I guess it has been a while since I posted, and I just wanted to kind of provide a recap of my experiences so far. I dont know why, I just felt compelled to vent and thought that this would be a good ‘forum’(get it?) to do it in. I wanted to convey some of the thoughts and feelings that i’ve been experiencing over the past couple months, and maybe talk about some pre-perceptions.</p>
<p>1) Community College makes getting into a UC much easier.</p>
<p>This is, for the larger part, becoming more true. However, that actually depends on what you mean by ‘getting in’. Since the majority of colleges admit purely by community college GPA and not by major, yes, doing decently well enough in community college gets you a ticket in a little easier then it was in high school. However, with the increasing competitiveness of the field from CC-to-UC, indeed, that this entire forum even exists, is testament to the fact that this very quickly will no longer be the case. This isnt even mentioning the majors that are impacted, the majors of which actually admit based on not only GPA and extracurriculars and essay as well. These majors are often more difficult or easily just as difficult to get into from community college as high school. As a person applying to the same competitive program with the same level of difficulty from high school to college, the entire dual process often takes a toll on the person involved, even if it is a second chance. My personal experience was with Haas, and although I had-in my belief, at least much better statistics then I had coming out of high school, I was rejected.</p>
<p>On a side note, for all the people who message me about Haas; there’s really only one thing that has seemed to matter or make a really serious difference, and that’s GPA. so if you’re just starting out and in doubt, get a 4.0. that will get you the best chance possible.</p>
<p>2) Community College people are not as intelligent as people from the UC.</p>
<p>This has, for the larger part, been a very, very, serious bungling of intelligence. Too bad there’s nobody to point fingers at. This is something I was told in CC consistently, and as I was being looked down from my high school peers for being at a CC, (coming from a competitive HS), I realized that the people around me who were being berated were really a lot more intelligent then they had been given credit for. Indeed, the one thing that I think is missing from the UC that really needs some attention is the absence of ‘brilliant’ people. I have met a great deal of smart people at UC, but it seems as though the brilliance of the people that I met at CC came from the harsh realities of real world experience, and determination to change their life and make it better. I think that the problem that we have is the whole ‘they accept everyone so they cant be good’. Arguably, there isnt as great a focus on the traditional career aspirations that come with being at a 4-year school, but that doesn’t necessarily meet the brightline of people not being ‘as intelligent’. I think that some of the people I met in CC, like for example, the people that came to America after surviving total genocide in Sudan and Serbia, showed a great deal more heart and strength then any of the people who have the privilege of being at a UC. I think that these people, although they do not meet the ‘intelligence’ and ‘prestige’ standards, take brilliance to a whole new level altogether.</p>
<p>I guess I must just be spoiled. It’s so weird to say that, but when you’re around people really fighting for a better future using whatever resources they have, instead of being around people simply taking advantage of the resources that are present whether by a stroke of luck or placement, you tend to get a little cynical.</p>
<p>3) Community College to UC lacks the freshman experience, and is therefore a bad transition.–And/or it’s so hard to transfer because you dont know anyone.</p>
<p>This I something I heard so ridiculously often from people that I was talking to about my experiences in community college that I just accepted it to be true. Looking back, I dont necessarily believe that the ‘freshman experience’ was really worth anything at all. The hard realities of community college forced me to grow at such an exponential rate beyond what I expected, like for instance-how the counselors are ALWAYS wrong and will never help you, how you have to seek out career advice on your own, how you need to be responsible entirely for your own education, since there is no external impetus to actually ‘leave’, or ‘graduate’ community college at a certain time, and notwithstanding the people that you meet, the people who have had exposure to things that you would never normally find at a traditional 4-year college who really begin to shape your life(if you choose to seek them out)…all of these things combined I think provided a much more enriching ‘‘freshman’’ experience then anything else I have encountered here at my UC. People here, for the large part, are sheltered. I don’t mean that to be derogatory, just its the reality that most people at UC have their educations paid off for by thier parents. Student loans are significant, but the majority of the people you meet arent paying rent or electric bills on their own, or have jobs to solely support their eduction.</p>
<p>On another sidenote, the people that do, even at UC, are the people that need to be sought out. These are the gems in the rough. (more often, however, these are also community college students.)</p>
<p>But, I digress. The last thing I really wanted to address is the whole ‘It’s hard to transfer from community college’ thing. Well, that one was right on the money. Reintroducing yourself entirely into a community where you have very little connections is a really difficult process. Sure, if you have friends there, it would be easier, but after 2 years those friendships often break down-and your friends have developed on a different level then you have. you come with different experiences, and different bondings-unless you have spent a significant amount of time with them, which I believe is a waste of the community college experience. It’s a serious trip outside your comfort zone, and it is not easy if you dont have an established social and/or professional community. When I first asked the question in my orientation “Do people look at transfer students differently?” the whole auditorium kind of snickered. I guess the joke was on them. There is a de facto difference in the way that people from community college have developed and access opportunities, simply by thier exposure to a radically different environment and/or process. This, across the people I have talked to, has stayed consistent.</p>
<p>This is not to discourage, but it is to make a point. Those who come from community college into some of the more difficult UC programs tend to be far more successful and developed then people at their same stage of development when they transfer. This is natural. But that very transition, that very process is transforming, and if you are, like I was, experiencing transfer at a very different level of your comfort zone, it’s going to be difficult.</p>
<p>For the most part, I think, transferring is not for the faint of heart. The majority of the people on this forum that I spoke to, that helped me, are ‘determined’ individuals, who seek out opportunities and become naturally different then most of their peers. I may be wrong on this, but if you are reading this, then you are a different kind of person then the masses at the UC, and you should remember that the time you spent at CC is not just time in the grind that you waste away, but time that you can really use to make a sincere and significant difference to your personality and ambitions and approach to education-setting yourself apart from the rest of the crowd.</p>
<p>And after you have transferred, be proud. One thing I can tell you for sure is that for the large part, the difference between you and high school students is that you did it absolutely 100% all on your own. Either out of necessity or choice, the accomplishment is 100% yours.</p>
<p>…I also reserve the right to delete this post in case I later feel it was some type of insane discourse driven from the bag of M&M’s I just ate.