@badgolfer You seem to have a rather skewed and biased idea of this subject. There are certainly plenty of CC students that are less than stellar academically. Many did poorly in high school and ended up at a CC as a result. However, there are plenty of university students that did poorly in high school as well. Many of them are still lazy and constantly procrastinating.
There are also plenty of CC students that did excellent in high school, and have chosen to stay at a CC for a couple years to save money, take care of family obligations, etc. It’s not the last resort for horrible students that you seem to be making it out to be. I myself am an academically excellent CC student, and I know plenty of other CC students that are academically excellent as well.
Many CC students start out intending to get a bachelor’s degree, and a small percentage of them actually complete it. However, this isn’t always because “they failed to complete it.” It’s often because of outside circumstances preventing them from completing it. If someone starts school at 30 and intends to complete a bachelor’s, there are many obstacles that could arise. If someones spouse falls ill and has to stop working…what do they do? The bills have to be paid. This often ends up with them dropping out of school to work more…because they don’t really have a choice. Many students complete their AA and have to take a break from school to go to work for a while, and fully intend to go back in a couple of years to complete their bachelor’s. Many of them fall into a comfortable job and end up not having the time to complete their bachelor’s. There are countless reasons for this. The typical age of a CC student is higher than the typical age of a university student. This alone makes a huge difference.
I’d like to see some of those statistics broken down by age group. For example,
x% of incoming CC students in 18-22 age group said they intended to complete a bachelor’s
Of that number, y% completed a bachelors
Then the same statistics for the 22-30 group, 30-40 group, etc.
I’d be willing to bet that we’d see a trend. A greater percentage of the students in the 18-22 age group would actually complete a bachelor’s, and the likelihood of completing it would decrease with age. That is of course just speculation though.
You seem to have a very specific image in your head of the typical community college student, and I can assure that in my own experience it is absolutely wrong. Perhaps my CC is simply very different from the ones that you’ve encountered.
For CS the community college route is a poor choice. CS courses need rigor and depth, and in a CC environment that often means that the students need to be at the proper level, or otherwise the coursework is watered down. I have yet to meet a new successful CS graduate who went through the CC route, successfully transferred to a 4-year college, and ended up with a relatively good high tech job. Any of the California CSUs would be a significantly better choice than the CC route.
@fogcity Ok, thanks fogcity. My GPA is a 3.15 uw and a 3.5 UC weighted GPA. What are my chances as for getting to Santa Clara University, Cal Poly, San Diego State University, and CSULA?
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@badgolfer Ok. I understand the facts and statistics. But you are plain assuming things about me. If you are going to do that, get out of here. I don’t need to hear some person who acts like someone who they’ll never be attempt to make me hopeless.
I know at least four who started at a CC, transferred to a UC or CSU for CS, and subsequently went to work in a CS type job. It might not be the optimal route (due to the course articulation issues), but it is not an impossible one either.
Not all CC students are aiming for the transfer route. Some take courses for an associates degree or certificate in some area where that (not a bachelor’s degree) is the required credential, and others take courses for personal development (e.g. learning a foreign language).
It really depends on your individual situation. I went to CC and I can’t remember it ever being discussed in job interviews. If it was, it was a minor point. My graduation from UCLA has always been much more emphasized. And FWIW, around one third of UC graduates are transfers (mostly from CCs.)
One advantage of starting out at a CC is that you get a second shot at your GPA at UCs. My UCLA GPA was over two points higher than my CC one. And other than law schools, the UCLA GPA would be used in graduate programs. A rigorous CC courseload (e.g. 18 units) can be comparable to a full time load at a top school.
I went to CC because it was the best option for me. You should examine your financial aid packages carefully and see what they look like. Once you have that, you can think of other stuff, like how comfortable you’d be taking loans.
I hope you mean more than 0.20 higher (e.g. 3.79->4.00), not more than 2.00 higher (e.g. 1.99->4.00), since it seems unlikely that someone with a sub-2.0 GPA will be admitted as a transfer to UCLA.
