<p>A lot of the people will put down community college education, but I don’t think they know what they are talking about. Everyone I know who has gone from a community college to a 4-year college (or visa versa) has said that the education was comparable. This includes people who have studied at the best colleges in the country.</p>
<p>If you think about it, it is logical that community colleges are just as good. CCs are preparing students to go on to 4-years. If CCs weren’t at the same level they could not do that. CC students would be failing out of 4-years because they would be unprepared. Studies show, however, that CC transfers perform better at 4-years than first-year students. So the CCs must be doing a good job.</p>
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<p>Yes, you can take “developmental” courses to prepare you for college level courses. At my community college at least half of the math sections are developmental. The developmental courses will be on your transcript, but they don’t transfer. I think most 4-year institutions don’t even consider them when calculating your transfer GPA. </p>
<p>In general an associates degree doesn’t matter to the school you are transferring. The possible exception is that if the school has an agreement with your CC they may take the associates as fulfillment of their lower-division core requirements. There are some studies that show that people with associates degrees make more than people without them. But that might be because nurses, paralegals, and radiology techs are pulling up the average. I’m not sure having an associates degree outside of those fields is really useful. I just received an associate of science (entirely by accident) so I hope I am wrong!</p>