Would you encourage your kid to go to Community College and transfer to UVA or William and Mary?

[Anonymous]

Agree with poster above - I'm from Pennsylvania, where there is a similar setup with the Penn State commuter branch campuses and transferring after two years. A lot of kids get bored with the "13th grade" feel, blow off classes, spend more time in jobs, etc. and do worse than you think.

[Anonymous]

I'm going to give you some positive feedback. One of my DS' best friends from his high school years did the community college route to UVA. He was homeschooled and "graduated" from high school very early (16 years old.) Because of his age, his parents had him do community college - he also had never been in a classroom setting since he was homeschooled. He transferred to UVA at 19 and lived on campus in the dorm. He was in ROTC so he immediately had a network of people that he met. He absolutely LOVED his UVA experience.

My nephew did the CC route to VA Tech. Loved his time at VA Tech.

Here is a link of a recent W&M grad who went the CC route to W&M. He was in several of my DS' classes at W&M once he transferred. My DS told me the same type of thing - this young man jumped in and joined activities to meet people.

https://mason.wm.edu/news/2022/finance-major-follows-his-own-path-via-rbc-to-wm-degree.php.

I think the key to making this work is putting yourself out there once you arrive on campus. Join clubs, go to the events the school puts on. Say hello to people. My DS went to W&M so I'm more familiar with the social scene at that school. W&M has a large percentage of students who live on campus all 4 years. So if you come in as a junior, you can live in the dorm with other juniors and seniors and not be "weird" or trying to find an off-campus apartment and then never meeting people. Also, since it's a smaller school, I think it's easier to meet people. My DS also has said that he made an entire new network of friends his junior and senior year once he started doing upper level classes and being in multiple classes with the same people. He was in the Business school and had almost every class in one building his last year (junior year was online with covid.)

[Anonymous]

OP here: I want to sincerely thank those who took the time to share your experiences and insights. I've learned a lot of helpful information and gained some valuable insights from you (and please continue to share if you have other experiences with the CC to UVA or W&M route). To those who felt the need to demonize, diagnose, or insult me because I didn't know (or hadn't thought through) some things and came here to learn ...I only hope that you can find some inner peace and love for yourself that might help with your need to throw hate onto others. Life is short and there is already so much negativity in the world, why spend any time adding to it and intentionally insulting others?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here: She is committed for the freshman year. We are looking to change course after her freshman year and/or encourage our other kids differently.

Troll.

Why would you say that? I am the OP and I am asking an honest question. I swear....people on this forum can be so incredibly rude.

Because it’s august. You’re seriously going to have your kid go out of state for a year and then transfer to a community college and then transfer again?? Who would do that to their kid?

And furthermore, I know that this is a troll because kids themselves can only take out five thousand a year on loans. You referred to HER going into debt. It won’t be her. It will be you, with parent plus loans. And if this was a true story you would know that.

And if you had these thoughts, you would have had them all year and in the spring, not just started thinking about it in august. Unless you’re a total idiot.

No - some federal loans max at a little over $5k, some do not. Kids can also take private loans. This poster's info is uninformed (maybe they are also a "total idiot").

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: I want to sincerely thank those who took the time to share your experiences and insights. I've learned a lot of helpful information and gained some valuable insights from you (and please continue to share if you have other experiences with the CC to UVA or W&M route). To those who felt the need to demonize, diagnose, or insult me because I didn't know (or hadn't thought through) some things and came here to learn ...I only hope that you can find some inner peace and love for yourself that might help with your need to throw hate onto others. Life is short and there is already so much negativity in the world, why spend any time adding to it and intentionally insulting others?

lots of inner peace here. Dislike of you is deserved. You caused the negativity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: I want to sincerely thank those who took the time to share your experiences and insights. I've learned a lot of helpful information and gained some valuable insights from you (and please continue to share if you have other experiences with the CC to UVA or W&M route). To those who felt the need to demonize, diagnose, or insult me because I didn't know (or hadn't thought through) some things and came here to learn ...I only hope that you can find some inner peace and love for yourself that might help with your need to throw hate onto others. Life is short and there is already so much negativity in the world, why spend any time adding to it and intentionally insulting others?

So one advice I would suggest is if your kid goes this route, just list the degree on their cv/resume rather than all the institutions attended. I do some hiring and sadly I've found a lot of the credence people put on your undergrad institution is how smart you had to be to get in there rather than just the quality of the education.

So just write B.A. year College of William & Mary, GPA x Major y rather than dates attended or anything. We've had some candidates who listed Nova dates, and then W&M or UVA dates and in the eyes of some of my colleagues that was a 'ding' like they weren't as smart as someone who got in as a freshman. Personally, I thought it showed persistence and some evidence of longer term planning, but I seemed to be more in the minority.

[Anonymous]

Yea the odd thing about OP’s plan is that she’d have the kid go out of state for one year, only to have to leave. It’s a shitty thing to do to a kid. If I were you, OP, I’d pull the plug on that right now. No reason for her to go out of state at all.

[Anonymous]

"We are seriously considering the "guaranteed admission" program at Northern Virginia Community college where, if you maintain a 3.4 (or 3.6) for the first 2 years at community college and then transfer to UVA (or William and Mary). "


Is this really a thing???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"We are seriously considering the "guaranteed admission" program at Northern Virginia Community college where, if you maintain a 3.4 (or 3.6) for the first 2 years at community college and then transfer to UVA (or William and Mary). "


Is this really a thing???

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"We are seriously considering the "guaranteed admission" program at Northern Virginia Community college where, if you maintain a 3.4 (or 3.6) for the first 2 years at community college and then transfer to UVA (or William and Mary). "


Is this really a thing???

Yes

The 'guaranteed admission' has some requirements for the courses you take, grades needed etc. so you need to work with the transfer coordinators at the schools you are interested in. All 4 year VA publics have some kind of transfer arrangement with cc's.

[Anonymous]

OP, it’s been 25ish years since I was at W&M, but wanted to share my experience. The kids I knew who transferred in as sophomores found their places, socially. The ones I knew who transferred in as juniors struggled. I was an RA, so I heard details from students I otherwise wouldn’t have. Some shared some painful loneliness with me.

Please encourage a transfer after freshman year. If it is JMU, etc, rather than UVA, so be it. Three undergrad institutions sounds like a social-emotional disaster.

[Anonymous]

No, I would never encourage a gradusting HS student to go to community college.

Not unless, a lack of funds, was the reason. And that doesn't mean parents being cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, it’s been 25ish years since I was at W&M, but wanted to share my experience. The kids I knew who transferred in as sophomores found their places, socially. The ones I knew who transferred in as juniors struggled. I was an RA, so I heard details from students I otherwise wouldn’t have. Some shared some painful loneliness with me.

Please encourage a transfer after freshman year. If it is JMU, etc, rather than UVA, so be it. Three undergrad institutions sounds like a social-emotional disaster.

I think OP’s plan is stupid AF but I also think this comment is silly. It totally depends on the kid. And you’re an old lady now. Your experience from being an RA in the Stone Age is irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

I’m the parent who said this ended up being the educational experience of my first kid, for financial reasons. While I don’y recommend the plan, I just want to say you are not a bad parent! My kid’s admissions and financial aid results were not what we expected. I didn’t make that mistake twice and my other kids had better results (which has more to do with targeting the right schools than anything). And while I would urge you to plan for either one college in three years, a gap year or a transfer after freshman year, I will also let you know that my kid did graduate from the reach college and that diploma and that career center helped my kid get their first job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As none of the high achievers go to community college, its just not the intellectual or social environment i would want for my child. Its like putting them in class with bottom 25% of high school graduates, doesn't make sense to me.

Nah, there are a small number of high achievers who take that route -- a recent valedictorian of our small private school was doing this -- but those high achievers really stand out in the intro classes. The percentage of the highly competent increases when you get into more advanced courses that have a greater number of serious students, career-switchers, and overly educated dilettantes.

I think that NVCC -> UVA/W&M/VT is a valid route for two categories of bright students: driven self-starters and the overly anxious/adhd in need of, at least initially, substantial parent support. You definitely get out of it what you put into it. Someone brilliant but lazy is going to coast, wasting time and potentially pick up poor study habits.

That being said, OP springing this on his/her child IN AUGUST is a *terrible* idea. I guess it's better than running out of money in the middle of freshman year, but please try to work it out financially for your kid.