To build on this (in some states the transfer pathway is better set up…) I think it also depends on the community college. For example, in VA, there are some community colleges (or maybe junior colleges, are those different?) that have direct links with specific 4-year colleges. Sometimes those 4-year schools do things like “you’re admitted to William & Mary, but you have to do your first semester at Richard Bland, and if your grades show you can manage college, you can transfer over second semester freshman year or any point after that once you’re clearly doing college level work.” My friend’s son was offered that - he wasn’t quite ready for W&M, but the staff at Richard Bland really helped him get settled in and they knew EXACTLY what was needed to transfer to his major of choice.
Another friend has a son who just applied directly to Richard Bland - he’s a baseball player and wanted to play and it seemed like a two year junior college was the way to go. Because a big part of the school mission is to help kids get launched to a four year program after time at theirs, they will work to help him look at other outside of VA schools that are interesting to him.
I know UVA also has a feeder school like this, I just can’t think of it’s name, so I wonder if this kind of relationship is typical. It definitely seems to make the transition much smoother.