Summary: everything sucks at current school, middling grades, want to go to a top-tier public or private and considering a CC as a means to that goal
I’m close to completing my first year at a large public university- it is ranked around UC Santa Barbara, University of Washington, and Northeastern. I’ve completed eight courses with a mid 2s GPA first semester and a mid 3s GPA this semester.
I don’t mean in any way to demean the university I’m currently at or to imply that I’m “too good” for this school. However, I’m fairly unhappy with it: I’ve met and conversed with hundreds of people, and have good friendships with many but the overall student culture is poor/shallow and for a university of this size there is a fairly weak club culture. The professors I’ve had so far and those of classes that I’ve visited are not what I’d expect from a university with this ranking. I took courses at other universities in high school and the quality of instruction was definitely higher. So I am dissatisfied with the academics and student culture, as well as more generally with the area I’m in/food/surroundings and my current situation.
Because of my mediocre grades in college, and my lame high school transcript (mid-high 3s GPA weighted, mid-low unweighted) I doubt I will be able to transfer to the schools I have in mind (UC Berkeley, UCLA, top-tier privates.) I’m confident that I can succeed at a top school (SAT around 2300 at 15y/o, A grades in the uni courses I took over the summer) and it’s my goal to attend one.
With that in mind,
Does it make sense to attend a community college for two years and apply to transfer to a better-ranked school?
Will there be enough courses for me to take seeing as I already have about 15-18 AP credits depending on what schools’ standards are, have completed 24 credits (I think- may be underestimating) here, and have 8 credits of college courses from other unis?
My goal is to major in Economics. With that in mind, what are some things I can do outside of getting a 4.0 in a CC to get admitted (extracurriculars, jobs, etc.)
Does anybody else have experience with this?
Thanks, sorry for such a long post.