Question for Californian Parents Of Kids That Did A Lot of College Credit in High School. Is CC and Tag Even an Option?
My kid has already gotten 32 quarter units of AP credit per the UCSB website. Since she is doing a full IB diploma if she passes all her IB exams with a 5 or better she gets an extra 32 quarter unit credits and if her overall IB score is greater than 30 then she gets an extra 6 quarter credits. So that’s potentially 70 units and a full UC degree is 180 quarter units.
One plan if she doesn’t get into her UC of choice is to do CC and TAG over after 2 years. But given she’ll effectively nearly half way through the degree is CC for two years even an option? What CC classes would she do for two years before tagging over?
Have you checked the AP and IB credit equivalencies against her planned major’s curricula at the UC campuses of interest? Not all AP / IB exam scores will necessarily map to specific courses that she would need for her major and gen ed requirements. Many may just transfer as empty credits.
What I know is from friends who are on admissions committees at a couple of UC‘s and Cal states. The point is to attend a university and experience the courses presented at a different level.
When you take courses that you are supposed to take at the high school level, what’s the point of ramping up units that don’t want to be experienced on their campuses/sites?
Why should they admit someone who doesn’t want to be at their sites for very long? They will accept the tuition fees and housing, but their point is they’d rather have someone who wants to fully enjoy their four years at their university.
Our three kids “lived” on their campuses. They read, studied, worked, ate, exercised, laundered, slept, biked, walked, bussed, interned, played sports, volunteered, did labs, made friends with professors, staff, students, at their campuses for four years. In other words, they participated at their universities. What’s the point of rushing through to earn a diploma?
Employers will wonder why they rushed through.
(All three of my kids had AP credits and most of them were just empty credits. All three of my kids went to different universities and yes, they got sophomore standing, but they still had to meet prerequisites for each course. It depends on the university. Basically sophomore standing at all three of their schools meant that they could register earlier. I had a Caltech kid. I had UC Kid. and I had a kid in upstate New York.)
Edited to add: I have seen people who are on strict limited budgets who have to blast through coursework to meet their limited family budget.
Exactly this - my engineer started a sophomore and still took four years. He had a minor and could have made it a double major if he wanted to.
My daughter had 33 or 36 credits but only 9 counted and her school wasn’t selective. A lot of them counted but for the same class. So only 9 were “used”.
But to OP’s point, if they have a large amount that count, can they take the CC route? To me, it’d be a question to ask the CC counselors as they are aligned with the 4 year schools - and maybe they’re just there one year?
Starting at a community college may not be a great fit for a student who has substantial advanced placement, since such a student will be ready to take junior / senior level courses in the second or first year of college (whether the motivation is to graduate early or to use the extra schedule space to take more junior / senior level courses in the area(s) of interest). Such junior / senior level courses would not be available at community colleges, so the student would need to transfer after one year, or take a second year of frosh / soph level courses at the community college. The latter might work if the student wants to sample additional introductory level courses in many areas outside of the major, but not all students want to do that.
A 1 year CC to UC transfer is definitely possible if your student has a large amount of AP/IB credit but if she wants the TAG guarantee, DE classes need to be in the mix also to meet the minimum 30 semester/45 quarter units by the TAG application deadline. I understand the reasoning on wanting that guarantee but it sounds like she is a competitive applicant and I am sure she will have several UC options as a Freshman.
@ucbalumnus makes some great points about CC course availability due to her advanced standing.