Why community college instead of university before transferring?

<p>Why is it that as a community college student you have an advantage above a 4 year university in transferring to an top university? I would think top university would rather admitt transfer students who proved to be able to handdle university level courses at a state university instead of the community college level courses?</p>

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<p>Not sure where you got this premise. Jr CC transfers have a convincing reason why they want to transfer compared to those already in 4 yr colleges, but IMO at many of the highly selective colleges they are at a disadvantage due to the reason you cited.</p>

<p>entomom is spot on. I transferred from a 4-year institution to a selective LAC and I felt like I had to do a lot of soul-searching for the “Why Transfer” question. It might have been easier had I transferred from a Jr CC - I suppose I could have just said “I want to continue my education beyond the 2 years at a CC”.</p>

<p>I don’t know how much of a disadvantage coming from a CC is though. I think some colleges (like Amherst) and some state colleges prefer CC students whereas some are very blatant saying that they don’t (Dartmouth doesn’t accept CC credits unless you’re a Veteran for example).</p>

<p>Borges, I would think that a top university would rather admit students who had to did some ‘soul-searching’ instead of -what you already said- students who just want transfer to continue their education. </p>

<p>I definitely understand the points you both are making, however as a student from the Netherlands I think it’s a bit cumbersome. </p>

<p>How much more difficult is it to transfer from a 4 year university compared to transferring from a CC? Should 4-year universities focus more on incoming and outgoing transfers?</p>

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<p>This is college specific. </p>

<p>For example, publics usually have agreements to take certain in-state CC transfers. This includes top publics like Michigan, UVA and the UCs.</p>

<p>And even for selective privates, it can vary a lot between schools. While Y accepts very few CC transfers, while S is known to take a fair number of CC and non-traditional transfers.</p>

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<p>Not sure what you mean by this, can you elaborate?</p>

<p>IMO the transfer process is considerably less predictable and transparent than fr admissions for various reasons: different colleges look for different things in transfers; there are additional factors considered in transfer admissions (eg. reason for transferring, obstacles overcome, etc.); other than admissions rate, there are few published statistics for transfers, etc.</p>

<p>IntNL12, just because someone comes from a CC doesn’t automatically mean they haven’t done the requisite “soul searching”. I was just using my personal experience with the transfer process. I think sometimes they can bring in interesting perspectives (even more so than a traditional 4-year student) that would make them good candidates.</p>

<p>Ditto with what entomom said. It’s probably “easier” to transfer to UVA or UC-Berkeley coming in from CCs from those states than a 4-year university from those states.</p>