Congratulations and enjoy!
So good of you to post an update. My kids also found that our local cc helped them to achieve their academic goals while staying within their budget. Local ccs can be a tremendous resource. As you pointed out, the experience is what you make of it.
Thank you for the update! We are considering CC as a way to save money, and then transfer, but I often see posts that merit money isn’t available for transfer students. Glad to hear an example of a successful transfer.
@DoinResearch Most universities don’t have a ton of money for transfers, but there are some that offer pretty generous scholarships, the University of New Mexico for example. There was a list floating around this site.
Just wanted to put in my two cents on starting college at a local CC. I work at a local university and there USED to be stigma associated with starting at the local CC and then transferring to the university and it used to be made somewhat difficult by transfer policies at the university. This is no longer the case. More and more local students begin their college experience at the local CC - smaller classes, WAY less money, and then a very smooth transition to the university. My university now works very hard to make this transition smooth. There are other benefits too. For example, keep in mind that a transfer student’s GPA is calculated just using the university’s grades, not the CC, so if there is a bit of a rough start in college, these grades do not appear on the university’s transcript. True, most employers and grad schools will see the CC transcript too, but still, the university GPA excludes it. Each year, each department in my college gives an award to the very best graduating senior in the department, and in my department, it is common these days for the winner of this award to be CC transfer students.