<p>Long story short, I didn't get into any other 4 year universities and I am now faced with either going to UC Merced or attending community college. I've heard both sides of the story and I am now faced with a huge dilemma: 1) Attend CC, do my best to earn good grades, save money while living with my parents, BUT miss out on opportunities for undergrad research. Or 2) Go to Merced, do my best to earn good grades, endure through the next two years while also spending more money on other expenses, AND have the opportunity for undergrad research available to me. So far, many people have said that your undergrad years are rarely a deciding factor when being considered for grad school. But for any science related course of study, my gut instinct is telling me that research will go a long way when applying for grad school, something i believe will not be so readily available at a CC. Wherever I do end up going however, I will transfer to another UC after the first two years. For contextual purposes, I want to study bio engineering and go on to grad school later on. What would you guys advise me to do?</p>
<p>My daughter has Regents scholarship and one of the touted benefits of Regents is to do undergraduate research as a freshman. She did research for 2 quarters and decided to stop for a while. I’m sure it won’t affect grad schools, not at the MS level anyway and that’s all she’s going to do, not PhD. Are you thinking of PhD as grad schools?</p>
<p>Research experience can indeed affect MS-level admissions, although it depends on the program. In most fields it won’t be required, but research experience can be a definitely plus/leg-up especially if one is looking to get into graduate school straight from undergrad.</p>
<p>What’s so bad about UC-Merced, anyway? If it’s affordable for your family, I see no reason to attend a community college instead of going to UC-Merced.</p>
<p>You don’t have to miss out on research opportunities, if you are willing to put in some legwork. If you live nearby another research university, you can go volunteer in a lab there. I go to a large urban university and we often have students in our lab volunteering from other area colleges and universities; people in my undergrad college also volunteered in labs at other universities. So if you really wanted to go to a CC and get research experience in your sophomore year and you could get it.</p>
<p>BUT it would be easier to get it at UC-Merced, since you are already right there. And I’m still pretty confused about why you would choose to go to a CC over a fine school like UC-Merced.</p>
<p>* So far, many people have said that your undergrad years are rarely a deciding factor when being considered for grad school.*</p>
<p>That doesn’t make any sense. Of course your undergrad years are a deciding factor when being considered for grad school - they’re a huge factor, especially if you’re applying directly from undergrad.</p>
<p>Not in engineering, but here is someone who started at a community college, transferred to a state university, and then went on to PhD study at a well regarded university:
<a href=“Top graduating senior a rags-to-academic-riches story | Berkeley News”>http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/05/10/medalist2011/</a>
<a href=“Aaron Benavidez | Department of Sociology”>http://sociology.fas.harvard.edu/people/aaron-benavidez</a></p>
<p>However, being at UC Merced may allow you to find undergraduate research opportunities earlier in your college career than if you start at a community college.</p>
<p>How significant is the cost difference to you and your family?</p>
<p>@DrGoogle I meant to say getting into grad school for an MS degree, but I would also like to go on to earn a PhD</p>
<p>@juillet I never said UCM was a bad school, although in hindsight, my post may have been worded as such. The reason attending a CC seems more attractive to me now is because I’ll get to live a lot more comfortably at home as opposed to moving into Merced. Also because I want to transfer to UCSD or UCLA after two years, and from what I’ve heard, I’ll have an easier time doing so if I go to a CC. </p>
<p>But that’s what this post is meant to address, which of these two choices will ultimately be the best in helping me get into grad school? I realize that my undergrad years are what I will make of them; I just want to know if the difference between the possibilities available at the two are substantial enough for me to go to Merced instead of attending a community college. </p>
<p>“That doesn’t make any sense. Of course your undergrad years are a deciding factor when being considered for grad school - they’re a huge factor, especially if you’re applying directly from undergrad.”</p>
<p>By undergrad years, I meant to say where you went during those four years.
According to several posts that I’ve read, grad schools don’t hold the fact that someone went to community college against them. </p>
<p>@ ucbalumnus This is my current situation as of now. After being rejected from my other two choices, I was told that Merced has this program where they accept those that graduated top 9% and were rejected elsewhere. Since my parents make less than $45K a year, I’d assume that once I receive an invite to attend, that costs would not be an issue for me. </p>
<p><a href=“http://ipa.ucmerced.edu/fcalc/ucbcalcmain.aspx”>http://ipa.ucmerced.edu/fcalc/ucbcalcmain.aspx</a> may give you an estimate of what UC Merced may offer you.</p>
<p>I’d go with UC Merced. The caliber of students and classes will be better and it won’t be as crowded as community colleges.</p>
<p>OP, at UCSD, you need 3.4 GPA undergraduate to get into the BS/MS program. So if my kid maintains higher than 3.4 undergraduate GPA, she can apply in her senior year to the MS program without having to take the GRE. I didn’t see any mention of research as a factor. I myself didn’t have any research for undergraduate but was accepted easily to MS degree. I think it depends on the field and what you want to study.
Lots of my kid’s friend were accepted to UCR and decide to do CC for 2 years so they can transfer to the like of UCB/UCLA/UCSD. I think CC would be my prefer route.</p>
<p>Ooooh, that makes a lot more sense.</p>
<p>In that case, no, it won’t affect your graduate school chances at all that you went to a community college first, as long as you do what you need to do in order to get into grad school. If you want a PhD program, you need research experience, and the earlier you get it the better. That will be the biggest hurdle: CC professors don’t usually have enough time to do any substantial research or mentor undergrads in it. That’s why I suggest traveling to a nearby university in your sophomore year and volunteering to work in a lab with a professor there. (This may also help your eventual transfer case to the UC of your choice!)</p>
<p>Neither is necessarily better; it really depends on what you do while you’re at your CC and beyond. If you get a high GPA, get involved in research, graduate Phi Theta Kappa and transfer smoothly to UCLA or UCSD and do well there, too, your chances are just as good as if you started at UCLA or UCSD. No one will care that you started at a community college (sorry I misinterpreted your question - you heard right; the fact that you went to a CC first won’t be held against you).</p>
<p>So if you want to stay home and go to your local CC, then transfer, go ahead and do that without worrying :)</p>