Actually, I would say many CCs are very underrated. Some are amazing. In DMV area many same professors teach in Public/Private/CC. If CC school has an agreement with the local public (even UVA!) then in my opinion guaranteed transfer is great. I had all 3 of my children taking DE classes in local CC. No problems with quality. In some cases, quality was much much better than in AP classes of top local public schools (especially during COVID online mess.)