I am currently in my 1st semester at a Virginia Community college. After I have completed my 2 years I am looking into moving back to California (I am from SoCal, my dad still currently resides there and my mother would like to move back)
I am majoring in Communications/Journalism and have been looking into UC San Diego, CSU fullerton, & CSU Long beach. I am open to going to mostly any college in the southern part of the state. It would be amazing to consider UCLA or CSU but financially it just isn’t realistic and I feel like I wouldn’t be a priority since I am an out of state student. Any info/tips can help me. I just need to get out of Virginia and move back to my home state.
Contact the schools you’re interested in, and find out how to establish residency to avoid paying costly out of state tuition, and transfer policies. Plan on losing some credits from Virginia: for many students, some credit loss is a reality of transferring.
In general, California schools are very community-college-transfer friendly, but the priority goes to transfers from California community college students, then from other California campuses. Out of state transfers could be sort of last in line.
@TxWhite: Going to a California CC will ensure a higher priority transfer, that all credits will transfer and allow you to establish residency for tuition purposes.
be cautioned, it is almost impossible to establish residency in CA as a continuing student at a CA CC. If you come here as a student and pay OOS tuition at a CC, expect to continue the OOS rate for the rest of your degree. If you graduated from a Ca HS, and attended an OOS college for a semester or two, maybe a different story. Any steps you take to obtain VA residency will undermine your claim at CA residency.
Also, Fullerton UCLA, UCSD and CSU LB are really tough transfer target, especially from an OOS CC. You’ll need just the right classes and a very hgh GPA for all of them.
If you can swing the CA in state thing, I’d counsel you to attend a So Cal CC that’s ‘local’ to CSULB or Fullerton, get a high GPA and use TAG to target a couple mid-tier UCs while also applying to CSULB, Fullerton, UCLA and UCSD. See where you get in and take it from there.
If residency is a hurdle, try a private or stay put until you earn a BA/BS then come to CA and begin your career. It will also be cool that you’ll then be subsidizing the UC and CSU system with your tax dollars.