<p>Hi, </p>
<p>I am pretty confident about getting accepted to UCI, however my dream schools have always been USC and UCLA. USC being my top choice. </p>
<p>Do you think it would smart for me to go to UCI and then try transferring to USC? Or getting a 4-year degree at UCI and then going to USC for grad school? </p>
<p>Or, would it be better for me to go Community College and then transfer to USC/UCLA after two years?</p>
<p>If you really want, you can take a year of CC. 33% of transfer applications are accepted at USC (vs. 25% for for non-transfer freshmen) and 27% vs 22% at UCLA.</p>
<p>Isn’t there a thing in Cali that if you do CC and finish with a certain GPA, you’d automatically be accepted into a UC? I’m not sure about this though.</p>
<p>Apply to USC, UCLA, and UCI; see who accepts you; then analyze your options. Good luck.</p>
<p>If you really want to go to USC or UCLA then give community college a try. Acceptance rates are higher for CC applicants. Many CC’s have UCLA tap programs. If you get UCLA Tap certified then you have higher priority for admissions.
I’m sure you’ll get into ether one of the two if you maintain good grades. If anything UCI as a CC student can be a back up since it’s relatively easy to be readmitted as a transfer student, especially with TAG (transfer admission guarantee). I’m taking the CC route to reapply to Cal. I think it was a great decision on my part.(UCLA, CAL, and USC don’t have any TAGs.)</p>
<p>nobody can say what is better for you. We don’t know you, and there is no universal “better” approach that is right for everyone. </p>
<p>What people can do is point out the potential pluses and minuses of each approach. And you should start by coming up with a list of these things on your own. In the end you’ll need to make the call over which is best for you; its quite possible for a friend of yours to look at the same list and decide for herself/himself to go a different way.
Its a program called TAG and that’s pretty much what it does; however UCLA, Cal, and UCSD do not participate.</p>
<p>USC has articulation agreements with some CCCs:</p>
<p>[USC</a> ARR : Articulation](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/articulation/]USC”>http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/articulation/)</p>
<p>@mikemac </p>
<p>UCLA doesn’t, but USC does correct?</p>
<p>I think you are confusing terms here. An articulation agreement is a list of a set of courses for which the 4-year school has promised to give you college credit. There are lots of courses you can take at a community college that will not be given credit when you apply to a four year college. You can see which courses any California 4-year public college will accept by looking at the ASSIST website. UCLA, as a public college, therefore has articulation agreements.</p>
<p>A TAG program is something different. It is a promise of admission. UCLA does not offer this. Neither does USC, at least to my knowledge. </p>
<p>Post 6 said that USC also has articulation agreements even though it is a private university, not that it offers a guarantee of admission.</p>