Is it normal for someone who started at a community college NOT to transfer to a prestigious public college in 2 years?

[poissongamma]

I meant no anecdotes or personal information please. Sorry.

[ucbalumnus]

@chuckml97

The point of the article I posted earlier was that even for the people intended to take California CC → UCs pathway, only 1 out of 10 made it to 4 years colleges. I read many posts from here or Reddit, CA kids treat CC as safety. If they cannot make it to top 6 UCs, they would rather go to CC then transfer. I doubt this is a good strategy given the odd of successful transfer.

However, do we know about the academic profile of students who start at CCs? Are they mostly strong students who were “top 6 UCs or bust”, or students who did not meet the admission requirements for a non-impacted CSU (2.5 weighted-capped HS GPA in a-g courses)? A CC with lots of the latter might not see a very high successful transfer rate.

[SJ2727]

@ucbalumnus

However, do we know about the academic profile of students who start at CCs? Are they mostly strong students who were “top 6 UCs or bust”, or students who did not meet the admission requirements for a non-impacted CSU (2.5 weighted-capped HS GPA in a-g courses)? A CC with lots of the latter might not see a very high successful transfer rate.

There are also at least two more groups. A third group, representing some of D19’s friends who went this route, were those who got into CSUs or other equivalent type schools but preferred to aim for a UC via this route. The fourth group is those who do it for financial reasons, because it makes the final cost of the degree hugely cheaper.

[chuckml97]

Most of the Bay Area kids I know who go to CC, they were accepted or met the admission requirements to non-impacted CSU. They also could afford it because multiple non-impacted CSUs are all over Bay Area within driving distance.

But to them, it sounded so much “cooler” to tell their friends “I am going to CC with intension to transfer to UCB or UCLA in 2 years” than “I am going to Cal State East Bay for CS”. The parents are also preferring this too when talking to their own friends.

But once the kids attended CC, some of them lost focus in a so much more relax CC environment without adult supervision. They started taking part time courses or online courses. Spent more time to hang out with new adult friends…just kind of drifting along.