<p>One mitigating factor here is that you got into the Honors program, meaning most of your classmates will have scores in the 500 range, not too bad. BUT look into the Honors program: how many of your classes are Honors? Can you add Honors Option (credit) to a regular course (ie research paper added, etc)?
Regardless: the fact you’re in the Honors Program will look good if you seek to transfer.
Essentially, you’ll be getting a Community College education (let’s face the facts), but entirely paid for, with a real “college experience” (dorms, campus life - make sure to request “Honors Housing” because you’ll make friends quickly and there tends to be perks). So, free education, college experience, AND you’ll have the “Honors” denomination added. You’ll have to work hard not to get too unmotivated and keep straight A’s even if the other students aren’t as hard working as you are (as many students with scores in the 300s and 400s SATs will struggle keeping up with the pace and may not have good study habits). But that’s the same at a community college, and at a CC you won’t even have the resources and the type of classmates you’d have in the Honors Program. Finally, you’ll likely skip a lot of very basic, introductory classes and move straight into more specialized classes right away, always good for your transcript.
Odds are, you’ll try to transfer after one or two years, so you’ll be using this as a stepping stone, exactly as if you came from a CC, but coming from a HBCU will also be a distinguishing factor for you in the transfer process compared to all the students whom apply from a CC.</p>
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<p>You’re assuming there’s one such thing as one singular “college level.” I am quite sure VSU knows it can’t offer its students the rigor of a Harvard-level course.</p>
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<p>I think you’re a little unclear as to what community colleges are. Often, they are open admissions. A lot of people who are there are adults who never went to college who are returning to school to further their education, as well as people who are taking classes for personal benefit and enrichment (such as learning a new language or finally getting to read some Shakespeare in a structured setting).</p>
<p>I am going to stick my neck out on this one. I happen to agree with Beliavsky on this one. If OP is a half decent student in high school, he wouldn’t get much out of this college. Looking at the SAT scores, this college is about the same level as high school. I don’t believe people should go to college for the sake of going college. Students do learn from each other, not just from instructors. Four years in 20s is a very precious time, not something to be wasted. I would send my kid to community college then maybe transfer junior year.</p>
<p>Oldfort, I actually agree that the CC might be a better option with transfer down the road – I just think Beliavsky doesn’t really understand what a community college is if he’s asking what their SAT / ACT scores are.</p>
<p>The smart course of action is to investigate it thoroughly. Maybe the OP wouldn’t be able to get into the graduate Physics department at Johns Hopkins with a degree from Virginia State University, unlike the young lady I read about.</p>
<p>A key element is that OP got into the Honors Program, where SAT scores are much stronger and where s/he’d get a lot more support and personalized attention than as a “regular” student at a community college. In addition, I went to look at their website and it looks like a lot of students do use it as a “residential community college”, a stepping stone to transfering to better universities.</p>
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<p>I agree that this sounds good. If it were me, I would give it a try for a year. It just sounds a lot more interesting than living at home and going to CC.</p>
<p>You could go back to community college any time, even after a semester.</p>
<p>While VSU has poor averages in terms of frosh SAT scores, it does have a rather full course catalog in some “hard” majors (e.g. physics, ABET-accredited computer science), although the students in those majors are probably outliers.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.vsu.edu/files/undergrad-catalog.pdf[/url]”>http://www.vsu.edu/files/undergrad-catalog.pdf</a></p>
<p>(Of course, you want to check how often each course is actually offered.)</p>
<p>However, the common data set indicates that there are very few students in such majors:</p>
<p><a href=“http://vsu.edu/files/docs/instit-planning-effectiveness%20/common-data-set/degrees-conferred.pdf[/url]”>http://vsu.edu/files/docs/instit-planning-effectiveness%20/common-data-set/degrees-conferred.pdf</a></p>
<p>(The 7% in “computer and information sciences” probably includes the IT and MIS majors.)</p>
<p>I think I’m on the side of those who say give VSU a try. It will be something interesting on your resume for the rest of you life, which is one advantage over the community college.</p>