Some questions about community college

College Search & Lists Community Colleges
1

<p>Hello, everyone! This is my first post on this board, and well, I’m a 17 year old high school student who will be testing out of high school hopefully within the next month. To keep a long story very short, I spent last semester doing online school and ended up having to spend this current school year repeating 11th grade at my old public school. I’m not going to post a sob story or anything, but, basically, I cannot deal with high school anymore and as such, I am going to pursue taking the high school equivalency test and leaving before the end of this semester, if not the end of 2013. I will then enroll in community college next fall. I will be honest and admit that over the past year, I’ve been on-and-off about whether I wanted to go to college at all. It was all I talked about during my freshman and sophomore years, but somewhere along the line I guess my intentions changed. Recently, however, I have had a major overhaul in perspective of where exactly I see my future going, and college is now something that I am 100% dedicated to. As clearly would be necessary, I will be starting off at a community college. I live in Pennsylvania, but I will be relocating to California for this undertaking and attending a community college with dorms - my leading choice is Santa Barbara. I’ve heard wonderful things in all of my research and it looks like a great place to be. Once I graduate from community college, I will transfer into a four year university in California, hopefully a fairly reputable one, but I’m not going to cross my breath for an Ivy League school or anything, I know I need to be realistic, and if it would happen I’d be thrilled, but I’m going to keep all of my options open. </p>

<p>Now, in regards to the questions I have about community college:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Is it possible to finish all 60 credits in one year? If not, that’s fine, but I ask because I would be very invested in doing so if at all possible.</p></li>
<li><p>Regardless of how many credits you obtain, is it AT ALL possible to transfer into a university from a community college and start off as a freshman? I cannot seem to find any information about this from my research thus far.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>High school was not, is not, and will never have been a strong point of mine, but I am looking towards my educational future with 100% dedication and drive to succeed.</p>

2

<p>Please, if anyone has even the slightest of answers, please help. I’m very committed to this.</p>

3

<p>Hi, I think I can help you out. In one of my summer classes, someone mentioned he was taking 5 classes that semester. Each class was 3 units, so 15 units total. If you can do that for the summer, fall, spring, and summer, then that’s 60 units. Summer classes are condensed so I think 2 is manageable and 3 is a real challenge. I can’t imagine trying to take 5 classes. He was studying ALL the time and was really good at time management. I couldn’t find him at the end of the summer to ask if he kept all his classes and how that worked out. The only tricky part might be finding classes that fit what you need … not everything is offered every semester and summer offerings are pretty limited.</p>

<p>No, it is NOT possible to enter as a freshman once you graduate from high school and earn even just one college unit. If you do a gap year and don’t take any classes, then you can apply as a freshman.</p>

4

<p>Thank you so much for responding! About transferring in as a freshman, I figured. Actually, now that I think of it, I’m not sure why I even thought up that possibility, because transferring in as a freshman when you’ve already completed a year or more at a community college does seem rather pointless. I very much appreciate your insight into the credit situation. That helps out alot. Hmm… In the longrun, I suppose if I really did buckle down, accomplishing what that person did would be a possibility, but perhaps it would just be simpler if I did the full two years of community and then transferred into a 4-year school as a junior. Being able to pace myself would definitely aid in maintaining a high GPA! My goal is to maintain a 4.0, which will require utmost effort on my part.</p>