Question for those whose kids went the community college route?

[Anonymous]

There are so many benefits to community college aside from cost. My youngest brother went that route - he wasn't sure what he wanted to study and partied perhaps a bit too much in high school. He ended up transferring into engineering at the big state university, was so much more ready for that experience, and ended up as one of the top engineering students and befriended many of his professors. In our area of Fairfax, many kids are going to NOVA and transferring after 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Have you seen the book Colleges That Change Lives? Maybe there's an option in there for her. "State U" may not be the best fit with large classes, etc.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery College was a very real choice for my magnet HS MCPS student. The reasons were the quality of instruction, the small class sizes, convenience (location), cost. The reason my student did not go the MC was because of full merit scholarship in first choice school.

I think CC is an excellent route for ANY student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since when does a B+ average give you no options but CC?

Exactly! Simply go to a lower-tiered 4 year college, and transfer if you still want to.

OP: the B+ is only senior year. In fact, we will send transcripts to a couple more places once the first semester ends. It is the freshman year, part of sophomore, and the ACT that is dragging thing down. We were thinking about a lower-tiered but that would involve her moving twice in two years and would cost more.

Why not lower tiered and stay there? What matters is who she is and what she does with her education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you seen the book Colleges That Change Lives? Maybe there's an option in there for her. "State U" may not be the best fit with large classes, etc.

+1

[Anonymous]

My DH did the CC route, two years there and finished at four-year uni. He now is number two in his international company fortune, supervising guys with MBAs.

[Anonymous]

OP,

If you live in VA, NOVA CC has a specific program that allows a student to do 2 years at NOVA and then transfer to a Virginia state school for the remaining two years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP,

If you live in VA, NOVA CC has a specific program that allows a student to do 2 years at NOVA and then transfer to a Virginia state school for the remaining two years.

It is important to note that that program is limited to students with consistent high grades. It is not difficult to imagine that a student who had difficulty with the transition to high school, and who has difficulty scoring well on tests, would have difficulty getting good grades in the first semester at CC, especially given that tests tend to make up a higher portion of CC grades compared to HS grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you seen the book Colleges That Change Lives? Maybe there's an option in there for her. "State U" may not be the best fit with large classes, etc.

+1

Yes, this book is a terrific resource.

OP, just how terrible are her scores? What is her actual, unweighted GPA for the 4 years and for junior year? Does she take honors level classes or regular? We need more information.

[Anonymous]

I went to community college. It took me five years to graduate. I took three classes twice in order to get passing grades. In one I finally got a B, in two I got D's. I was working one full time job and one part time job while I went to school part time.

I did not transfer to another school. I had never planned to. I make more money as a head legal secretary than my cousin with a masters degree who is a news reporter, and about the same as my other cousin with a masters degree who is an elementary school teacher, AND more than my OTHER cousin with a masters degree who is an editor.

[Anonymous]

Just be careful. CC is not easy and it's not high school! I taught a pre professional science course there and it was tough. A lot is expected and there are a lot of highly driven, competitive kids there. She may do better academically at a lower tier small school. GL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many students in California do two years at a CC before transferring to a 4 year school. If fact, schools like Cal encourage students to do this because of overcrowding and high tuition. I have plenty of friends with degrees from Cal who did two years at a CC first. I wish I'd been that smart in retrospect. Think of the tuition savings!!

This was my sibling. And yes, it was easier to transfer in. Majored in a STEM field.

[Anonymous]

Yes my Dh did 2 years of CC and then transferred to Towson. He has way less student debt and makes more money than me. I appreciate the experiences I had on campus but I'm a little jealous

[Anonymous]

Just to let you know we received the usual flyer from a state School of Engineering with a new dean that my husband retired from a couple of years ago boasting about basically all that they were going to needing funds for to more or less:

1- Attract really highly sought after young faculty researchers.
2- Build and support new facilities for exciting new trends in research.
3- Provide opportunities for talented graduate students in research (mostly from foreign countries)
4- Provide opportunities for talented undergraduates basically in cutting edge research fields

No where is there any mention of hiring talented faculty members who are interested in teaching undergraduate students and providing them with the basic background and skills to be equipped to go to graduate school to take advantage of all these wonderful opportunities. Look carefully at the colleges you select for your undergraduate in any field to be sure that the undergrads' tuition are not the funding stream for wonderful graduate student and research faculty packages. One clear indication if this is true is to find out about the size of the classes all the way along - not just in the first year. If years 3 and 4 still have 100+ in many classes, then there is something wrong.

My husband had some wonderfully prepared and very motivated transfers from the cc system while teaching. Also another positive about a community college setting is that a teenager will have the opportunity to meet folks/learners of all ages and the maturity and experience of the older students can be a very positive factor. Also, some course sequences can provide one with a very useful associate or certificate option in terms of the work world after college should jobs be tight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did terribly is HS. I did not do community college, but when to a really low ranked college for the first 1.5 years, transferred to a highly ranked state university (straight A's at the lousy school), went to graduate school, phd, now working as a research scientist.

It does not matter where you start, but it does where you end. Only the last degree matters.

I did this. Basic small private college. Not that thrilled with it and transferred to a good state college and then went on for my master's. I did far better in college and graduate school than high school and had bad SAT's as I don't test well. Don't give up on her.