NVCC + guaranteed UVA transfer, or go to a less preferred 4-year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA has guaranteed transfer for students who attend community college and do well in classes.

This seems like a low-stress and lower cost way to earn a UVA degree, vs going into contortions to get a UVA first-year admit or going to a less preferred 4-year university.

Who has been there, done that? How are the tradeoffs?

Even if it's not for you, why isn't UVA flooded with people going this route? It's looks like an amazing side-door option. Is succeeding in community college harder than a UVA-wannago expects?

I teach at Nova and it is a great program, but UVA has many conditions in place that the other guaranteed transfers do not have. This means there is a lot of quality control, but it is difficult.

THis. The community college student has to know the required courses (mostly core, not electives) that need to be taken during the two years and the GPA required. A lot of the students don't pay attention and discover too late that they don't have the minimums. Every four year public in VA has its own set of minimums. Not every community college counselor has them all memorized so the student has to pay attention.

I’m looking at this right now. Seems pretty straightforward. It lists credits in several subjects and grade requirement.

[Anonymous]

Is is risky. There are some great professors there, and there are some awful ones who adversely could affect your grade. Any kid I know who did that route, took longer than 2 years cause they kept having to drop potential low grade classes to keep their gpa up.

[Anonymous]

At NVCC, probably it is easier to get a 3.0 GPA than at some other places, but getting a 3.5 GPA while taking the very very specific list of courses required by UVa will NOT be easy.

Many who start at NVCC aiming for UVa admissions after 2 years find in the end that they cannot meet all of the UVa requirements, so they do not end up being eligible for guaranteed admission at UVa. It is a good program overall, but the bar really is set pretty high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA has guaranteed transfer for students who attend community college and do well in classes.

This seems like a low-stress and lower cost way to earn a UVA degree, vs going into contortions to get a UVA first-year admit or going to a less preferred 4-year university.

Who has been there, done that? How are the tradeoffs?

Even if it's not for you, why isn't UVA flooded with people going this route? It's looks like an amazing side-door option. Is succeeding in community college harder than a UVA-wannago expects?

1. You can't get just any degree major that you want at UVA through the guaranteed admission program. Some majors don't count at X university or Y. The devil is always in the details.

2. Surprisingly, it can be harder to get an A (or a good grade) at NVCC than it is at a 4 yr college. My HS son took Chem I at NVCC over the summer. My other kid (DD) had just taken Chem I at a VA 4-yr university the previous school year. The professor at NVCC was FAR more strict and rigid than the professor at the 4 yr university. As a result, it was harder to earn the grade at NVCC than it was at the university. I think the NVCC professors are used to students trying to game the system or screwing it up that they are just very hardened. At the university, the professors were willing to give you a break if you didn't do the first pre-lab (because college was new to you) and they still let you do the lab (that involved measuring pennies or volume or something non-hazardous). At NVCC it was "no soup for you!!!" -- which does affect your grade in the end.

3. It's true that the mindset of the student body is different at NVCC than at a 4-yr university (even the middle of the road ones in VA). At NVCC, my son said many of the kids were taking Chem 1 for the nth time... and their goal was to just pass... which seemed like they weren't going to make it b/c they weren't doing the work and they were getting very low test scores (like 25% or 45%). In a 4 yr university, not everyone is passing every class, but they seem to be expecting that of themselves more.

I am still open to my kid taking more classes at NVCC -- and he might as well take classes he doesn't like b/c if he gets B's or C's in them, the grades won't affect his college GPA. (the credit transfers but not the grade). But, seeing what I've seen, I'd be hesitant to have a kid commit to the full two years at NVCC instead of going to a 4 yr college. I think it would be hard to sustain the "UVA mindset" for two years at NVCC. And frankly, you are putting your UVA plans in the hands of professors who might grade you harder than you expect... and then the guaranteed admission is out the window anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At NVCC, probably it is easier to get a 3.0 GPA than at some other places, but getting a 3.5 GPA while taking the very very specific list of courses required by UVa will NOT be easy.

Many who start at NVCC aiming for UVa admissions after 2 years find in the end that they cannot meet all of the UVa requirements, so they do not end up being eligible for guaranteed admission at UVa. It is a good program overall, but the bar really is set pretty high.

Doesn’t that make sense? Why is this a surprise to anyone? No one just waltzes into these competitive colleges.

[Anonymous]

College is an important life experience, not just about your name being on a piece of paper. Gaming the CC-->State U just sounds so lame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At NVCC, probably it is easier to get a 3.0 GPA than at some other places, but getting a 3.5 GPA while taking the very very specific list of courses required by UVa will NOT be easy.

Many who start at NVCC aiming for UVa admissions after 2 years find in the end that they cannot meet all of the UVa requirements, so they do not end up being eligible for guaranteed admission at UVa. It is a good program overall, but the bar really is set pretty high.

To remind, that's a 3.5 on a 4.0 scale. Most of us are victims of the weighted GPA phenomenon so a 3.5 sounds low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College is an important life experience, not just about your name being on a piece of paper. Gaming the CC-->State U just sounds so lame.

apparently you don't know that sounding entitled, judgmental and rich on DCUM isn't done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College is an important life experience, not just about your name being on a piece of paper. Gaming the CC-->State U just sounds so lame.

The parties and sleepovers are the important part, not the education?

May as well move all the professors over to the CCs and let the aristocrats have their society parties without distraction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA has guaranteed transfer for students who attend community college and do well in classes.

This seems like a low-stress and lower cost way to earn a UVA degree, vs going into contortions to get a UVA first-year admit or going to a less preferred 4-year university.

Who has been there, done that? How are the tradeoffs?

Even if it's not for you, why isn't UVA flooded with people going this route? It's looks like an amazing side-door option. Is succeeding in community college harder than a UVA-wannago expects?

1. You can't get just any degree major that you want at UVA through the guaranteed admission program. Some majors don't count at X university or Y. The devil is always in the details.

2. Surprisingly, it can be harder to get an A (or a good grade) at NVCC than it is at a 4 yr college. My HS son took Chem I at NVCC over the summer. My other kid (DD) had just taken Chem I at a VA 4-yr university the previous school year. The professor at NVCC was FAR more strict and rigid than the professor at the 4 yr university. As a result, it was harder to earn the grade at NVCC than it was at the university. I think the NVCC professors are used to students trying to game the system or screwing it up that they are just very hardened. At the university, the professors were willing to give you a break if you didn't do the first pre-lab (because college was new to you) and they still let you do the lab (that involved measuring pennies or volume or something non-hazardous). At NVCC it was "no soup for you!!!" -- which does affect your grade in the end.

3. It's true that the mindset of the student body is different at NVCC than at a 4-yr university (even the middle of the road ones in VA). At NVCC, my son said many of the kids were taking Chem 1 for the nth time... and their goal was to just pass... which seemed like they weren't going to make it b/c they weren't doing the work and they were getting very low test scores (like 25% or 45%). In a 4 yr university, not everyone is passing every class, but they seem to be expecting that of themselves more.

I am still open to my kid taking more classes at NVCC -- and he might as well take classes he doesn't like b/c if he gets B's or C's in them, the grades won't affect his college GPA. (the credit transfers but not the grade). But, seeing what I've seen, I'd be hesitant to have a kid commit to the full two years at NVCC instead of going to a 4 yr college. I think it would be hard to sustain the "UVA mindset" for two years at NVCC. And frankly, you are putting your UVA plans in the hands of professors who might grade you harder than you expect... and then the guaranteed admission is out the window anyway.

I can certainly believe that a lot of students are there passing time or sitting through me meaningless required classes to get the "D is for Degree" . I'm surprised that when a student shows up trying to do well (even if the motivation is external for admissions), thr professors aren't motivated to help the student succeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is an important life experience, not just about your name being on a piece of paper. Gaming the CC-->State U just sounds so lame.

The parties and sleepovers are the important part, not the education?

May as well move all the professors over to the CCs and let the aristocrats have their society parties without distraction.

You have more education at CC than a state U. Nice to know!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College is an important life experience, not just about your name being on a piece of paper. Gaming the CC-->State U just sounds so lame.

You're not "gaming" the system when you do something the system explicitly allows you to do, idiot.

Community college transfer to four year college is also a "life experience" - and you will meet a wider group of people at CC than the people you primarily meet at college, i.e., other 18 year olds who just got out of high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is an important life experience, not just about your name being on a piece of paper. Gaming the CC-->State U just sounds so lame.

You're not "gaming" the system when you do something the system explicitly allows you to do, idiot.

Community college transfer to four year college is also a "life experience" - and you will meet a wider group of people at CC than the people you primarily meet at college, i.e., other 18 year olds who just got out of high school.

+1. PP is also tone-deaf that some of us just can't afford four years even at state university.