The primary cons of attending CC first for a well qualified and motivated student IMHO are:
- no freshman dorm experience
- lots of your peers aren’t as focused and motivated and you will find most people at most CCCs don’t make their educational objective in a timely fashion. (that doesn’t mean it’s not possible but, you are swimming up stream).
- it can be hard to gain progressive experience (think internships, club officers, etc) when you switch communities part way through
- you do risk that you won’t make your transfer target either due to a poor grade, limited class availability, a series you didn’t know about or another unforeseen item.
- Many CCs are pretty vacant after hours and most students work so, it can be hard to establish relationships, then when you transfer, most of the students have been there a few years so, they already have relationships formed.
- some schools are really hard to transfer into (CP SLO and SDSU for example)
The pluses are::
- Big Savings on tuition
- it give the immature student a chance to develop a little self discipline at home before you head out with no rules (this was me many moons ago btw)
- it can open the door to schools that wouldn’t have considered you as a freshman.
https://scorecard.cccco.edu/scorecard.aspx
This will allow you to find your CC and see what the transfer success rate is (They define success as 6 year window) You will note that there is a lot of variability school to school so the tool may help you select the CC that’s most attuned to your objective.
I don’t know of any school that will consider your minor during admission. They are pretty easy to sign up for when you arrive.
http://www.assist.org/web-assist/welcome.html
Assist will help you map your CCs classes to your target school’s requirements.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major
That one will show you the admit rate and GPA for applicants for each major at each UC.
similar view but, shows how transfer date from each CC to each UC
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-source-school
Also, i would make an appointment with an admissions person at a couple of your target schools and see what they have to say about the courses you need, GPA and other things they consider.
At most CCs, transferring into a mid tier UC within 2 years is totally doable if you begin prepared and stay focused on your studies. It won’t be easy but it is very doable. With sufficient AP credits, some students can TAG qualify in a year. You need to be laser focused but, it can be done.
Good luck.