So basic background: I’m an OOS (Texas) student who was admitted as a January admit in the College of L&S. Econ major hopeful. Since I’m a January admit I was hoping to take some CC classes over the fall to get try and get 3-4 breadth courses out of the way (and save some money too!).
When I called Berkeley to ask about evaluating my OOS CC classes to see which classes would be transferable, the response was basically that they couldn’t do that and that I would have to use my judgment, take the class, and THEN they would tell me whether or not I could transfer the credit after I got there in the spring. Obviously, this is rather…unappealing because I’ll be basically wasting my time for courses that wont transfer and I’ll be a semester behind everyone else if the majority of classes won’t transfer. So question one is- does anyone know how stringent Berkeley is on transferring OOS CC credit? Any advice from people who have done this before on how to best choose classes that have the highest possibility of transferring? Any insight into the process they use to evaluate OOS coursework?
Alternatively, I am also considering going to CC in California (probably in the Davis/Sacramento area as I have a very very close friend who will be going to UC Davis and so this way I would at least know one person) because I know that they have equivalency contracts signed with Berkeley, which spell out quite clearly what courses will transfer. Obviously, this would be far more expensive (approx 6K vs. 1K) though still cheaper than taking those classes at Berkeley. Furthermore, I would have to find housing, which would be quite expensive as I’m only planning to lease for three months. And finally, I have never been to California and I would have absolutely no support system there. Going to Berkeley would be okay since it’s a full fledged university and I would have some degree of support and people from all around the country, but of course a CC, which caters predominantly to locals, would not have this. So, CC in California is not the ideal choice by any means, but I also feel a great deal of uncertainty about the possibility of transferring my OOS coursework.
Lastly, parents are definitely leaning more towards me staying at home as they are worried I’ll accidentally get mugged or something 
being a clueless 18 year old in a totally unfamiliar environment.
Thank you so much to anyone who could help. Information on this has been surprisingly hard to find (though perhaps I just don’t know where to look) and I would appreciate any insight, suggestions, or advice.