I’m hoping to start a thread about community colleges located very near flagships or other prominent 4 year institutions. I’m especially hoping to learn of ones with housing options (an example might be nearby private dorms) and articulation (i.e. transfer) agreements.
Sometimes students don’t yet have the stats to get into the 4 year college, but that college is still a great fit in other ways. Obviously one option is to start at a less selective 4 year college, with a plan to transfer if still desired. But transferring would involve “starting over” socially. But attending a very nearby community college could allow a student to get started socially while also (it is hoped) build the stats to transfer over.
This thread was inspired by @BuckeyeMWDSG 's post about the Columbus State Community College/ Ohio State pairing. Please add others if you know of them!
Here’s another I have heard of: Madison College (also called Madison Area Technical College.) I don’t know much about it, but do know that there are a lot of private dorms in Madison (that also house students from UW-Madison.)
I know that there was the Binghamton Advantage Program, but that program took its last cohort in fall of 2023. There is now a Broome 2 Binghamton Program that appears to be a replacement. Acceptance into that program appears to be selective, but SUNY Broome is still in very close proximity to Binghamton, even if a student didn’t get a guarantee of being able to switch to Binghamton:
There’s another selective program called PACE that allows students to attend Austin Community College and then transfer into UT-Austin. Again, I suspect that there are some non-guaranteed routes to access UT-A from ACC, but this is something that would need more investigation.
Thanks so much for starting this thread, @fiftyfifty1!
Parkland CC and UIUC (Parkland CC students can fully participate in UIUC life). This page says students transfer to UIUC as a junior, but I have known students who transferred sooner than that:
Tallahassee CC and FSU, where Tallahassee students can also fully participate in FSU campus life:
So the Community College of Allegheny County has articulation agreements with Pitt in a few fields, and then there is a lot of support/guidance for transfers otherwise. They are not quite in the same areas so you would probably want to change apartments, but generally there is a lot of student housing available.
Front Range CC and any public Colorado university including CU-Boulder, Colorado State University, and Colorado School of Mines. Front Range CC has two campuses near Boulder and one in Fort Collins. None of the campuses offer housing, but there are varied housing options within the cities and surrounding areas.
Looks like with their “Pathway to Purdue” program you can enroll in a certain number of classes at Purdue while simultaneously taking classes at Ivy Tech. (And to top it all off, the quickest route between the 2 campuses forces you to go right past a Dairy Queen!)
Looks like SUNY Onondaga Community College (OCC) has some articulation agreements with Syracuse University, located about 4 miles away. OCC also has dorms.
I read there’s a community college in santa barbara that many students have attended before transferring to UCSB. I think it is Santa Barbara City College. I recall reading that there are private dorms in the vicinity of the UCSB dorms so the transition does not seem complicated.
Most UCs and CSUs in California are not far from a community college. For example, Berkeley City College is only a few blocks away from UCB, although it is more common to be a few miles away.
Probably the winner for nearby colleges including a community college are University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University, and Community College of Denver, which are adjacent to each other.
For those who transfer to CSU they provide additional support. There is an RLC, additional advising, peer mentors, and additional post-college career counseling.