4 Year University vs Community College Transfer for Electrical Engineering

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Hello there, I am a high school senior in Illinois currently trying to figure out where I want to go for college and am unsure. I got accepted into these places:
University of Illinois at Chicago- Electrical Eng
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign - Undeclared
Iowa State - Electrical Eng
Santa Barbara City College - Engineering
UC San Diego - Undeclared
Loyola University - Computer Eng

The place I really want to attend is in California: UC Santa Barbara. I visited the campus and love it, also electrical engineering major there is very good. Here’s my issue, and I’ll be quite frank. My GPA and ACT are not really adequate for engineering. I kept a 3.8 weighted GPA and 3.3 unweighted, and had a 31 ACT. At Urbana, they didn’t take me in for my first choice, electrical engineering, and instead accepted me for undeclared. Same with UC San Diego, but I don’t want that. I want to get into a place, preferably Santa Barbara, and have engineering going into the college. I don’t want to have to re apply to the engineering department, it is too much of a hassle and I could be wasting a lot of time for 1 or 2 years doing that. If I don’t get in Santa Barbara for engineering, which may happen, I found an alternative to this issue.

If I attend Santa Barbara City College and do engineering, with my AP credit I figured out I would only need to spend one year there taking required math and a few science courses, and then I’d be off to UC Santa Barbara with their TAG agreement, which ensures that I can go to UC Santa Barbara if I maintain a certain GPA.

Let me get more into myself, honestly I don’t really feel confident with school. My “studying” is very tentative: I infrequently open up my notes and study and sometimes I just don’t even study at all. I don’t know if this is a lazy thing or perhaps it’s a bad habit I’ve formed, but I’m not confident enough that I’ll adequately change myself in time for 4 year university. I’m too afraid I’ll mess up my GPA, as I’m doing right now in senior year. Looking at this city college option, I think I could use that one year to brush up on all the procrastination and laziness that I’ve condoned for all of high school and develop a much better grit on my life and overall get better at studying and completing homework all the time. I’ve been getting too lazy in high school, and I’ve been getting lucky with grades, but not so much now unfortunately. Senior year I’m doing terrible with a couple of C minuses, and I just feel wasted. Probably a similar feeling felt by many Seniors, but my confidence and procrastination has just gotten so bad over the years and I’m worried that I won’t be able to even do well and change my lazy habits in time for college.

As I kept researching this City College idea, I grew to like it. I even visited the campus and enjoyed it. I met with the Orchestra there at SBCC, and really did like how the orchestra was structured at this city college. I have played violin for 8 years, and would love to play violin in the Santa Barbara area as well, but more importantly I admire the TAG contract that would allow me to attend UC Santa Barbara after one year. I would only have to attend SBCC for one year due to all my AP credit, and this information was confirmed to be accurate by the academic counselor at SBCC who I talked to quite a bit. Economically speaking, it would be much cheaper to attend SBCC and then UC Santa Barbara than any other university on the list of where I got selected. So, I essentially told my parents my plan, and how I could reform myself in community college for one year and get better at studying and learn to not procrastinate and even be on my own for once while having costs not be as high as Univ of Illinois or Loyola. My parents did not listen to me, and told me that it would look bad on them if one of their kids attended community college versus a 4 year university.

Quite frankly I don’t care what others think about where I go, I care more about how to make myself a much better person and how to succeed in the future. I looked at my strengths and weakness and realize 4 year university might be a terrible idea, and like this community college 1 year option so I can brush up and fix my studying and procrastination habits. My parents however do care, and insist on wanting me to go to the best place possible for my major, electrical engineer.

My plan was to go to SBCC for an associates in engineering for 1 year, and then once I take all the required coursework I could transfer to UC Santa Barbara electrical engineering and continue on from there. It seems a bit odd, but I do prefer the smaller classroom size and being able to ask questions therefore in those core math and science classes, so I can learn as much as I can in a much better learning environment for someone like me. I theorized that I could get my lazy habits out of the way, and become more responsible this way, but my parents don’t think I should do that, despite the lower costs of going to SBCC.

I’m unsure as to what I should do, because I really did love Santa Barbara and SBCC when I visited, and that SBCC option seems like a good idea for someone like me. I just don’t think going to a 4 year university in general would do good for me, and I might end up not doing so well in the end.

So, to summarize: I originally wanted to go to a 4 year university UC SB for EE, but then I found out about this City College TAG agreement that would let me stay there for 1 year doing engineering because of my plethora of AP credit and then transfer out to UC SB for EE after I hone my academic habits, and then prosper from there. Parents don’t want me to do so, because they told me it would look bad and that I should pursue the highest institution possible, despite me telling them that I’m not confident enough.

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EDIT: My bad, TAG is not the word I meant to say. TAG is not for engineering majors, what I meant to type in was that there is a near guarentee for transferring from a community college in California for engineering if you maintain a certain GPA and take the right classes. Not TAG I did not mean to say TAG my bad :slight_smile:

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Are you still waiting to hear re: direct entry to UCSB?

I know that you’ve said that you spoke to a counselor at SBCC,
but I strongly recommend that you read the UC (not the CC) requirements for transfer.
The UC’s have requirements for TAG which could be an issue for you,
specifically that there is no TAG for Engineering majors at UCSB.

Additionally, many majors, including EE, have major requirements for admissio in addition to the general education requirements, which may be difficult to fulfill in a single year.
Even with your AP credits, note that most California students will need to take two years to fulfill the requirements.
You may not have enough units - 60 semester or 90 quarter - to make it work. Be sure to check what the policies at UCSB are for accepting AP and/or out-of-state transfer credits.
http://admissions.sa.ucsb.edu/applying/transfer/tag

Although because of your major, you may not have to fulfill all of the IGETC requirements, you would probably want to check out ASSIST to look at what courses you’ll need to qualify for transfer into your potential major:
http://www.assist.org/web-assist/welcome.html

I sincerely hate to throw cold water on what could be a great plan, but you need to do more research.
Again, check with a transfer counselor at UCSB, rather than at the CC.

What this plan won’t overcome, however, is two-fold; confer you with in-state status, or help you with your sliding study habits. Be sure that life on your own at SBCC (no dorms, so finding housing and/or a room mate) wouldn’t be too distracting and divert you from your course of action. Note that housing in the area of SBCC is very expensive.
If you’re having trouble with your studies, a better approach may be to plan on spending two years at SBCC and then transfer over with a better GPA and without using any of your high school grades or standardized test scores.

Because you can’t do a TAG because of your EE major, note that at the end of your two-years you still may have a difficult time getting into UCSB at all, since you’ll be competing with lots of other in-state transfers taking the same route you are. There are no such things as ‘near guarentees’. There is only the TAG program and Transfer admission.
In-state transfer get a significant preference, and although you’d have attended SBCC to complete your requirements, you would still be considered OOS for admission purposes.

It could potentially work, but there are so many variables, including costs.
You’ve got some very good schools on your admitted list that would provide a lot less uncertainty,
which you may want to re-think, but you’re wise not to consider schools where you’re not direct admit.

Good luck with your decisions.

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Cost and debt of each option?

Expect no financial aid as an out of state student.

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I did about 2 years at sbcc then transferred to ucsb for chemical engineering and i am from Santa Barbara (so possibly a little biased). Look at assist.org if you haven’t already for articulation agreements from sbcc to ucsb. When i transferred they had a tag agreement for engineering but they don’t anymore which makes admissions competative, so you want to shoot for a 4.0 college GPA when u apply to transfer which is NOT easy. High school stuff will not matter for transferring. Sbcc science and math classes are top notch and challenging. Professors are very good and focus only on teaching, not research which makes the classes very good. i was very prepared for upper division at ucsb and felt that math classes at sbcc prepared me better than my fellow students who took their lower div math at UCSB. A down side of sbcc is you really gotta fight for class spots, as soon as registration opens u better have your schedule planned and ready to fill.

If you are procrastinating now you need to change that. All engineering classes get very time consuming and challenging make a commitment to never leave a final exam thinking you could have done better in the class. At ucsb taking weekends off was often not an option to get an A in some classes and sometimes i still got a B+. If you go to sbcc, don’t think it will be just a cake walk and then transfer with a 3.6 GPA, u probably won’t get in with a 3.6. There is a big party scene in SB that can drag you down, it’s ok to have fun but, stay focused if your dream school is UCSB.

I have a job now and my employer did not care i was a transfer student, they cared about my UCSB GPA (i got a 3.8, the highest GPA in my class was a 3.92), experience in the field, (research, internships, etc) and communication during the interview. For engineering i don’t think school “prestige” has a big impact like your parents are worried about, although UCSB does have a stellar engineering program.

I love sbcc i love UCSB i recommend that option if you are ready to work your ass off. Otherwise take one of the options where you are already admitted to EE, DO NOT go to a school where u are not already admitted to the engineering program from the start i have heard several horror stories. i don’t know out of state tuition or anything but i think u still save alot of coin doing the cc transfer route. MAKE IT HAPPEN! Good luck!