Would you send your child to Nova (community college)

[Anonymous]

Too often parents use CC as punishment
Too often parents use CC because they are cheap
Too often high schools promote CC hoping parents will be easily satisfied and not hold the HS responsible for better admission results

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look - there are a lot of low SES people and low performers at community colleges. I'm taking a class at one right now. There might be a couple of higher performers in every class, but particularly for the classes that fulfill distribution requirements, think of an easy high school class, definitely not AP level.

What an obnoxious attitude. Students are there for ALL kinds of reasons, so stop judging! I hope that my kid never runs into you, because most of the kids are there to get an education and move on to a 4-year college, so that is THEIR business. NOVA has been an excellent alternative for my kid and many others. I'm grateful for this short-term option, not to mention the money saved in tuition and board the first 1-2 years. No one will know or care once these students graduate from 4-year universities in the future that part of their education began at NOVA.

[Anonymous]

I teach at NVCC. I can promise you that I am better than most professors at UVA. In fact, most of the time a TA teaches at UVA - not the actual expert.

GAA is great as is ADVANCE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look - there are a lot of low SES people and low performers at community colleges. I'm taking a class at one right now. There might be a couple of higher performers in every class, but particularly for the classes that fulfill distribution requirements, think of an easy high school class, definitely not AP level.

What an obnoxious attitude. Students are there for ALL kinds of reasons, so stop judging! I hope that my kid never runs into you, because most of the kids are there to get an education and move on to a 4-year college, so that is THEIR business. NOVA has been an excellent alternative for my kid and many others. I'm grateful for this short-term option, not to mention the money saved in tuition and board the first 1-2 years. No one will know or care once these students graduate from 4-year universities in the future that part of their education began at NOVA.

I'm not trying to be obnoxious. I'm just observing students and also noticing comments made by professors (encouraging comments, not disparaging ones). There are many fantastic teachers at CC, but the exams mainly focus on retention of facts and NOT higher order thinking skills. This is why it reminds me of my early high school. I've also noticed the writing skills of other students when the professor has students post their assignments online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I would. Particularly for the guaranteed admissions program to a 4-year school. A very cost-effective way to obtain higher ed.

This! It has agreements with Va Tech, UVA, James Madison, George Mason that if a student maintains a certain GPA they're guaranteed admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not Op, but thanks to poster 1:03 whose child had recent experience with cc classes. Are there stats available to see the success rate of CC students at VA colleges? Will all credits transfer? Are students prepared for actual college classes? I live in another state and CC classes can be lowere level and not all classes transfer ( wasted money).

!:03 back. You're welcome. It was an awful experience. DC wanted to quit after week two but she knew it was important to get the science course done, with an A and on her transcript before senior year college applications went it. The college Chem course was also supposed to prepare DC for the SAT II Chem. test. DC got the A (only after she challenged grading on some of her exams - the prof. had graded the tests in hap-hazard fashion) but the teaching was not reflected on her performance on the SAT II chem test. All in all a waste of time and a miserable summer. To be fair, the prof. had a horrible rate-my-professor rating but it was the only chem. course offered that summer within sensible driving distance. No, it did not prepare her for the SAT II chem test, college chem. or anything else, but she did have a college course with an A on her transcript when applying. Yes, the credits were accepted by a flagship university but not the grade! Lesson learned? Believe Rate-my-professor.com.

[Anonymous]

FYI: Medical schools have many required prerequisites (most are science related). CC credits are not allowed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI: Medical schools have many required prerequisites (most are science related). CC credits are not allowed.

Yup. I used to sit on the admissions committee for a medical school and the reason we did not accept prerequisite courses taken at a CC is not necessarily because of the 2+2 students (rarely do those students even graduate with bachelor’s degrees, let alone apply to medical school) but because many students would try to “cheat” the system by taking the difficult science courses at community colleges in order to get better grades for less work than they’d need to put forth at their “home” university.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not Op, but thanks to poster 1:03 whose child had recent experience with cc classes. Are there stats available to see the success rate of CC students at VA colleges? Will all credits transfer? Are students prepared for actual college classes? I live in another state and CC classes can be lowere level and not all classes transfer ( wasted money).

!:03 back. You're welcome. It was an awful experience. DC wanted to quit after week two but she knew it was important to get the science course done, with an A and on her transcript before senior year college applications went it. The college Chem course was also supposed to prepare DC for the SAT II Chem. test. DC got the A (only after she challenged grading on some of her exams - the prof. had graded the tests in hap-hazard fashion) but the teaching was not reflected on her performance on the SAT II chem test. All in all a waste of time and a miserable summer. To be fair, the prof. had a horrible rate-my-professor rating but it was the only chem. course offered that summer within sensible driving distance. No, it did not prepare her for the SAT II chem test, college chem. or anything else, but she did have a college course with an A on her transcript when applying. Yes, the credits were accepted by a flagship university but not the grade! Lesson learned? Believe Rate-my-professor.com.

Yikes! Who have you that advice? Did you DC take high school chem? If so, a generic prep book would have sufficed for the SAT2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not Op, but thanks to poster 1:03 whose child had recent experience with cc classes. Are there stats available to see the success rate of CC students at VA colleges? Will all credits transfer? Are students prepared for actual college classes? I live in another state and CC classes can be lowere level and not all classes transfer ( wasted money).

!:03 back. You're welcome. It was an awful experience. DC wanted to quit after week two but she knew it was important to get the science course done, with an A and on her transcript before senior year college applications went it. The college Chem course was also supposed to prepare DC for the SAT II Chem. test. DC got the A (only after she challenged grading on some of her exams - the prof. had graded the tests in hap-hazard fashion) but the teaching was not reflected on her performance on the SAT II chem test. All in all a waste of time and a miserable summer. To be fair, the prof. had a horrible rate-my-professor rating but it was the only chem. course offered that summer within sensible driving distance. No, it did not prepare her for the SAT II chem test, college chem. or anything else, but she did have a college course with an A on her transcript when applying. Yes, the credits were accepted by a flagship university but not the grade! Lesson learned? Believe Rate-my-professor.com.

Yikes! Who have you that advice? Did you DC take high school chem? If so, a generic prep book would have sufficed for the SAT2.

+1,000!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No I would not OP. CC is for first gen folks and poor high school performers and low SES people.

I went to a CC and was none of those things. Currently still none of those things, and now hold a large number of degrees, including a PhD, from top tier schools. There are many reasons to choose a CC, and you have named only a few of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach at NVCC. I can promise you that I am better than most professors at UVA. In fact, most of the time a TA teaches at UVA - not the actual expert.

GAA is great as is ADVANCE.

Same here. I WAS a TA at UVa, too. The teachers in my department also teach at other local schools, like GMU, Catholic, American, all over. So if we aren't any good, then neither are the teachers at those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not Op, but thanks to poster 1:03 whose child had recent experience with cc classes. Are there stats available to see the success rate of CC students at VA colleges? Will all credits transfer? Are students prepared for actual college classes? I live in another state and CC classes can be lowere level and not all classes transfer ( wasted money).

!:03 back. You're welcome. It was an awful experience. DC wanted to quit after week two but she knew it was important to get the science course done, with an A and on her transcript before senior year college applications went it. The college Chem course was also supposed to prepare DC for the SAT II Chem. test. DC got the A (only after she challenged grading on some of her exams - the prof. had graded the tests in hap-hazard fashion) but the teaching was not reflected on her performance on the SAT II chem test. All in all a waste of time and a miserable summer. To be fair, the prof. had a horrible rate-my-professor rating but it was the only chem. course offered that summer within sensible driving distance. No, it did not prepare her for the SAT II chem test, college chem. or anything else, but she did have a college course with an A on her transcript when applying. Yes, the credits were accepted by a flagship university but not the grade! Lesson learned? Believe Rate-my-professor.com.

Yikes! Who have you that advice? Did you DC take high school chem? If so, a generic prep book would have sufficed for the SAT2.

Of course! She had finished high school chem first or second year so needed a refresher. She took the college-level course and had the books and outside tutoring. Score still wasn't high enough for the Ivy she wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No I would not OP. CC is for first gen folks and poor high school performers and low SES people.

I went to a CC and was none of those things. Currently still none of those things, and now hold a large number of degrees, including a PhD, from top tier schools. There are many reasons to choose a CC, and you have named only a few of them.

Ok. But realize you are among a very, very small minority of CC graduates. 86% don’t even get bachelor’s degrees, let alone graduate degrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not Op, but thanks to poster 1:03 whose child had recent experience with cc classes. Are there stats available to see the success rate of CC students at VA colleges? Will all credits transfer? Are students prepared for actual college classes? I live in another state and CC classes can be lowere level and not all classes transfer ( wasted money).

!:03 back. You're welcome. It was an awful experience. DC wanted to quit after week two but she knew it was important to get the science course done, with an A and on her transcript before senior year college applications went it. The college Chem course was also supposed to prepare DC for the SAT II Chem. test. DC got the A (only after she challenged grading on some of her exams - the prof. had graded the tests in hap-hazard fashion) but the teaching was not reflected on her performance on the SAT II chem test. All in all a waste of time and a miserable summer. To be fair, the prof. had a horrible rate-my-professor rating but it was the only chem. course offered that summer within sensible driving distance. No, it did not prepare her for the SAT II chem test, college chem. or anything else, but she did have a college course with an A on her transcript when applying. Yes, the credits were accepted by a flagship university but not the grade! Lesson learned? Believe Rate-my-professor.com.

Yikes! Who have you that advice? Did you DC take high school chem? If so, a generic prep book would have sufficed for the SAT2.

Of course! She had finished high school chem first or second year so needed a refresher. She took the college-level course and had the books and outside tutoring. Score still wasn't high enough for the Ivy she wanted.

If she needed tutoringand still scored low, it wasn’t the teacher. It was probably the student not being academically ready.