It seems like it’s mostly prospective UC transfers here, but for those who have already transferred, how well did CC prepare you for the UCs? Were the UCs significantly harder? Were the people at UCs much smarter? Was the workload a lot heavier? How did you adjust socially?
Speaking for non-STEM majors, NO, CC did not prepare us adequately for UCLA. There are a lot of transfers who really struggle. Not because they’re not smart enough, but moreso because we are being asked to think in ways which are different from CC. Most reading you do is not from text books. The things you’re asked to read and analyze are more complex, and you really have to get to the root of things. Dig deep. Talking with other students, working with TAs, and meeting with professors helps a lot.
In CC, most student don’t give a crap about grades and transferring. Those who do care are the minority. It’s easy to be the standout student at CC. Once you transfer, you’re sitting next to all the CC students who worked as hard as you, and those who started as freshmen. It’s not that others are smarter, it’s just a room full of smart people, which can make a person FEEL less smart.
The workload is ridiculous! In one class you may be required to required to read an average of 200 pages/ week. Multiply that by 3 or 4 classes. Some classes, usually small ones (15-40 students), may have weekly writing assignments due (2-3 pages). In these smaller classes, there may not be exams at all, and your grade is based on attendance, class participation, knowledge of reading, and a final paper. Other classes, large lectures (100-300+ students), will likely have no assignments other than the midterm and final, and maybe a paper. The exams may be largely based on readings that are never even discussed in class.
Your TAs will be a huge help. Remember this golden rule. TAs grade exams, so they are the ones you need to impress. TAs and professors don’t always see eye to eye. If you want clarification for your own personal development and understanding, then talk to your professor. If you want clarification on how to get an A on an exam, talk to your TA.
I got all A’s in CC, with 1 B. My first quarter at UCLA, I gad 3 A’s A’s and 1 B. This quarter, I’m likely looking at 2 A’s, 1B, and 1 mystery grade that will either be a B or C. This is not from lack of effort, but in case I was not clear, this shit is hard!
I wouldn’t change my decision to go to UCLA, but I wish someone had told me the whole story.
Interesting question, thanks for posting @StaticRoar !
And thank you for the detailed answer @2016Candles
I’m interested to hear from @Cayton and @ocnative about their experiences. Actually, I’d love to hear from anyone’s experience!
If you guys don’t mind, it would be a huge help if you guys list the CC and course load you guys took.
UCLA philosophy classes have been, for the most part in my experience, only slightly harder than the classes at my community college. I’m kind of lazy, though, so that makes my classes at UCLA harder than they need to be.
I just got a 95% on a midterm essay that I turned in for one of my classes in the subject…that I typed up the day before it was due…so I’m feeling extra confident these days. 
Community college prepared me very well for UCLA. 
When UC StatFinder was up, it had stats indicating that incoming junior transfers from CCs with 3.8-4.0 prior college GPAs tended to get 3.4-3.7 GPAs in their first year at UC (i.e. about a 0.2-0.5 GPA drop). But the GPA drop appeared to be smaller at lower GPAs, apparently disappearing at around 3.0.
Remember also that incoming junior transfers from CCs are taking upper division courses for the first time, while those who started at UC as frosh may have taken a few upper division courses before junior year. That transition typically is not as big a jump as from high school to college, but upper division courses generally have stronger students, since most of the students are majors in the subject of their main interest, while lower division courses (whether at CC or UC) tend to have lots of students taking them to check off requirements or explore majors as undecided students.
I got owned my first quarter. Difficulty or the fabled “speed” of the quarter system was not an issue, I just felt the curves made it way too hard to get an A, crappy instruction, and general lack of interest. I got screwed bad in a class because of the “flexible” grading policy the professor offered.
I’m taking 4 “hard” classes this quarter and I could get anywhere from a 3.0 to a 4.0, just depending on how I finish in relation to the class. There is also rampant cheating (one professor reused an old test and people supposedly had it out during the test), that wrecked the curve for most of us.
Keep in mind, I also have almost zero workload, and my grades rely solely on tests. When you transfer, you don’t have the GPA padding, you don’t have the ability to pick and choose when to take classes and what professors you take, the departments are trying to weed people out depending on what major you come in as…it is a total crapshoot.
Hmm, I’d say yes and no.
I went from an OOS CC to a CCC to Berkeley (EECS).
Like every other CS transfer, I was missing a bunch of lower div pre-reqs when I transferred to Cal. I decided to make up for it by taking two of those classes (the first two CS classes) during Berkeley summer session. Wow, what a bad decision that was. 
The jump in pace was insane. Sure, things move twice as fast over the summer, but I’ve done CC summer classes before too and these classes were familiar material. I felt like I was behind the entire summer, and I had almost no free time.
One of the summer classes was Data Structures, in Java. Very familiar territory, I love the language and I knew my data structures, but my past classes didn’t articulate. They literally crammed in twice as much material as my previous courses… a year’s worth of material in one semester. And double that pace, if you’re in summer session. In addition to more coverage, they went into more depth as well, harder topics, more algorithms, more details, more readings. The exams were way harder than I was used to, the projects were larger and more involved. In addition to that, we were held to higher standards, grading was tougher, and everyone was much smarter than the average CC student. And honestly? I loved it, it was challenging but I still did really well in that class. But compared to my past classes it was a completely different world. And adding a second class (for a total of 8 credits, over the summer) made it a lot to handle.
In general I’d say that was true… amazing professors, fast pace, challenging assignments/exams, super smart students. The smart students part is probably what makes the biggest difference, honestly. Anyone who transfers from CC to UCLA/UCB is used to being at the top of their classes and always getting an A… but when everyone is a top student, suddenly you become average. If only 25% of the class can get an A, that’s a lot of disappointed students, and there’s a lot of competition to get an A. Of course, the middle 50% or so usually get some sort of a B so that’s not nearly as scary as it sounds. But if you’re coming from a world where a B is the end of the world, it can be a bit of a shock when you’re graded on a curve.
One thing I will say is that I didn’t notice much of a difference between lower div/upper div tech classes (except for Machine Learning, that was terrifying). For the most part, the difference was only in subject matter. The lower div requirements were broader topics, applicable to a lot of different areas. The upper division classes focused in on one specific area. In terms of pace, grading, and professors there wasn’t much of a difference between the two.
I didn’t take too many humanities classes, but they were pretty different. Upper div classes felt a lot more serious and grown up than the lower divs did, and they were graded more harshly. It was also a lot more reading than I was used to (hundreds of pages a week for one class). The lower divs I took seemed to be aimed at lost students who were still trying to decide on a major, so those were a little disappointing.
Anyway, back to the original question: Did CC prepare me for UC?
UC is way harder, I doubt anyone would deny that. And you should expect it to be harder, go light on your first semester’s schedule. But at the same time, I think I was prepared. Sure, I didn’t have a perfect GPA, no one does in STEM majors and that’s okay. But I kept up, I liked my classes, and I did pretty well in most of them. I did some really dumb things in terms of courseload, but I made bad choices in CC sometimes too. But in the end it all worked out.
My advice here is always to trust that the admissions officers know what they’re doing. They know what the students at that UC are like, they know how you measure up to other applicants. If you get accepted, that means they think you’ve got what it takes. And chances are, you do. Especially to get into UCLA/UCB, you need to have stellar grades, good study habits, a good work ethic, etc. Whether or not your CC helps you get those skills is a different story, but if you’re getting mostly A’s at CCC I think you’ll be able to survive at any UC. Or if you’re aiming at somewhere less competitive, same story. Admissions officers know your stats and the stats of every other student, I don’t think they’d admit a student who they didn’t think would do well at the school.
UC is much harder. Did community college prepare me? No! Berkeley is on a whole other league.
For my first semester, the first midterms were intense and most transfers did struggle with the beginning first weeks (including myself). In fact, I did not get any A’s until my final exams (2 out of 3). I studied in groups often, which is useful when you have different GSI’s and want to review. Oh and most professors are awful lecturers (but hey at least they do great research?). Get ready for that…
The people are much different. Everyone gets their sh*t done, lol in other words they put in major work in the library. It can be a cut-throat environment though. And this is not just in the classes! You’ll see when you’re doing recruiting, or even applying for campus organizations. A lot of friends I’ve made have been great though! I’ve adjusted pretty darn well in terms of the social aspect.
Overall, my first semester at Berkeley was a tough adjustment but I put in the work for it. Also, other than the classes I focused a lot on being involved and doing on campus recruiting (which paid off ;))
Honestly, I can say a lot about the great things of Berkeley and the things that aren’t so great but you just have to adjust for. Send me a PM if you have any questions
Thank you everyone for the replies!
Wtf cayton how do you have nearly 3k posts?!
I’m an Anthro major at UCLA and the classes really aren’t that much harder here. I feel like my CC prepared well enough.
Yes, the people here are much more motivated and intelligent.
The workload is completely manageable. I’ll be honest, I rarely did any reading in JC. At UCLA, I definitely have to read. Most of my classes here simply have 2 exams. Or I’ll have one exam and a research paper. I feel like there’s less busy work.
I took 3 classes last quarter and got all A’s while working part-time. You should be able to maintain whatever GPA you transfer in with.
All I can say is pick UCLA over UCB!!
@Zalrons
I have too much time on my hands. That’s how. And glad to hear that you’re doing well at UCLA so far!
Seriously, CC is useless(at least for me)!
I BS almost every class i took which I did not read any text nor participate in classes (except for eng, calc, and my major req) but still received a 3.95 GPA at the end of last semester(WTF).
You might wonder why people like me can still get an A? (AND ENGLISH IS NOT EVEN MY FIRST LANGUAGE)
Well here is what I did. For the exam, all I did is cram for what is going to give on the test 1 day before the exam day. And for the paper work, all I did is let the instructor thinks it is a great paper while I don’t even know what I’m writing about!!!
I BASICALLY DIDN"T LEARN ANYTHING!!! CC, what a joke!
Now I’m afraid that I might can’t keep pace with my class after I transfer since CC is way 2 ez than a 4-year university(maybe also easier than my high school) 
@Razershield I missed the part where it was somehow the CC’s fault that you “BS” your classes? If you had applied yourself while also “BS” your classes then maybe you would have learned something. Dont blame the system for your own laziness and lack of integrity.
^ That was my thought as well. I have no sympathy if you didn’t actually do the work.
To be honest though I think I might be able to understand? Like I didn’t need to spend 6 hours on my essays to get an A on a paper like I did in high school and often two hours was enough. It’s not that I didn’t try but I realized that even if I sent in a lower quality draft, I would get the same grade. Or in high school I was always asking the teacher questions but now even if I don’t ask anything, I can still get by with an A even though I don’t understand it in depth as I know I should.
I don’t blame the college but I am worried that I’ll have a difficulty adjusting. Lol but I guess in the end I just got lazier.
Nope. I transferred, and want to kill myself every single day. I haven’t take a single multiple choice test since I’ve got here, have to write 10-30+ pages for multiple classes each quarter and the exams including the finals, and there is a crap ton of reading.
TLDR; No, community colleges do not prepare you for UCLA’s north campus.
Caveat: If you are hellbent on transferring, take as many writing classes as possible. Also, try writing at least TWO 10-20 page papers in 10 weeks before you get here. If you can’t even do that, don’t even bother transferring. Just stick with easy multiple choice tests at a CC for the rest of your life.
^I guess UCLA is just supposed to be a free ride? I mean if you’re going to school why would you not like a challenging environment where you can learn and grow?
I havent had a single class that had multiple choice exams while at CC, in fact last summer when I took an english writing class I had to write an 8 page essay a week, plus a 12 page research paper, plus a novel to read, plus daily short stories/busy work. While it was pretty intense I would hardly want to “kill myself everyday”, maybe you should have challenged yourself more.
@BurntCorpse great feedback. My daughter’s CCC was two years of multiple choice.
My CC experience has been nothing like that. I have taken very few general ed classes, those I did take I found quite easy. All of my math, physics, chem, bio, and engineering have been challenging. I’ve had hardly any MC exams, none that were all MC.
Most were close to what I’m expecting at Uni in terms of grading rubric where grades are based on 1-4 exams and a final. No cheap points for homework or participation.