Can someone explain to me how the UC tag agreement works and just how much of a “guarantee” is it? How hard are community college classes compared to a typical high school? Thank You.
I sincerely recommend you read through here, look at the right hand side: https://tag.ucdavis.edu/students/index.cfm
It’s a 100% guarantee if you meet the criteria.
Regarding your other question: Community college classes are essentially 1 year’s worth of HS material (2 semesters) packed into 1 semester. They’re not absurdly difficult, generally, but it’s definitely a jump from HS (unless you took loads of AP classes - but even so, I think CC is marginally more difficult than AP classes, depending on the subject/teacher).
You’ll have to work hard to do well. For your first semester, try to take highly rated professors via ratemyprofessor.org - also, avoid taking difficult classes. The first semester will always be an acclimation period.
There are CCs that are on the quarter system, and they are at a slightly quicker pace than CCs on the semester system. Because of that, people on the quarter system generally take fewer classes at a time than people on the semester system.