<p>So college letters came out and I was rejected by all but UC Riverside. Although I don't want to graduate from UCR, I still want to experience the freshman life. Would it be possible to go to UCR for one year, transfer to a CC the next year, and then transfer to say UC Berkley with CC priority?</p>
<p>bumpity bump bump</p>
<p>I was placed in a similar situation. I only got into Riverside and a few other colleges. My dream school was Berkeley, but I was rejected from there. I decided to go to a CCC instead and transfer to a UC. I decided to not go to UCR because I felt like it wasn’t a good fit for me, not because of its “reputation”.</p>
<p>Yes, it is possible to do a UC → CCC → UC transfer, but sit down and seriously consider it.</p>
<p>You said you want to go to UCR for your freshman year to get the “college experience”. The college experience is living away from your parents, doing what you want when you want, and most importantly beginning to form new friendships that will last.</p>
<p>The same experience of living away from your parents and doing what you want can be had if go to a CCC and transfer to a UC. The experience of forming new friendships will not be the same if you do a UC → CCC → UC transfer. You’ll make friends, but then will leave after a year. Yes you can keep in touch, but it’s not the same as being with them for several years. They’ll just be friendships like you had in high school. You’ll then have to do the same thing at a CCC. Once you go to your second UC, then you’ll be able to build friendships that will last. If you did a CCC → UC transfer instead then you’ll have the same friends as you would minus the friends from UCR which you might or might not keep in touch with.</p>
<p>I mean yes you’ll have a lot of fun being a freshman at UCR, but your college experience won’t be the same as everyone else’s. You have to ask yourself how much are you willing to spend for this. You honestly need to put a price tag on it and ask yourself if it’s worth it. If you say yes, then certainly go and have fun, but if you say no then just do a CCC → UC transfer instead.</p>
<p>Have fun deciding what you want to do. And remember, no matter what decision you choose, you’ll look back part way through your freshman year and question if you made the right decision. Anyways, don’t freak out. It’s important to remember in the end you’ll have a great time and will enjoy it.</p>
<p>P.S. Most UCs, if not all, have transfer dorms. They’re similar to freshmen dorms, except they’re occupied by first year transfer students. These dorms do create a sort of freshman college experience.</p>
<p>I mean…UCR for 27k-31k for a year to get an experience, then a CC to go to another UC?</p>
<p>Unless you got money to throw, I would highly discourage that idea.</p>
<p>It is definitely possible to do this. You may be able to take part in the TAG program at your CC and get guaranteed admission to a UC campus. One consideration, as has been pointed out, is that discontinuity in the friendships you will make. If you are thinking of the TAG program be sure to look into it carefully. There are requirements for both finishing a tag and who is eligible to file one. You might not be eligible to file one if you have just shown up at a CC. Even without the TAG program, CC students get priority in admission to UC campuses.</p>
<p>Here is a link to more info about the TAG program. <a href=“University of California Counselors”>University of California Counselors;
<p>who cares about the college experience… Two years is plenty of alcohol and partying! Besides, a college experience can be negative or positive what if you hate UCR’s environment?</p>
<p>thanks for the answers everyone. my biggest question remains unanswered, however. will i still have cc priority if i only do one year at a cc?</p>
<p>I believe you will still have the cc priority.</p>
<p>@Swag— you’ll have priority !!</p>
<p>Another option that you could potentially consider is going the UC-UC transfer route.</p>
<p>I’m a current UC-UC transfer myself and I think I got into Davis (I’m saying “think” because decisions haven’t come out yet, but there’s the whole speculation thing going on with Davis’ decisions right now). I’m currently at UCSC and will be transferring up to Davis for next year.</p>
<p>I completely second what everyone’s been saying though: going to UCR <em>JUST</em> for the freshman experience isn’t really that great of an idea. I can almost assure you that you will not want to go down to a CCC after a whole year at a UC. Trust me, I’ve taken classes at CCC and UCSC before and the jump in quality teaching is pretty substantial (of course there can always be exceptions to this). </p>
<p>So from my point of view, you have two options:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Take the traditional CCC → UC transfer route. If your major doesn’t have too many prereqs and you have a lot of APs, you can even apply to Berkeley/the other UCs this fall (you will probably need to take a substantial amount of summer classes though).</p></li>
<li><p>Take the UC-UC transfer route. People may say that UC-UC transfers don’t have priority, but that’s all complete bull****. I talked to adcoms and various UCs about this matter when I was deciding on doing a UC-UC transfer last year and they told me that CCC do get some priority, but it doesn’t push the UC-UC transfers out (unless you’re applying to a heavily impacted major, but even then you still have a chance).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>^^
I’ve been preaching this forever, UC-UC transfer is not insurmountable. CCC are given priority because going to a 4-year university is the next logical step. However, that does not mean they will automatically bump an otherwise competitive applicant from a UC… even to an impacted major.</p>
<p>Cal is difficult to get into whether the major is impacted or not… period. I was accpeted to Cal as a UC-UC transfer.</p>
<p>OP, if you have competitive stats from UCR, you’ll get into an other UC.</p>
<p>I was forced to go the UC-CC-UC route after my first year at UCSC. I was forced to withdraw due to financial and personal issues last min. I can tell you, the transition from UC to CC is not a good one. Starting with no priority, and fighting for classes(and parking) depending on what CC you go to is not fun. Regardless, I got my **** done in two years, and knocked most of my major requirements at UCSC. So far i’ve been accepted to UCSD and the 4 cal states i applied to which aren’t really relevant to this discussion. I don’t think you’ll get dinged for having prior UC credit, I see it as a good thing when they are reviewing your application. Just make sure all the classes you take at UCR are transferable, and match up with your local CC courses. The UCSC core courses didn’t transfer to my CC for some reason, after taking 3 qtrs of writing. Just know what you are doing, and what you plan on doing. Looking back, if i was more prepared for the transition, things would have gotten much smoother. Didn’t know what i was doing once I reached a CC. Good luck to ya!</p>