<p>After my web search, SUNY Rockland, NY is the only JC that seems to provide an excellant, competitive, and reputabl Honors program (By reputable I mean one that looks good when transferring to a selective 4-year school, and its 3.7-4.0 GPA would be pleasing to adcoms).</p>
<p>JCs are inexpensive and not selective in their admission of residents of their district/state, but many provide a good chance to non-traditional students to transfer to excellant 4-year colleges, that’s why I wish to get an A.A. at a one then transfer. So I’m looking for JC that would be VERY challenging.</p>
<p>What are the toghEST/most challenging JCs you know of (I suspect mostly in CA and the east cost)? </p>
<p>If i’m asking the wrong question, here is another one: Do you know of a JC in any of the 48 states that provides a top-notch learning-community/honors program and has a relatively high rate of transfer to tierI 4-year schools?</p>
<p>Orange Coast College, in Costa Mesa, CA has the highest transfer rate in the nation. A few people that I have met have went on to the columbia and cornell. Not too sure about the other highly selective schools. The honors program boasts one of the highest transfer rates to UCLA at 98% acceptance for all students who complete the program. If that says anything about the school, i’d say you’re pretty much well in anywhere with good ecs, high gpa, and a strong essay from OCC. But that’s just what I have seen in California. Everywhere else, I guess you can debate the quality of a variety of JCs.</p>
<p>The whole transfer art doesn’t neccessarily lie in the difficulty of the school or program but what the transfer “to” institution considers of equal difficulty. That being said, if you plan on transferring, it would be beneficial to check with the schools you want to apply to. If your JC has a high or moderately good transfer rate to your selective school, it would be good. But even going to the best JC doesn’t guarantee acceptance to a highly selective university because the courses you take at a JC may not even transfer over.</p>
<p>Don’t let this discourage your search. But you’re right about the transfer route. Its cost effective and you’ll get a quality education while still ending up where you want to be. Just find out which JC will open the door best for you.</p>
<p>Some ways to go about your search.
Determine your major
Make a list of JCs
Make a list of selective schools
Meet with JC counselors
Ask for previous transfer data (ie to this school from the jc)
See if a transfer articulation agreement has been made (generally ccs will make agreements with local universities ie east los angeles community college and usc)</p>
<p>A school closer to your transfer to institution may actually be best since the JC counselors may have close interaction with the university. But that’s merely speculation.</p>
<p>Thank you guy. I sure did look into OCC, but then thought it’s not in the bay area and concluded that Fothill’s or De Anza would give a better chance to Stanford (UCB seems good but I prefer a more intimate educational setting). I also fear that moving to CA and, from there, applying to other first-tier schools (e.g. Stanford+Ivies) would decrease my chances since there are far more students who try to get in those schools from CA than there are from KS, where i reside now. Or is the state of residence one represents isn’t that big of a factor in the transfer-admission proccess? or does it differ by school? I guess I’m trying to determine what will be more of an advantage as a learning environment AND at the time of applying to transfer: A state of residence in an under-represted region, or a relatively good education like the one OCC has.</p>
<p>As it’s clear, I’m trying to stay away from the very large schools (more than 25 thousand SB) and from the very small ones with minimum resources; if I have an option that is.</p>
<p>You sacrificed your biggest chance of attending Stanford+the Ivys when you chose not to attend one when you graduated from high school. At this point, no CC will give you any advantage over others in terms of admissions to these schools, which is extremely selective even for students applying from other top universities.</p>
<p>This, of course, does not apply to CCs having an agreement with Cornell.</p>
<p>Foothill and DeAnza are said to be among the best CCs in CA. If i remember correctly, someone from Foothill transfered to Stanford some time ago. SMC also has a great reputation, especially for science. I think it has the highest transfer rate to the UCs and USC, it also has TAP for UCLA.</p>
<p>However, if you’re looking into private schools I wouldn’t recommend going to a CC. CCs are great for public schools but you’ll be at a disadvantage for privates. Stanford for example states on their website that they take into consideration the type of school you’re attending, since classes at universities are usually more difficult.</p>
<p>“However, if you’re looking into private schools I wouldn’t recommend going to a CC. CCs are great for public schools but you’ll be at a disadvantage for privates. Stanford for example states on their website that they take into consideration the type of school you’re attending, since classes at universities are usually more difficult.”</p>
<p>Thomas, are you saying thhat attending a 4-year university (Such as state universities) would give me a better chance than a CC?</p>
<p>Personally I think they’re talking about 4 year institutions (more rigorous) vs. CCs (not so rigorous). And they’ll probably look at rankings for 4 year institutions since there are still huge differences. </p>
<p>But I don’t think that they will really take into consideration which CC you’re transferring from. CC is CC. Maybe there are some CCs that are known to be good and will give you a slight advantage (DeAnza, SMC, etc) but it probably doesn’t make that much of a difference compared to 4-year institutions.</p>
<p>In case of a CC transfer to a university like Stanford it’s not mainly about your GPA. Perfect GPAs are not that uncommon at CCs and since transfer rates for privates are really low (Stanford < 5%) a (almost) perfect GPA is in my opinion a core requirement anyway.</p>
<p>That’s why in the end it probably comes down to other things like ECs, SAT Scores, recommendation, etc. These things don’t depend on your CC.</p>
<p>However, if you’re transferring from a renown 4-year-institution yout GPA will probably play a bigger role since perfect grades at university are usually harder to get.</p>
<p>At the thread I refered to, somone made the suggestion that I take some intro “…courses for students who are not in a degree program at the school, where you do not have to send any transcripts of prior courses at college. If you do well in those courses, you can then apply for spot in a degree program, and would then have to provide old transcripts. But if you have done well in their courses (and there are base courses that can provide core credits and foundations for future courses in that special student category), you are very likely to get in there as a degree seeking student despite poor transcripts from prior schools.”</p>
<p>and I asked him/her on the 2nd page of the thread about this but s/he hasn’t responded.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of that and I’m not sure what exactly is meant by that either. </p>
<p>You can apply with an undeclared major and then you’re accepted to the “school” in general, but not to a specific degree program or department. For example, if you want to go to Haas (Berkeley), you can take the necessary core classes at Berkeley and after two years you transfer into Haas. That holds true for most universities, because you’re not required to declare a major for admission purposes and you have to finish the General Education Requirements anyway. It also depends on the major though, some departments (e.g. EECS@Berkeley) require you to apply directly to the department.</p>
<p>In your other thread you said that you want to go to grad school. In that case, I would try to save as much money as possible and look at lower ranked schools for undergraduate studies. If you have a graduate degree, no one cares about your undergrad. degree anymore. Do you really want to pay ~$100.000 for a Bachelor’s Degree from Stanford and in the end no employer even looks at it because you earned your Master’s somewhere else? Of course you’ll get a great education and get to know many people but sometimes i doubt if it’s really worth it. I’d do it the other way round. Look at great public schools like UCLA and UCB for your undergraduate degree. They are cheaper and a lot easier to get in from a CC, but they’re still great schools. After you’ve earned your undergrad. degree there and proven yourself you can apply to top private schools like Stanford for graduate studies. That would be more of an advantage in the end. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t even try to get into privates from a CC, but it’s really really rare that someone succeeds in doing that, no matter how good his stats are. </p>
<p>We’re kind of in the same boat, I’m dreaming about Stanford too and i messed up many things in the past. At the moment, graduate school is my biggest hope for Stanford ;)</p>
<p>And do you get those why regard Stanford so highly that they say it’s unrealistic to even consider applying to (I’m one of those who say that to me –> it’s crazy, I know)? I tend to listen to them, but I also know what what I want (Not exactly really, I still havn’t diceded on a major, and with an interest in/preperation for Philosophy - Biotec. - Organic chemistry - psychology - Celluler biology - Computer software - NearEastern studies, it becomes rather confusing.)</p>
<p>Speaking of Grad. school, you’re making me look at it differently now, but if one desires to attend an excellant Grad. program, wouldn’t it be a good idea to get an excellant undergrad. degree? I’m sorry if the question is lame, but I’ve been fighting for the undergrad thing so much that I didn’t even consider planning seriously for Grad. school.</p>
<p>If you want to go there you definitely should apply, no matter what. I’m just saying that you probably shouldn’t put all your hope into Stanford (even though it’s your dream school, it’s mine too). Because no matter what your stats are, Stanford is a reach for anyone and admission rates are even worse for transfers, and probably even more worse for CC students (I’ve heard of exactly one who transfered there). It would just suck doing doing it all right (GPA, ECs, Essays, …) and still get rejected, but that what happens to most people. That’s why you shouldn’t see Stanford as your only/ultimate choice, other schools are great too. I’m also aiming for Stanford, but Berkeley would be great too.</p>
<p>
Yeah, that’s right, but other schools are excellent too (Berkeley is #2 in Engineering, on par with Stanford). When it comes to pure knowledge the differences in undergrad. education between schools aren’t as big as in graduate education. Even at Stanford the “smartest” professors will probably not teach undergrad. classes and at Berkeley they have a lot of TA’s who actually teach. Graduate school is where programs really start to go into different directions (that’s the reason why there are no undergraduate rankings for specicfic disciplines except engineering). Many people that want to go to grad school see undergrad. education as a time to make great contacts which could proof helpful later (especially those at top schools) and get research experience.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the major but many schools actually prefer people from other schools for their graduate programs. So if you have a Bachelor’s from Stanford your chances to get into their graduate school will not bet better (maybe they’ll be even worse). I know that this is true for MBA admissions, I’m not sure about other majors here. But all schools want intellectual diversity in their graduate programs. Of course, the school name you got your Bachelor’s from does matter somewhat in grad. admissions, but it’s definitely not a major factor. More important is your GPA, test scores, maybe research and recommendations. Many people from not-so-well-known schools manage to get into grad school at a top university. And again, I’m not saying that you should aim lower now, just that you will probably have all the same opportunities if you go to a great public school or other private schools than Stanford.</p>
<p>My major is Electrical Engineering/Computer Science and I’m also interested in Psychology.</p>