What are the best community colleges to tranfer?

[saikarthik]

Hi. I graduated from high school with bad and inconsistent grades and im taking a gap year right now.

Im thinking about joining a community college before i transfer to a 4 year university. Is this a good option for an international student like me?

Also, do i have a good chance of transferring to a good university...say one of the top 20 ranked universities for comp science?

And lastly, what are the most reputed community colleges with best transfers?

Any advice/ suggestion is much appreciated! thank you very much

[da6onet]

I'm going to shamelessly plug Montgomery College in Maryland as a good option for you. It has solid STEM programs and just based on last year's transfer destination list, sent kids to (focusing on top CS schools):
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
UIUC
UT-Austin
GATech
UW-Madison
UCLA
UC San Diego
UMich - Ann Arbor
UMD - College Park
UPenn
Rice
UMass-Amherst
UNC-Chapel Hill
Hopkins
NYU

If the past four years are included, add:
MIT
CalTech
Stanford
Purdue

Cherry on top for you, hugely diverse student body, over 150 countries represented, 30% of the students were born outside the US. Very international student friendly.

[saikarthik]

Thanks for the info da6onet! great help!
By the way, have you been through the transfer process? I was wondering if theres any limitation that you can only apply to one university for transfer at a time? and only after you get a reply from the university can you apply to another... i think i read it somewhere... is it true?

[da6onet]

I will start filling out applications for transfer after finals in December. There is no limitation on the number of universities you can apply to other than the amount of money you're willing to spend on application fees/sending transcripts/etc. and how much time you want to spend filling out applications. I am only applying to three local schools and will attend whichever one has the lowest debt load.

You might be thinking of the "early decision" option for high school students who are applying as freshmen (1st year). Transfer students apply as sophomore (2nd year) or junior (3rd year) admits and do not have, to the best of my knowledge, a binding early decision option. There are schools with a "priority decision" deadline, but all that means is that if you apply before that date, you have a higher chance of getting in due to space availability and/or higher chance of getting merit aid/scholarship.

Hope that helps.

[BeachHouse]

Santa Monica College in California is great for international students as well. A lot of the student body is foreign (I go to SMC) and they have the highest transfer rates into UCLA and USC (and any other UC, like Berkeley which is ranked Im sure) than any other community college. They help with housing in the area as well iirc.

[BeachHouse]

check your pm's