I’m considering going to a CC and then transfer to a big 4 year univ.
I hear that freshmen year of a 4 year Univ is something you will never forget. Why is that? What will I miss?
If you spend a week in this forum, you’d realize that a lot of people are absolutely miserable their first year of college (so I guess it’s unforgettable in that sense…) – there’s no one size fits all college experience. People are different.
As someone who transferred from a CC to a 4-year univ., it was financially the best decision I made in my life. When you’re at a CC, you can get your GEs out of the way at lower costs (and recently, Obama proposed free tuition for community college students as long as they keep their gpa up!), so you won’t have to find yourself racking in huge debts after you transfer and graduate from a 4 year. Plus, once you get your GEs and lower division work out of the way at a CC, you can just focus on upper division work for your major when you transfer.
Most people who go to community college never get out so that’s the number one concern. Other than that they’re like a 3 hour per day high school so you’ll obviously go completely nuts if you don’t find excuses to interact with other human beings on a regular basis. You might think that 3 hours a day of school is a good thing but I have older siblings and I grantee you you’ll go nuts if you don’t stay busy.
Again, mostly it’s your odds of ever getting out that are an issue but going nuts from lack of social interaction is a major, major factor as well. I have two odler siblings who barely made it out of community college alive and I still dread the inevitable summer classes I figure I’ll hvae to take at one eventually 
One thing that I have noticed about older transfer students is that they usually have a smaller group of friends/acquaintances for the rest of their time there. Upperclassmen are less open than underclassmen in making new friends with transfers because they most likely already have a large social circle after being in college for a few years. The few exceptions I’ve seen with this are transfers who are just stunningly good looking or have a really outgoing personality. Depending on the way things work at your school, this might hinder your social life. (Majority of the parties at my school are invite-only rather than open to everyone).
Also, the first two years of college is when you will take your basic classes, the easiest classes you will ever have. Freshman year was the only time I was able to party on a Wednesday and still keep my grades up. Basically, when you finally arrive at your university, the only classes you will be taking are your “upper-division” courses. The jump from community college level intro classes to university level upper divs is steep, and you will probably be busy trying to catch up with the rigor.
I went to CC for 2 years, got my Associate’s degree, then transferred to a 4 year university.
4 years after graduating from high school, I had my Bachelors and a teaching job lined up.
For me, it was a wise choice. For one of my sisters, it was also a wise choice; 4 years after high school graduation she had a Bachelors and an accounting job in NYC. Both of us have since gone on to get our Masters Degrees.
Yet for another of my sisters, it was a poor choice. She hated it, and cut classes until it was time to withdraw. She eventually got her BA as an adult (and now makes probably double my salary.)
We’re not considering Community College for my son. Our local CC, the same one I attended, doesn’t offer Sports Management, his major. But even more than that, I don’t think it would be a good fit for my son. He’s the type of kid who would fall through the cracks in a large CC. He needs a smaller college, one where he’ll be part of a group of kids hanging out. He would hate transferring as a Junior, being a newcomer to social groups that had been established 2 years prior.
The community college system is a wonderful opportunity for a lot of kids, and it’s very often unfairly maligned by people here who have no experience with it. But it’s not right for everyone.
I did two years at a CC and transferred. For me this was a smart decision financially because those first two years were essentially free, I was able to work ~20 hours a week, and I’ll be able to graduate without any student loans. You really have to pay attention to what classes you’re taking and making sure that they’ll transfer. All ~64 of mine did, but I know a lot of other transfer students that got screwed and should have had 60 but ended up with like 40.
Academically it has been kind of a shock since I jumped straight into upper level courses in my major, compared to taking pre reqs and gen eds at CC.
I guess I would say that I did miss out on a lot of the social stuff, but it makes you appreciate it a lot more since you only have two years of it rather than four. I haven’t had trouble making friends partly because I made the decision to live in a dorm with mostly freshmen and sophomores. Joining clubs related to your interests helps a lot too.