Do California community colleges not accept AP credits?
1 Like
Question about declining acceptances: I encouraged D24 to decline a school that she definitely wonât attend. However, when she got on the page, it would not let her decline without naming the university sheâll attend! She doesnât know yet. Should we just wait til she knowsâwe wanted to âopen the spotâ (despite our conversation here on CC about whether that works).
1 Like
I almost asked this same question yesterday, though we havenât gotten as far as the portal. We have 2 weâd like to let go of. I have also read about the âopen the spotâ question, but it just feels right to me regardless, and I know both have big deferral lists as I am sure most do. Curious to see what everyone says.
2 Likes
She could just put the college that she is currently accepted to that she would attend over this one. D21 had a clear ârankingâ of where she wanted to go, and had classmates waitlisted at schools she got into, so she declined a previous acceptance almost immediately upon getting into one she liked better. She knew logically her decline would not mean her friend at school would get in, but she still wanted to only hold one âcardâ at a time to help others. So those schools got the name of the school that outranked them but not the final decision school. It is still very helpful info for the college and gets at the crux of what they want. When she got to the end (April 5th or 6th that yearâlate year w covidâDuke RD and Ivy Day -) she only had two left that she was holding on to. They (Wake, Davidson) were âtiedâ so we had the revisit/admitted students scheduled to break the tie if the rest were No.
D23 held almost all her cards until after Ivy day/Duke dayâthen when she declined, she put in the school she was attending as well as the order(many schools ask what were your top 3 or top 5 acceptances, and some ask you to rank them)
3 Likes
Can you write âundecidedâ? Donât know what the box looks like on this particular schoolâs form, but none of my kids schools had a dropdown that locked you into an answer.
3 Likes
They do, more generous than most CSU/UC and they transfer over fine if you do the correct transfer path.
My older kid opted for the community college route after disappointing results (â21 grad, first year of no tests and kids at our school just got shut out everywhere that year it was crazy). She got way more value out of her AP classes and DE classes than she would have going straight to the 4 year.
Itâs not uncommon for high achievers in my lower income area to go to CC, especially if their families make too much to receive need-based aid. Non STEM kids can get through CC in one year and have a guaranteed transfer to a UC (only certain schools and majors).
Itâs a perfectly good route to go, but there are of course many benefits to going straight to a 4 year.
7 Likes
That would also be my suggestion if possible (undecided or unknown or TBD or something like that).
If not, I think you can either do as others suggested and put in your current top choice, or just wait. I personally agreed it is nice to withdraw as soon as you know, but if the college appears to want you to wait until you are actually enrolling somewhere else, then I think that if you like you can abide by that instead.
2 Likes
I agree it is nice to withdraw as soon as you know.
As nicely as I can say this - no one should feel obligated to give information about where they choose to matriculate to a school they decide not to attend. If you want to share - thatâs fineâŠbut if you donât or donât know - I think it is more than fine to ignore those boxes on the form.
Just because a question is asked doesnât mean you have to answer. Knowledge for the ages.
11 Likes
Absolutely. Again just personally, I would not have a problem helping out a college understand its competitive set. But if you want to keep that information private instead, that is 100% your right.
So I guess another alternative if the form will simply not let you withdraw that way would be to email your withdrawal instead. That is an effective withdrawal, whether they acknowledge it immediately or not.
4 Likes
Agree with writing Undecided or other similar language. If itâs a drop down where you must choose I would choose the first school listed and move on. Itâs their own fault for making this data useless by requiring the answer to be on a drop down list. Happy to help a school understand their competitive landscape but not if they canât figure out how reasonably to gather the data. Their problem, not mine. Iâm 0% leaving this on a college to-do list for April.
4 Likes
Are many of you (as parents) planning to accompany your child to admitted student days? How important does visiting with them feel to you? I did not go with D22. I canât really remember my reasoning. It probably would have been difficult to take time off of work, and I would have had to meet her at the colleges since she was leaving from her boarding school campus while I would have been leaving from home. That said, Iâm not sure that I even thought much about it until I started reading posts here about reserving hotel rooms early and such. I donât think that I was fully aware that there is sometimes programming for parents.
I am reconsidering for D24. She has expressed wanting me there. Overall, she is less independent than D22 so now might be a good opportunity to practice traveling solo and navigating the logistics. Part of what I am asking (I think) is whether attending as a parent is really that useful in helping your kid make their decision. And is there really that much to do as a parent or would I be spending a crazy amount of money on travel and lodging just to sit around a hotel room waiting for her? For that matter, I know that at least one of D22âs colleges hosted her and she spent the night there as part of the official program. I think that sort of official overnight program might be rare, but I donât really know. I also think there was one or two other colleges where she was able to stay overnight with students who had graduated from her high school in '21 and '20 (the fact that I canât remember is because two years ago is foggy AND reflects how little D22 actually discusses her plans with me!). All of the colleges to which D24 applied are close enough to her boarding school that theoretically she could make it a day trip if she could drive from school to the college, but a couple might be impossible to do roundtrip via train/bus in a single day so she would probably have to stay overnight for those. Clearly I am jumping the gun since we donât yet know where sheâll get in. It is just all the talk of hotel rooms on this thread freaked me out enough to look at prices and now I am really panicking!
Since hardly anyone (outside of ED admits) declines their offer early, this college expects you know where youâre enrolling at the time you decline (the thought process being: why else would you decline?). If you do want to decline early I agree with the suggestions here - write âundecidedâ, or the name of the most likely school.
1 Like
She can wait. It wonât open a spot and they want to know for tracking purposes. It helps them to know who they are competing against. Thatâs more important to them.
If you truly want out, take a guess.
But the colleges do like to know the cross shops.
In my industry itâs very helpful. Iâm sure to them too.
2 Likes
I get it. But I donât. You have multiple campuses - yes even Riverside and Merced - and multiple Cal States to feed the population. Lots of flagships and regionals arenât in desirable places.
You have OOS schools that for many would be inexpensive. You have WUE.
Other states donât have a system near expansive as CA.
4 Likes
I havenât done any planning for that either. If he canât attend an official accepted students day weâll just visit at a different time. A couple of his schools are in/adjacent to major cities so Iâm not worried about finding a room there. For the couple of more rural options (with fewer hotels available) we could just do a day trip so there is that.
We were going to attend admitted students day but if the school doesnt tell us until 2-3 weeks before, weâre probably not going.
We dont live close so planning a last minute trip could be pricey for a 1 day event. It all depends on how much notice they give us.
Iâll be going with my kid. They do drive, but all the schools are further than they have driven alone. My kid is pretty independent but still would like a parent there.
I enjoyed going with my older kid, we went to two. I was really able to gauge their comfort level and excitement about each one.
Itâs great if a kid wants to go alone though! I think it will be different for each family. Some programs are meant for just the student but most seem to be family inclusive.
2 Likes
We went to a couple - and they had parent only break outs.
That said both chose the schools b4.
You may not need to go at all to make a decision. If itâs too pricey etc and you canât make it but know where you want to go - thatâs fine too.
Tons donât go.
1 Like
I definitely do not think you have to go if it would be financially burdensome, a work issue, or so on.
Otherwise, I think the kid can make the call if your presence would actually be helpful to them. Some kids like discussing these things with parents, some not so much.
If your kid is fine either way, then I think you can make that call based on personal interest. I do think they normally try to make it interesting and fun for parents, not least because parents are often part of the decision-making process. Whether they are always successful, that seems to be mixed.
In our case, so far S24 seems to agree with me it would be valuable to actually get Momâs perspective (she did not do any of the pre-application visits). She also seems to be interested (she was happy to let me do it for colleges he might not even apply to). So I suspect we will try to go, but we canât really plan in advance.
So lodging might be . . . interesting. You can commute to Middlebury from Montreal, right?
2 Likes
Hi DadOfJerseyGirl,
I think the reason that more people like us might consider declining early is that, because of our income bracket, my daughter applied to about 7 safety schools (because there is no such thing as a safety school without at least some merit when your flagship school is extremely competitive). She got into all, and there is simply no reason not to decline some in case it helps.
6 Likes