<p>How different is the workload?</p>
<p>Please don’t answer if you don’t know for sure…and you’re just basing your answer on stereotypes about community college students.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>My daughter was an A student at community college and has continued with the same gpa at Santa Clara University, a well respected private college. </p>
<p>For the most part, what I have noticed is that the gpa earned at the CC can be maintained at a 4year college with the following caveat–make sure the first semester at the new school is not over loaded with too many credits or too many really intensive classes (whatever that means for each student). It often takes a semester for a transfer student to get into the swing of things and if the first semester is too rigorous, it can mean a dip in gpa at first. It isn’t that the transfer student isn’t smart enough, it is more that no routines are set up and the transfer student is competing for grades with students already at the college for 2 years… a transfer student needs to figure out the new library, establish new commuting or living situation, find the best places to park, navigate all the online services, and maybe most time and attention consuming, networking with a whole new set of professors and school mates – it can be hard to not have a go-to mentor-professor or to have no clue which students may be a useful study partner, etc. </p>
<p>Knowing the lay of the land–people, places and services–is part of the successful college student’s tools. As a new transfer student, take an “easy” normalish semester to give oneself the time to get all of this established.</p>
<p>The workload shouldn’t be too different… my daughter thinks maybe about 10% more at most. She said the student population at the 4year was like the top 20% of the students from the CC. It just narrowed the talent band to that upper 20% and got rid of a lot of the slackers or students who really struggled at CC. </p>
<p>So the reason it sometimes felt like it was “harder” at the 4year was because it was easier to stand out and gets As at the CC when the range of student talent was very wide (low to high) whereas at the 4year, a smart student is just normal. However, she found that if she kicked in that extra 10%… really polished a paper (draft, 1st revision, 2nd revision, maybe even a 3rd) she got an A whereas maybe at a CC she could quit between the 1st and 2nd revision and still get that top grade. </p>
<p>In the end, as long as she aimed for mastery of the topic at the 4year, she got the grade she wanted (and in the end, deserved).</p>
<p>Note also, though, some schools like UCBerkeley have grade deflation… so an A student is not all that likely to keep that up, because the college as a whole is known to be a hard grader (and have formulas that dictate how many As, Bs, Cs can be given out). So my advice above is more for colleges that do NOT have grade deflation as a known factor. Also, STEM majors at most universities tend to be more brutal in the grading departments.</p>
<p>The thing my son noticed the most difference with was that in high school as well as cc, an A-,A, and an A+ were all given the same weight for gpa calculation. When he got to his 4 year university A-, A, and A+ are all given different values for gpa calculation! Making it harder to achieve a 4.0</p>
<p>There’s no way to honestly answer your question other than with an annoying ‘depends’. Even cold statistics would be misleading considering the breath of differences between situations.</p>
<p>I mean, for example, my Father moved here from France with terrible grades in High School, maintained a 4.0 in CC for two years, transferred to UC Berkeley, graduated with a 4.0, then graduated from Harvard Law with honors.</p>
<p>Then take for instance my dumb cousin: She had a 3.7, I believe, at some two-year institution. But when she transferred to a (not even very competitive) 4-year, she languished and completely flunked out.</p>
<p>Because it’s easier to get A’s at a Community College, straight A students there encompass a wide swath. Everyone from people who genuinely can’t succeed in a demanding 4-year, to geniuses who’ve had legitimate life set-backs and need the opportunity transferring from a Community College presents–and everyone in-between. </p>
<p>No one can answer that question for you because it’s so individual to the student. The closest assumption that can be made is that, yes, the adjustment will be more difficult if transferring from a community college rather than an Ivy. But, again, it’s completely individual to the student.</p>