The only university I got into after applying in high school is CSULA. It was only an hour away from my house. I went there for a year, then left to go to 4 different community colleges for a span of 6 years in hopes of getting into a UC. I kept trying again every year to apply to a UC, and when I got accepted, I changed my mind and didn’t feel like going to a university that is 400 miles away, and also living with others. Now, I am back at CSULA. I also didn’t know that I could have just reapplied to CSULA and be re-accepted. I didn’t know that I didn’t need to complete 60 units to get accepted again to CSULA because I was already enrolled. Now I feel I just wasted my time when I would have graduated in 2016 if I had not left CSULA.
You have posted this same discussion several times and I do not know what you want CC posters to say??
What is done is done so get your degree and move on.
How come no one has ever posted something like, “Why would you go to a CC when you already got accepted into a university? You spent 6 years at several community colleges for nothing!”? I’m waiting for someone to post something like this.
Why do you need someone to question your choices? Everyone decides on their own path in life and many times things do not work out as planned. You learn from your mistakes and move forward, that is part of being human.
I’m also at a CSU (second year sophomore) and I was debating whether to drop to CC and apply for UC over the summer. But since I know for sure that I want to go somewhere far from California, I realized that applying for private school/ out of state schools are the best options for myself. I’m not sure if you are interested or whatever, but if I would you that I would consider schools like USC or some other private school. I believe you learned a lot from all these detour, and not sure how your grades are (let’s assuming they are descent); I think you would have better chance for USC/ some private schools. Write a compelling essay, and why you learned after all these years. I personally think that UC is just so hard to get in at this point, since everyone wants to go to the top UC from CC and the spots are just so limited.
Good luck with everything 
Why? Are you wanting somebody to validate your own self-flagellation?
As @Gumbymom says, what’s done is done, and you are where you are. Despite the critics, most posters on CC actually want to be helpful, and berating somebody for past choices is not helpful.
As Bette Bao Lord wrote, “what is life but foolish and imperfect choices?”. Most people make the best decision they are able to make for who they are / where they are in their life. Then-you did the best then-you could. You like what now-you can do more, which is fine, but no reason to beat up on then-you.
And, we don’t know that those years were “for nothing”. You have learned from your courses (and apparently done well enough to get offers to UCs), and a lot (most? all?) of those credits will transfer towards your degree. Your life experiences along the way have brought you to the point where you are ready to move past whatever obstacles were keeping you from moving forward. And that is definitely not nothing.
You can’t change the past, so just get your degree and move on. I’ve never had an employer ask in an interview, “How ling did it take to get your degree?” You don’t need us to second-guess your decisions, and you really shouldn’t either. You want to know REAL stupid? I dropped out of high school. After a few years of contemplating how stupid it was, I got my GED and went back to school and got a masters degree. I don’t think about it a day in my life now, except to have a good laugh.
I am closing this conversation. Yes, you keep reposting this. What’s done is done. Sadly, this is not Back to the Future.