<p>The Situation
I'm a high school senior right now, ready to leave to college next year.
Say I've been rejected to EVERY SINGLE UC I've applied to, and I only applied to UC's.
In other words, I haven't been accepted anywhere -- the only choice now is to join a community college, and transfer over to a UC in two years.</p>
<p>The Plan
I plan to take sort of a "gap year", but not really a gap year.
I will go to community college, with heavy workload. I want to rack up as many credits as possible IN ONE YEAR. I will then apply to multiple schools next year (not making the same mistake next time). I plan to join SDSU, UC's again, UIUC (top choice), and such as a FRESHMAN. I want to transfer my CC credits over as well.</p>
<p>Is this possible? Would it be better to stay at the CC for two years? </p>
<p>You can plan for two years and apply in one year and see how it goes. The ‘TAG’ guarantee assumes you are there two years, but on a ‘not guaranteed’ basis, you could try applying earlier. Some UCs ONLY accept transfers at the two year mark, but I never heard that applied to CSUs or most of them (someone can correct me if I am wrong.) I think you would do better to get a stellar gpa with a normal course load than ‘rack up credits’ and get a lower gpa though. CCs usually have counselors you can talk to about what would work best. Heck, your high school counselor might be able to help if you are in California.</p>
<p>Also, while the avenue you are looking at may be the best plan, there is also a possibility of applying this summer to go to a CSU in the spring. Getting into a UC is preferentially treated from community colleges, however.</p>
<p>@collegevetting Thank you, you’re probably right about the GPA in CC. Would it work out with UIUC? And what are my chances if applying for Computer Science (UIUC’s #5 for comp. sci)? I’m afraid I may be wasting my time with it, as their computer science program is highly competitive.</p>
<p>The definition of a gap year is doing something other than college for the year after HS. What you’ve described is transferring. No college in the US permits students with a year of full time post-HS college coursework to apply as a fr.</p>
<p>Look into this thoroughly and decide if you want to transfer to UCs or to UIUC. Because if you are going to transfer to a UC a California CC will have a real edge, and a guaranteed path after two years if you meet the requirements. However, if you want to go to UIUC it might be better to go to an Illinois CC, if they get preference in the Il system (and I just don’t know if they do or not, someone else would have to answer that.)</p>
<p>What I’m saying is, I know that if you apply to a UC from a CALIFORNIA community college you have a big advantage over anyone applying from anywhere else. I don’t know if Illinois has a similar relationship between Illinois community colleges and UIUC. IF they do, deciding where you go to community college might strongly influence whether you get into a UC (a California community college) or UIUC (from an ILLINOIS community college). However, I don’t know if UIUC cares where you transfer from, I am just not on top of University of Illinois requirements/preferences.</p>
<p>Money is a factor; It’s not more of application fees, as if I were to be accepted to UC campuses, I would take those over any out-of-state universities for the lower tuition fees</p>
<p>I believe that your GRADES are very important in your transfer application and it is MUCH better for most folks to take a lighter course load and have higher grades than trying to take a very heavy course load and possibly not do as well or learn as much. This is especially true for engineering, which is challenging anyway and requires a LOT of math and science. If you do want to transfer to a UC, pay close attention to the requirements for transfer and do as well as you can.</p>
<p>If money is a factor, you really should think about how your choices will be financed. For engineering, as long as you get decent grades from a ABET certified program, you should competitive for most engineering jobs.</p>
<p>UCs and CSUs will not consider you a frosh applicant if you take any college courses after the summer immediately following high school graduation. So you will have to complete two years’ worth of courses before transferring (except for the few campuses that accept lower division transfers). Of course, if you have substantial credit from AP scores or college courses taken while in high school, you may be able to reach that threshold after only one year at CC.</p>
<p>Other schools may have different rules as to how frosh versus transfer applicants are defined, but it would not be surprising if taking a year’s worth of college courses after high school graduation puts you solidly in the “transfer” category.</p>