As a high school senior, I’m a little concerned that I won’t be accepted to any of the UC schools I applied to. I took a very rigorous high school curriculum that included many AP classes (World History, English Lang/Lit, Psychology, Economics). However, I got a D in both semesters of junior (non-AP) Calculus. (I retook that class to be A-G eligible)
I have a 3.55 weighted gpa in high school with many AP/Honors. I’m thinking of Pasadena City College to transfer to UC Irvine through TAG.
Will my high school experience be comparably difficult compared to classes in community college? (Or will it be much easier/harder?)
If you work hard, then no. The pace of college is much quicker than high school, but there’s less busywork, and less time actually spent in class. It’s manageable IMO. Considering your HS was very rigorous, you’ll probably be fine. You can also use AP credit to satisfy certain requirements or classes.
Do you live in Pasadena? What are you interested in studying?
I live about ten minutes from Pasadena, so it would be convenient to go there. I’m thinking about studying environmental sciences.
It’s just that all the busywork and odd teachers in high school really took a toll on my energy and sleep. I would really hate for community college to be the same. I hope that getting the minimum 3.4 GPA for TAG is easier, or at least less stressful, than getting a 3.55 weighted GPA in high school.
@NextGenStudent If you need to take Chemistry, I would recommend (as a PCC student) trying to take at least the general chem sequence (Chem 1A-1B) at a different school because of how absolutely impossible it’s become to get into intro chem classes here at PCC. There is a large number of PCC students at GCC taking chemistry there (incl one of my best friends) because of how few there are at PCC. It’s because of the limited amount of the new classrooms in science village. But I do recommend the school overall! The science depts seem a bit underfunded unfortunately, but excellent academics and profs 
With that out of the way, I agree with @goldencub (who wouldn’t trust a wookie?) that I think it would be very manageable given your background. I graduated from a private high school with a 2.35 GPA and only having taken AP English Lit (4/5) but I excelled at PCC once I got a solid work ethic built up. Anyone who tells you college classes (or community colleges) are ‘easy’ is wrong, but neither are they so hard as to impede you from getting a 3.4+ GPA if you really try.
Knowing your major early on will be a huge advantage, or at least the general idea of what you’d like to study so you can start taking the appropriate science classes, etc. Your AP classes may be able to give you 13 units worth of credit or so as well, which is a full semester! And if you do manage to somehow secure a spot in PCC’s chem classes they’re probably the best in the entire LACCD imo.
All in all, you strike me as someone sufficiently prepared to succeed at CC well enough to transfer to a great university, so long as you have the motivation and work ethic required to do well. You’ll see when you start school, you kind of ease into the new style of learning and taking classes I think, so don’t take too many units your first semester until you know what college classes are like.
I’m a math major transferring from PCC this upcoming Fall so if you have any questions about the math classes/dept/profs please do PM me and ask, I’d love to share. I can also share some limited experience in the Physics dept.
Blaming your teachers instead of taking responsibility reflects more on you than on them. I’d be willing to bet there were kids facing the same “busywork and odd teachers” that passed that class.
Life is sending you a signal. What you’re doing isn’t working as well as it should. You can blame your HS teachers, and 2 years from now blame those CC profs. You can do this forever, blaming bad bosses for not promoting you.
Or you could decide to take an honest look as how you ended up here. A 3.55 weighted GPA means you are doing some things right, but the D’s show there are gaps. My guess is you never learned how to study effectively, for some strange reason it’s never taught during 12 years of schooling. So if you do things like review prior to tests, and do that review by reading over the book and your notes, those are 2 of the least effective methods for learning.
In a lot of classes (like the ones you mention for AP) you can do ok by learning stories that go along with the material. This doesn’t work in math/science classes, and if you major in Environmental Studies you’ll be taking lots of those.
I suggest working with the learning center at wherever you end up at college to improve your skills. A recent book can also be of help. “Make It Stick” covers what research has shown really works to learn material, and is aimed right at HS and college students to show how to apply the research to their studies.
I was a significantly worse student than you in high school (2.8 GPA). However, I flipped the switch when I got to CC and am going to end up getting out of there with a 3.65 GPA after this semester. It’s all about how you study and how hard you are willing to work. It’s really not that hard once you get those two things down. Getting a D in calculus boils down to not knowing how to study and perhaps effort. You clearly aren’t understanding the material in class, so you need to get extra help. Go to the tutoring center every single day if you have to, there’s no shame in that at all. Calculus is also a lot of memorization so you absolutely have to take the time to memorize all the formulas and trig stuff. If you’re not willing to do that then a different major will suit you better
Good luck
I graduated HS with a 2.9 (was honestly bored to tears by HS curriculum). My lowest GPA in HS was a 0.73. I have a 4.0 in college currently (second semester sophomore, one of my classes was at Berkeley). So, yeah. Many people like the structure of college much more than that of high school. Doing well in college ultimately comes down to putting in lots of effort, and working effectively.
Also, taking classes you are genuinely interested in (or making yourself find class material interesting) usually translates to having higher grades. FWIW. Studying things you find interesting will help you retain the material better, and make you more eager to do well.
Also, working hard is different from working effectively. For example, a college student should never have to pull all-nighters. Doing so is indicative of poor planning. This is something to keep in mind - in college, you will want to keep a regular schedule, planning things ahead of time, etc. You should have a sort of system for studying, as studying is extremely important in college.
You merely adopted uncertainty. I was born in it, molded by it. To put my own spin on a Bane quote.
I was homeschooled in high school. I had no teachers or anything close to resembling one. I was given the curriculum and taught myself. Even though I don’t put in nearly as much time as I should into studying, I have a 3.90 in community college.
Community college shouldn’t be difficult if you put in the time to become acquainted with the structure of your tests and homework. Manage your reading/studying in a way that promotes absorption. Taking it on with the perspective that it’s a chore will never end well.
In my experience, there’s little homework in community college. It’s up to you to learn the the teacher’s style. When you know their style, you’ll get somewhat of an idea as to what they will throw at you on the test. The more you can accurately concentrate your studies on specific areas, the better your understanding will be for that particular class.