the community college/dorms within the first year when possible.</p>

<p>I tried to talk my own D into doing this, because I thought very highly of a few local Cc's & their support services. I</a> love EDCC But she has always had her own very strong opinions!</p>

<p>There are disadvantages to doing this, and students who think they "deserve" to attend a college that is out of reach, may not be open minded enough to consider other options.
But for students who perhaps had to drop out of college( because of expenses?), or those who find themselves at a dead-end, along with those students who realize that the only name on their diploma will be the school where they finished, a community college is a great community resource.</p>

<p>Opening up a path to 4-yr degrees</p>

2

<p>A lot of people do this around here. California has many wonderful community colleges that feed into the UC system and schools like CalPoly. A few transfer to private schools, but most, I think go on to a UC or one of the state schools.</p>

3

<p>This was very common in Illinois where I grew up (my siblings and I all did it). I know some folks who ended up transferring to some pretty highly ranked schools.</p>

4

<p>I’m in Illinois and it’s pretty common here too. It makes sense. Send the kid to comm college for 2 years to save money, then send them to U of I. You then have a U of I degree indistinguishable from the kid who was there all 4 years, and really, U of I opens plenty of doors around here.</p>

5

<p>It happens to varying degrees in HI as well. Many/most of those who go to CC transfer to in-state flagship U; our D was their 1st who transferred from flagship CC to her dream competitive private U. I offered her the opportunity to rent & live in a room in a house near her CC but she declined & preferred that we save $$ so she could go to the dream U (we paid full-freight there & it was > $60K/year total at the U).</p>

<p>If the kiddo and family wants it to work, it can work wonderfully well, especially if the student contacts the U that s/he wants to transfer to & works with them on course selection so that many/most of the credits transfer. Our student was grateful that she had 3 semesters at CC, so she could explore fields she may not have had time or inclination to at larger U in small, supportive classes with mostly accessible instructors. It was a win-win for us, even tho it was not what any of us had originally envisioned for D. An unexpected bonus was that her instructors were SO very supportive of her and thrilled that she brought such different ideas and insights to the class (she is a very outside-the-box thinker). She will be graduating with her HS peers who started that private U as freshmen this spring!</p>

6

<p>I see it here to in SoCal. I think about 40-50% of local high schools go to CC and then transfer to a UC of CSU.</p>

7

<p>I am in southern NH and most of the graduates from my local, regional HS go this route… solely for the cost savings. They live at home, work a PT job and commute to a local CC. </p>

<p>Who can blame them, if they are able to earn credit for basic requirements at a fraction of the cost, before transferring to the state U to focus on core classes for their major?</p>

8

<p>Honestly, it sort of stuns me that anyone would be willing to pay so much or OR take on loans to go to a 4 year when they can go to CC, learn the same exact things, and pay so much less. </p>

<p>I always thought, for my fullpay friends, it was so wasteful! lol</p>

9

<p>It’s certainly smarter than the choices some other students are making that require them to take large private loans in order to attend their “dream” school.</p>

10

<p>I think some of us on the boards here are too blithe about they CC route because there are a lot of problems and issues going that way too. In my area, there are a number of good commuting options, but for a lot of kids that is not the case. I lived in an area where the community college was poorly run. You could spend 4 years there before getting the courses you need for an AA degree. Facilities and the way that school was run both very poor. A lot of disenchanted and disinterested professors, students and administrators. The courses were too often of a low quality that were not going to be decent stepping stones or prerequisites. To advise a serious student to go that route was a last resort. </p>

<p>I truly believe that this is where the bulk of our federal and state funds need to be placed so that as many potential students as possible have the opportunity to have a low cost, high quality, accessible option.</p>

11

<p>I always wonder when I see this option on cc. The caliber of cc must be much higher in some other states. I do not think it is a good option for a serious, 4-yr college-ready student in my state, with the exception of nursing, which is a 2 year degree at cc. </p>

<p>Until recently, there was not a good system to “feed” students into our 4 year state colleges. Recent state laws may help this, but that is too new to judge yet. S1 attended a T20; S2 a cc. There is simply no comparison between the quality of the professors and fellow students–at least not in my state. I would be very leery to send a student here to a cc with the intent of transferring to a 4 year institution.</p>

<p>This choice is cost effective, but here it is crowded, it is difficult to get the correct classes, and then they cancel classes at the last second for lack of enrollment and it’s difficult to find another appropriate class and/or too late to rework the schedule. S2 had that happen each of the 5 semesters he attended. He also had many complaints about the students who were filling space/wasting time to get their unemployment because they didn’t want to look for a job.</p>

<p>I do think cc would be a good, cost effective, viable option if there weren’t those hurdles.</p>

12

<p>In our county (both CCs and public schools are by county in Maryland) nearly 50 percent of those going to college start at our CC. It is a very good option for those who want to major in education, liberal arts, are undecideded, or perhaps even business. It is also a great place for anyone who needs remediation. For a kid who wants to do engineering or even study a language other than Spanish, the college is not a good option.</p>

13

<p>It is not as common in Indiana, though that is because we have a good satellite system. Steps have recently been taken to simplify the transfer process from the community schools, so that may change. One advantage is that the degree that graduates from Purdue gets the same diploma whether it is from Lafayette, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne or Gary. In my area the majority of students start at one of the satellites and never transfer down to Lafayette or Bloomington. Of those that go to our flagships about 1/2 end up back here with their friends within two years.</p>

14

<p>MizzBee, Good point about the satellites, although I’m not a fan of the one closest to me. IU graduates also get the same degree whether it’s Bloomington or a satellite.</p>

<p>Ivy Tech seems to serve a different purpose than transferring into IU, Purdue, Ball State, or ISU–much more of a 2-year only or vo-tech type AA.</p>

15

<p>syrstress, we are lucky to have Purdue Cal close by, which is one of the better schools. I do like that Ivy Tech is working with publics and privates to set in place transfer requirements.</p>

16

<p>We have a great CC system here. And they recently (within the past couple of years) really started promoting their “Transfer ASAP” program, which guarantees transfer into the state college and university system, as a Junior (all pre-reqs and generals out of the way), only 18 months post H.S. Super cost effective and expedient way in, IMO.</p>

17

<p>While I think the CC route can be great for some students, I see a few potential problems:</p>

<p>1) For students with a lot of AP credits, there may not be much to “get out of the way.” I came in with 59 AP credits, and as a result, I only took three general ed classes in all of college (one of which was required for my minor and one other that may not have been available at a CC [a non-Western religion class that fulfilled both our non-western and philosophy general ed requirements]) . With the exception of two classes required for my honors program, everything else I took was directly related to my majors or minor.</p>

<p>2) Limited course selection. Granted, this may not be a problem at larger CC’s, but often they offer only a limited number of courses in a specific subject. For example, CC’s in rural areas or smaller towns may offer only intro to psych, developmental psych, and abnormal psych as opposed to the full array of psych courses offered by a four year school. CC’s in larger cities may not have this problem so much, but it definitely something to consider.</p>

<p>3) Availability of research and other opportunities. By the end of my second year in college, I had already TA’ed two freshman intro to honors courses and done two semesters of biomedical research and one semester of psychology research. Like with most jobs/skills, once you have research or teaching experience, it’s generally easier to get more of it. I don’t think, for example, I would have gotten my paid RAship in my junior year had I not had that previous research experience under my belt. That RAship was invaluable, life-changing (not hyperbole, really!), and opened up so doors for me. By their nature, CC’s don’t typically offer research or teaching/TAing opportunities.</p>

<p>4) Merit aid. Most large merit aid awards are only available to freshman applicants. Merit scholarships for transfers are generally much smaller. If a student is competitive for a larghe merit scholarship, a CC may not save them much money at all in the big picture. Also, som private Us tend to offer less FA for transfer students.</p>

<p>5) Greek life. Yeah, yeah, I know most CCers don’t much care for Greek life, but if your D is interested in joining a sorority at Alabama, Texas, Texas A&M, Illinois, or any other competitive Greek systems, being a transfer may put her at significant disadvantage. In less intense Greek systems, this may not be an issue, or at least as much of one.</p>

<p>Again, I think the CC route can definitely work for some students, but it definitely has some potential drawbacks to consider as well.</p>

18

<p>^^I can write a post just as long about some of the problems/drawbacks of starting out at a 4year college (if anyone is actually interested and wants me to, let me know). Clearly both have advantages and disadvantages. </p>

<p>My CC experience was excellent and was very happy with the quality of education and did not have any scheduling problems that some people on this thread speak of (in my experience, it tends to be more difficult to register into needed courses at the 4-year universities than it is in CC’s). </p>

<p>The only think I really missed out on by going to cc was the fun factor (relating to Psych’s #5). There is a whole lot more spirit/fun/drunkeness at a 4yr university. BUt then again, I don’t think the extra cost the avg student would pay for said experience would be worth it.</p>

19

<p>Another drawback of starting at a cc may be that extracurricular activities may not be as robust (especially if a lot of the students are part-time, and have jobs). Many college students get almost as much out of their ECs as they do from their classes, and it’s difficult to pick some of these up when you are a transfer student. It’s like what psych said about Greek life, but it’s a lot broader than that. Things like newspaper staff, college radio, musical groups, political groups, and lots more. Of course, I’m sure not all ccs are created equal in this respect, either.</p>

20

<p>In Illinois, even the private universities have begun to have articulation agreements with the CCs over the past couple of years. DePaul has a full articulation agreement, as do the state universities. I’m glad we have this here. It makes me feel much better about the educational options for the kids, given how expensive our system is, just in general.</p>

<p>Also, it is very difficult to get into UIUC, even with one bad high school year. So, it’s a way for a strong student who wasn’t “perfect” when they were a teenager to have an open path.</p>

<p>I feel postive about that, as well.</p>