<p>I use to want to go straight to a 4yr after high school but then my mom said she wants me to go to a college near home so I can commute from home.I really don't want to because I'm sick of living in the same area for all my life and now I don't really see the point anymore.I could go to a community college and stay home for 2 years then go to a school out of the area but then id still be in my area.She said she's not going to pay or even help pay if I went to a school that I couldn't commute to...
I'm pretty sure I couldn't get a scholarship with my gpa but now I'm thinking what's the point of taking ap classes,the SAT or even trying my best in school,if I'm probably going to community college. </p>
<p>Ask your mom why she wants you to commute. </p>
<p>Is the reason financial? </p>
<p>Are there family responsibilities, such as care of an elderly relative, that you help with and that she is hoping you will continue to help with? </p>
<p>Does she feel that you are not ready for the relatively unstructured life of a student away at college? </p>
<p>Is she uncomfortable with the idea of a young person going away to college because no one in your family has ever done it?</p>
<p>You’ll be better able to deal with the situation (and possibly, work out some sort of change or compromise in your mother’s views) if you know her reasons.</p>
Even if you have to go to cc for 2 years, you would need to transfer after that. Transfer schools still want your HS transcripts and your SAT scores. </p>
<p>And if you don’t bother trying in school now, you don’t lay a good foundation for cc. And if you don’t lay a good foundation for cc, you do poorly in cc. And if you do poorly in cc, you don’t get accepted anywhere for transfer. And if you don’t get accepted anywhere for transfer you are stuck in bupkis forever. </p>
<p>Don’t get stuck in bupkis forever. Work hard at school and jobs and DO WELL.</p>
<p>If you plan to start at a community college, there’s no reason to play the college admissions game - SAT/ACT preparation, long list of ECs doing things you don’t care about, AP classes for the sake of AP classes, etc.</p>
<p>However: as sylvan says, the more you learn now, the easier time you’ll have in community college and beyond, and the more your college experience will benefit you. Not to mention that learning something thoroughly has its own rewards, far beyond what it will “get you.”</p>
<p>“stay home for 2 years
then go to a school out of the area
but then id still be in my area”</p>
<p>What.</p>
<p>Furthermore, if you are expecting your parent(s) to pay for your school, then you’ve already made the decision for yourself to have them make the decision for you.</p>
<p>You list CA as your home state. It is very common to do the CC route, then transfer to a UC. You save a lot of money that way. CA has very good community colleges, and many of them are full of clubs, etc for socializing. </p>
<p>another strategy is to work very hard at finding a school with good merit aid, then proving to your parents that it would be more cost-effective to attend the OOS small LAC with great aid than the huge state school with almost no aid. Come armed with facts and figures, don’t whine or tell mom she is a bad parent, etc.</p>
<p>In your state, with this economy it makes good financial sense to follow your family plan. You just need to provide her with an alternative that is not going to put you in too much debt.</p>
<p>You need to find out if the reason she wants you to stay home is economic or developmental or a combination of the two. If your parents can’t afford to send you away and you desperately want to go, then you need to see if you are capable of getting a lot of merit aid. We need to know more about your stats to see if that is even possible. Otherwise, two years of CC is not the end of the world, especially in California where there is a good transfer route to 4 year institutions for CC students who worked hard and did well.<br>
If the reason your mom wants you to do two years of community college is her fear that you are not ready to live away from home, you need to figure out if there is any way to change her mind with your maturity. Being responsible is a start. Get good grades, help out around the house, be respectful, maybe get a job. Act mature and you might earn her trust.</p>
<p>Even if you join the thousands of students taking courses at a community college, the best way to prepare for that is to do as well as you possibly can in high school and take challenging classes.</p>
<p>Community college isn’t chopped liver.
It is a place to take freshman and sophomore level classes.
Those classes are transferable to many great schools, like Reed College, University of Chicago & Oberlin.
Which indicates that those schools feel that a CC course meets their requirements.</p>
<p>I would also suggest that you go ahead and take the SAT test. If you start out at a CC it is true test scores are not needed for admission, but another school may like to see them
If you don’t do well on the SAT, oftentimes students find that the ACT is better suited for their way of expressing what they have learned.
Awards may also ask for your scores.</p>
<p>The point is, the more you are challenged and the more you work in HS, the more prepared you are for the next level of education (wherever that is). Even at a community college, it will mean having less stress in college, higher grades (and also more room for ECs/socializing/part time job…_. all that will help you transfer into a great university (and help your overall GPA which is fantastic for internships, future jobs or graduate school).</p>
<p>The <em>point</em> of doing well in highschool should never be just to get into X college for some kind of ‘experience’, but to learn the most you can in HS so you are the most prepared and academically successful in college. There is so little downside, and so much upside, to being really well prepared and able to excel in college (no matter where it is). Trust me, once you get to the ‘college hurdle’ you will be looking next at ‘grad school or job’ hurdle.</p>
<p>Even if you want to go to great, highly-ranked schools, you don’t need to play this game. Many of us don’t. There’s still room for authentic kids.</p>
<p>OP, If you take AP classes and do well on the exams, the credits will be applicable to a cc or to a 4-year. In other words, your AP classes could shave off time at your cc and get you on the road to a 4-year faster. </p>
<p>As a matter of fact, why don’t you also consider dual enrolling? If it’s allowed in your high school, you could take classes at the cc instead of classes at your high school. This is usually done senior year but can sometimes be done earlier.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with CC, I think cc is great. But if you’re confident that is the route you are going to go, there is no real reason to stress about grades, advanced classes, SAT, …etc. Which is a benefit to going to cc! </p>
<p>Just as long as you feel that your stong enough intelectually or pay enough attention in order to do well on the college placement tests (tests you have to take at most every college (including cc’s) to be eligible to enroll in college levle courses), you can take it easy, have fun, get a job. </p>
<p>Studying for the SAT/taking AP courses is boring, be glad! And be happy that your mom’s willing to pay for anything nearby, that’s awesome that she’s doing that for you!</p>
<p>OP - There’s a lot of good advice here. Perhaps you could go through the posts and determine whether you find each suggestion appealing or not. That might help you understand what your Mom is trying to say to you.</p>
<p>There are students all across America who’d love access to the California public university system (at instate prices). You’ll need a very persuasive case why “anywhere but here” is best for you.</p>
<p>The point? Perhaps intellectual curiosity, or your own sense of internal satisfaction of having stretched yourself to meet your own standards of excellence? Of course, if taking ap classes, or the sat or trying your best isn’t coming from within, then maybe you’re right that there is no point to it at all.</p>
<p>I would not be in such a hurry to encourage a Calif student to go to a cc. My niece is in a CA cc and was unable to get into classes so decided to go to beauty college for 10 months and then try and enroll later. Calif cc’s are very overcrowded with students so there is no guarantee going there will get you out sooner.</p>
<p>Also, California is a huge state. If you do well enough at your CC, you can stay instate and go farther away from home, culturally and geographically, than almost any other Americans. San Diego and Arcata have Cal State campuses that feel like they are on two different planets.</p>
<p>There are also many, many Cal State Us, including Napa and as mentioned below, San Diego and elsewhere. CA residents have MANY options to get a great education while paying in-state tuition.</p>
<p>If your mom is concerned about your maturity, SHOW her your maturity by buckling down and learning well so you will have a LOT of options for CC & to transfer into 4-year Us thereafter. Northern CA & Southern CA are extremely different. You are very fortunate to have these options.</p>
<p>I am a fan of cc’s but for one of my kids, I would not send her. Some kids have serious issues with motivation in that environment, but do well elsewhere. Not the CC’s fault, but not the kid’s fault either, in my view.</p>
<p>For the child I am talking about, I would rather she take a class or two at a time at the state university or even a private (assuming financial aid) without matriculating, than to see her go to CC.</p>
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