I live in California and I am currently a Junior. I have a 3.5 UC gpa, but let’s put that aside. I want to major in Computer Science. I want to go to UC berkley but with my gpa it will be incredibly difficult, i am fully aware.
Is going to a community college for 2 years and then transfer a smart idea nowadays?
If you want to go to a UC and you have a 3.0 GPA then you should definitely go to a community college. UC’s have a program where they have spots just for community college students making it much easier to get accepted if your HS school stats were bad. It is also a great way to save loads of money.
Read through here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/
Edit: i have a 3.5 uc gpa. (3.0 gpa non-uc) sorry about that! But my top school that is not a uc, is Pepperdine University
Financially, especially in a state like California, this probably makes great sense. However, there’s more – quite possible a good deal more – to college than the “formal” education. In fact, a tremendous amount of very valuable “education” has little to do with the coursework. If it’s affordable, things included in the “total college experience” should also be seriously considered. I’m not at all sure a student who arrives at a university as a junior ever develops the affinity for the schools, and its culture, or the enduring friendships, and the network, that a traditional four-year, in-residence student is likely to. Is that important? That’s entirely individual, but for some people it is.
^I think missing out on the college experience for 2 years is worth not accumulating thousands in debt… UC schools are expensive, even for in-state residents.
OP, check out the TAG (Transfer Agreement Guarantee) program. It’s a great way to save money while still ensuring that you get your degree from a UC school.
It depends. If you have the stats or “need” to get good aid as an incoming frosh, then go to a univ first.
Pepperdine won’t likely give much aid to a transfer.
What are your parents saying about how much they’ll pay?
Pepperdine is EXPENSIVE, so they may not want to pay $100k-130k for two years at Pepperdine. If not, then how would you pay for it?
I'm a junior and I live very very close to UC Berkley and know quite a few people who go there.
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I have 2 friends last year who got into UC berkley. But they had a 3.85-3.9 unweighted gpa (4.3 weighted).
Uc berkley
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It’s Berkeley, not Berkley.
@jsies11 (re #5): I am sure you believe the UC schools are expensive, even with in-state tuition. What about the thousands of high school students who think they’re quite affordable for Californians and whose parents have saved adequately to finance their higher educations without debt? Perhaps they would see things differently?
@TopTier - That is great, but it still doesn’t contradict what @jsies11 said - that missing out on the stereotypically imagined “college experience” is worth not accumulating thousands in debt. If a hypothetical student can go to Berkeley for 4 years without accumulating such debt because their parents are wealthy and/or they have saved enough money to finance that decision - that’s a different decision that needs to be made.
I think for a student who has borderline prospects of getting into a UC in the first place and is from the majority of middle-class and lower families who can’t afford to pay for a four-year UC education without borrowing, going to a CA CC first for two years is probably an excellent option.
It makes a lot of sense under certain scenarios:
You are a late bloomer and realized too late how important grades and learning (as reflected in standardized tests) are, and your senior year is strong, but your 10-11 performance is lacking,
Your financial aid package is such that you want to save money. For example you have a large EFC, or you REALLY want to minimize loans,
You want to enter a non-impacted IGETC-compatible major and are a stellar student with tons of AP 4s and 5s and some CC Dual Enrollment credit coming out of high school,
You want to go to UCSB or someplace like that, where there is a close-by CC where many students are “residential” and the apartments they live in are adjacent to the UC; and you have a network of friends already going to the UC (i.e. you can benefit from the social scene at the target UC, even while attending the CC).
Any of these reasons are great reasons to go to a community college. If you have a low EFC and an expectation of making decent money upon graduation, or want to enter an impacted major, or want the 4-year experience, you may want to go directly to UC. Note that I think that point 3 is really the way to go if it fits you, especially combined with point 4, since you can transfer after 1 year having satisfied all GenEd requirements, and the vigilance in progress-towards-degree seems to be lower for transfers. Also many of the units will not count against your unit cap. You can move into a dorm your second year (first year at UC), skip all the cattle-call gen-ed classes, and still take 3 years to graduate, picking and choosing graduate and upper-division classes, and having an additional “upper division year” to get involved in research while you are applying to graduate school during your final year.
So, yes, for the right person, CC --> UC can be a real benefit.
After all that, I sense you will fit into point 1). It may be a great idea for you.
@mom2collegekids Ok. Calm down, I have auto-correct on my phone.
Anywho, Thanks for the advice.
For UCs and CSUs, take a look at http://www.assist.org to see how well the local CCs cover the frosh/soph course work for your intended major. If the coverage is poor, that can mean taking a lot of “catch up” courses after transfer, which can make for a very crowded schedule and possibly delay graduation.
Unfortunately, CS is a subject where the courses and curricula vary considerably between schools, so coverage of frosh/soph CS courses is often not too good (though it may be better for CC nearby a target UC or CSU). For example, the Berkeley frosh/soph CS courses CS 61A, 61B, 61C, and 70 are poorly covered by CCs. Some cover 61B, one (Laney) covers 61A, one(?) (Diablo Valley) covers 61C, and probably none cover 70.
Why Pepperdine? It is expensive, and its CS offerings are limited compared to most UCs and CSUs. It has a fairly strong religious orientation (Churches of Christ), but you presumably consider that attractive, or at least acceptable.
California is one of the better states for in-state need-based financial aid. However, the option of starting at a CC and then transferring to a UC or CSU does give students additional low cost options that they can choose (sometimes for reasons other than just costs).
@ucbalumnus Can you elaborate to why the CS is limited at Pepperdine? Out of curiosity and I really need to know
http://seaver.pepperdine.edu/academics/content/2014seavercatalog.pdf#page=324
http://seaver.pepperdine.edu/academics/content/2014seavercatalog.pdf#page=348
Pepperdine appears to have only four courses that are normally considered junior/senior level CS courses (COSC 425 (hardware), 465 (operating systems), 475 (networks), 490 (project course)). The other courses (COSC 220, 221, 320, 330, 450) appear to cover topics normally covered at the frosh/soph level. It has no offerings in algorithms/complexity, languages/automata, compilers, databases, security/cryptography, graphics, artificial intelligence.
Not going to happen. The xfer admit rate for CS at UCLA is 5%, probably about the same at Cal. The OP is a middling student, only managing a B average unweighted in HS. What are the odds this person buckles down and does well enough in a CC to get into Cal?
The odds are about zero. CC’s in Calif are mostly the domain of kids that want to give education one last shot before quitting. My hat is off to those kids that are strong students but due to finances or family situation need to start at a CC. For the OP, though, going to a CC likely means hanging out with the kids he knows who go there. And his friends hanging around town and going to a CC are from the lower end of the barrel. Only 23% of CC kids manage to xfer to a 4-year college in 6 years. The peers the OP will surround himself with at a CC are going to be the ones that do the homework the nite before its due, never visit the prof in office hours, study for a test the nite before.
It gets worse, IMHO. CS is a skill that is easily assessable in interviews. Even if you go to the lowliest CSU, if you learn the material and get internships you are going to be a good candidate. So why won’t the OP consider that? The reason the OP writes of Cal and CS after attending a CC is a symptom of his issues. Put things off until 3 years down the road, so no need to make any changes now. In fact the OP will take the next 1.5 years in HS even easier since all you need to enroll at a CC is to be 18 and breathing. No doubt the OP promises himself he will burn up the track once he starts at the CC, a promise that won’t be called in for well over a year.
This post reminds me of the ones we used to see 7-10 years back of kids writing “didn’t do so hot in HS, want to go into i-banking or consulting, can I transfer to IVY if I get good grades?” Looks like CS is the i-banking of today. And guess what… There’s a thread by the OP
The fantasy of tomorrow lets him avoid facing the reality of today.
I highly doubt this. The 4 year graduation rate for a transfer student starting in a CCC is remarkably similar to one going directly to a 4 year UC (see page 29 http://ucop.edu/transfer-action-team/transfer-action-team-report-2014.pdf).
These are a lot of assumptions to make about this student from one post (or a few posts). He has a 3.5 UC GPA - that’s actually decent. A 3.1 unweighted GPA is not bad, although in these days of hyper inflated high school GPAs it looks that way. It’s decent - average.
Most CC students don’t transfer to four-year colleges for many of the same reasons they end up at CCs in the first place - poverty, family responsibilities, work schedules, and poor high school education. That 23% number also includes the students who never intended to transfer to a four-year college, either because they are only taking a few classes or because they only wanted an AA to begin with. An academically solid middle-class student with family support would have more than zero chance of transferring to a four-year college from an CC. In fact, because six of the UCs have a transfer admission guarantee, I would wager that his chances are pretty good. (Now chances of transferring into Berkeley CS? Not good at all.)
There are all kinds of students at community colleges. There are procrastinators and layabouts but there are also dedicated, hard-working students who ended up at CCs because of family finances or a desire to stay at home and save money. I also might add that four-year colleges have their share of procrastinators and layabouts, too.
You are talking apples and oranges.
Of the kids that do transfer, they do well as the link you gave said. However most never transfer.
The UC graduation rate for kids entering as frosh is 83% according to http://accountability.universityofcalifornia.edu/index/chapter/4
If only 23% of CC kids transfer to a 4-year college (and not all of them graduate) the numbers are not remarkably similar.
Actually what you’ve pointed out is how well CA’s system works compared to the rest of the country. If only 11.6% entering CC achieve a 4 year degree nationally then CA’s system just about doubles that. That should be a big help for the OP.