transfer from uc, to cc, to csu?

When I think of a feeder school I think of someplace like Andover where the counselors know their peers at the top colleges, where the counselors personally make an effort to ensure each student is doing the appropriate activities to have a great application, where you get advice and review of your essays, etc.

It’s not going to be like that at Santa Monica CC. In terms of numbers there are a handful of community colleges it send many kids off to the UC’s. They tend to be in affluent areas such as Santa Monica or Cupertino. So is it something the schools are doing? Or that savvy kids/parents make sure they are taking the classes they need and getting good grades in order to be eligible for transfer? I lean towards the latter explanation.