Community college ——-> University path

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't get a real college experience going the CC route. By the time you transfer to a four-year school — assuming you make it that far; the percentage of CC kids who drop out their first or second year is astronomical — your peers will have settled into friend groups and routines, moved off campus, and started preparing for post-college life. Freshman year is something every kid should get to experience, and unfortunately, you can't recreate it as a junior CC transfer.

Do you have first-hand experience with this happening?

No, I went to a four-year school and still have fond memories of freshman year. It was an unforgettable time, and I'd hate for my kid not to be able to experience it. Junior and senior year were great, and yes, I did continue to make new friends as an upperclassman. But that first weekend in the freshman dorm was lit! I couldn't have imagined being back at home in my high school bedroom.

The parents of kids who are looking at CC are largely doing it b/c their KIDS don't want the typical college experience that you value. They are also kids who can't get into a 4 yr college. They are kids with anxiety and ADHD who know they want to stay at home and not in a dorm. Just because you highly valued the social scene does not mean that eveyr 18-19 yr old would thrive under that setting.

[Anonymous]

Make sure that your kid seeks out the more academic crowd to socialize with. The biggest threat is the wrong peer group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make sure that your kid seeks out the more academic crowd to socialize with. The biggest threat is the wrong peer group.

How many 19 yr olds are taking their parents advice on who to befriend at CC?

How many parents have any power at all to determine their kids' friends?

Do you even have kids?

[Anonymous]

My husband and his brother both did 2 years at nova and then transferred. My husband went to UVA and is now a lawyer, his brother went to VT and is now an electrical engineer. They are both outgoing and had no issue coming in half way through and had a great experience. They fully consider UVA and VT to be their colleges.

My daughter is more reserved, and would have a hard time playing social catch up...but she is a sophomore in college right now and has two friends who did some community college and still came in as freshmen and had the whole freshmen experience, just as a year older than everyone else. That might be a better path for someone who may need the social structure of freshman year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NVCC is a great two years college. My daughter attended NVCC after high school graduation in 2014 because she wanted to live at home. She transferred to GMU after two years at NOVA, and had a good education there. She took the MCAT and scored 527. She is now in her 2nd year of medical school at John Hopkins.

Curious - did Johns Hopkins accept medical school prereqs from NVCC or did your daughter need to repeat them at GMU?

[Anonymous]

I am a professor in a program that accepts a lot of CC transfer students. It has been consistently true that the transfer students are some of our best students. They are motivated, invested, and WANT to be in college. I can't say enough positive things about this group of kids.

They often complain about Gen Eds (look into that, and see if there's a way to take what transfers without them having to backtrack) and can have some blips in technical knowledge (we're a program that focuses on a particular few softwares between year 2 and 3) but that can be managed, and again, the most motivated students absolutely sail through it by learning our software and by bringing knowledge about the additional ones they've learned in CC (which we don't teach).

Congrats to your child on the start of their college career!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a professor in a program that accepts a lot of CC transfer students. It has been consistently true that the transfer students are some of our best students. They are motivated, invested, and WANT to be in college. I can't say enough positive things about this group of kids.

They often complain about Gen Eds (look into that, and see if there's a way to take what transfers without them having to backtrack) and can have some blips in technical knowledge (we're a program that focuses on a particular few softwares between year 2 and 3) but that can be managed, and again, the most motivated students absolutely sail through it by learning our software and by bringing knowledge about the additional ones they've learned in CC (which we don't teach).

Congrats to your child on the start of their college career!

I'm OP. Thank you so much for these observations. My son is a curious, good student (almost TOO curious, which is why he can't make a decision about a program) and it makes me feel good knowing these kinds of kids are recognized for that and not the fact they did the first two years somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband and his brother both did 2 years at nova and then transferred. My husband went to UVA and is now a lawyer, his brother went to VT and is now an electrical engineer. They are both outgoing and had no issue coming in half way through and had a great experience. They fully consider UVA and VT to be their colleges.

My daughter is more reserved, and would have a hard time playing social catch up...but she is a sophomore in college right now and has two friends who did some community college and still came in as freshmen and had the whole freshmen experience, just as a year older than everyone else. That might be a better path for someone who may need the social structure of freshman year.

Thank you! This is great to hear and fabulous that is worked for both schools and professions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to NOVA and got an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) before transferring to GMU as a junior. I also graduated in four years and had no challenges integrating into the four-year college experience.

OP, if this is looking like a path for you I think it's a great opportunity to test the waters for college-level courses and also to save money.

Right now it seems a lot of people are migrating to the CC experience because four years are so darned expensive.

Good luck!

Thank you! This a similar path to what we are thinking and I’m glad it worked well for you.

OP, my kid is probably not going to get into 4 yr college, so I have had to open my mind to Comm. College and possibly working for a year. But, in my searching, I found out about the NOVA/GMU "Advance" program. This is my best hope for my kid. It's not the guaranteed admission program. It's a little different. You DO NOT have to apply to GMU if you are approved for "Advance." You go to NOVA's website and they have listed about 10 different general areas (i.e. physical sciences, or IT, or education and services, etc.). Then when you pick a general area, it lists the 4-yr degrees that GMU offers within that area. So, for "physical sciences" it'll list B.S. Biology, etc., etc. Then when you pick a 4-yr degree from the listing, it will show you which NOVA degree you need to get (2 yr degree) and this is the good part: It shows you exactly which courses you will take for your 2 yrs. ALL of those courses are guaranteed to transfer to GMU AND APPLY to your 4 yr degree from GMU. PLUS, they have special counselors who will work with your kid to make sure they graduate IN 4 YEARS.

Advance program students are allowed to take some classes at GMU while most classes are at NOVA, and they have access to events, sports, facilities (i.e. like the gym) at GMU while they are NOVA Advance students. So it could be used as a bit of transition during that 2nd year at NOVA. You only have to keep a 2.0 gpa to get into Advance. Can't have more than 30 college credits to apply for Advance.

Students in "Advance" are automatically enrolled at GMU... no need to apply as a transfer. No need to deal with SAT scores.

If a student can keep up with NOVA college classes (and tbh, I don't know that my kid will), but it is a nice bridge to the 4 yr degree.

I cannot believe that I'm in this situation with my kid.... but it is what it is. Try to make the best of it.

Check out the Advance program.

I'm OP. Thank you. I'll be sure to look into that.

[Anonymous]

I actually attended community college for two years then attended UC Berkeley. I graduated with honors and went on to top 20 law school. I did it so save money, but I think I received a better education at community college rather than if I had started at UCB because the classes were smaller and actually more rigorous in the sense that I had papers due every work, more tests, etc. than my friends at UCB. Also I was actually taught by the teachers and not TAs. Perhaps it was easier to get an "A" at CC, but that works also to your advantage at CC as you won't have lower grades from the first 2 years dragging down your GPA. You graduate from university with just the gpa of the last two years at university. Hope that makes sense!

Also, two of my teachers were retired from UCB and were fantastic!! They would host parties at their homes for students and we'd get to know their families. It was a friendly "community".

I feel like Californians are FAR more comfortable with the community college to university path than DMV folk. Perhaps there is a good reason for this-- perhaps the community colleges just aren't as good as the ones in CA?


TL/DR-- I attended CC prior to university in California and have no regrets.

Hope that helps!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually attended community college for two years then attended UC Berkeley. I graduated with honors and went on to top 20 law school. I did it so save money, but I think I received a better education at community college rather than if I had started at UCB because the classes were smaller and actually more rigorous in the sense that I had papers due every work, more tests, etc. than my friends at UCB. Also I was actually taught by the teachers and not TAs. Perhaps it was easier to get an "A" at CC, but that works also to your advantage at CC as you won't have lower grades from the first 2 years dragging down your GPA. You graduate from university with just the gpa of the last two years at university. Hope that makes sense!

Also, two of my teachers were retired from UCB and were fantastic!! They would host parties at their homes for students and we'd get to know their families. It was a friendly "community".

I feel like Californians are FAR more comfortable with the community college to university path than DMV folk. Perhaps there is a good reason for this-- perhaps the community colleges just aren't as good as the ones in CA?


TL/DR-- I attended CC prior to university in California and have no regrets.

Hope that helps!

It does help! Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually attended community college for two years then attended UC Berkeley. I graduated with honors and went on to top 20 law school. I did it so save money, but I think I received a better education at community college rather than if I had started at UCB because the classes were smaller and actually more rigorous in the sense that I had papers due every work, more tests, etc. than my friends at UCB. Also I was actually taught by the teachers and not TAs. Perhaps it was easier to get an "A" at CC, but that works also to your advantage at CC as you won't have lower grades from the first 2 years dragging down your GPA. You graduate from university with just the gpa of the last two years at university. Hope that makes sense!

Also, two of my teachers were retired from UCB and were fantastic!! They would host parties at their homes for students and we'd get to know their families. It was a friendly "community".

I feel like Californians are FAR more comfortable with the community college to university path than DMV folk. Perhaps there is a good reason for this-- perhaps the community colleges just aren't as good as the ones in CA?


TL/DR-- I attended CC prior to university in California and have no regrets.

Hope that helps!

You’re right about DMV folk - it’s a status thing. Snobs.

At least in Virginia, the community college system is first rate. People here just don’t realize it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually attended community college for two years then attended UC Berkeley. I graduated with honors and went on to top 20 law school. I did it so save money, but I think I received a better education at community college rather than if I had started at UCB because the classes were smaller and actually more rigorous in the sense that I had papers due every work, more tests, etc. than my friends at UCB. Also I was actually taught by the teachers and not TAs. Perhaps it was easier to get an "A" at CC, but that works also to your advantage at CC as you won't have lower grades from the first 2 years dragging down your GPA. You graduate from university with just the gpa of the last two years at university. Hope that makes sense!

Also, two of my teachers were retired from UCB and were fantastic!! They would host parties at their homes for students and we'd get to know their families. It was a friendly "community".

I feel like Californians are FAR more comfortable with the community college to university path than DMV folk. Perhaps there is a good reason for this-- perhaps the community colleges just aren't as good as the ones in CA?


TL/DR-- I attended CC prior to university in California and have no regrets.

Hope that helps!

I was so happy to read this, I had a similar experience as well! Not in CA but the smaller classes were definitely more rigorous than University to be honest.

[Anonymous]

A 527 MCAT is really rare IMO, very impressive. Good for your daughter!

[Anonymous]

I can't speak on DMV area community colleges, but I went to one in Washington and then transferred to the University of Washington seamlessly after two years and graduated from there two years later. The reason I did this was because I had my heart set on getting a degree from UW, but I did not have the money to afford four full years of tuition + room and board there (and it was not commutable from my parents' house) without taking out a big loan. Academically, it was AWESOME. All of my best professors were at the 2 year, not UW, and I really thrived with the small classes in a way that I do not think I would have had I started at UW. They were 100% focused on teaching and we got so much personal attention. I honestly felt OVERprepared for my UW classes. Now, granted, I was a political science and Spanish major, so nothing too specialized. I do think for highly specialized/technical fields like engineering you will probably need to be more strategic about your plan.

Socially: At most big state schools, you will have tons and tons of students transferring in from CCs or other schools as juniors. There were a lot of social events, services, etc. to integrate transfers into the campus so it wasn't a huge issue for me to meet new people and make friends. No, I didn't get the traditional "freshman" experience but whatever -- graduating with ~$30k in loans (vs. the ~$75k I would've had had I started at UW) was totally worth it. Plus it is cool because in CC, I met all sorts of people with totally unique life paths...parents, second career types, fresh out of high schoolers like me, veterans, etc. which I would not have gotten if I'd have gone to UW to begin with. It is different, but no less valuable than getting "lit" (as PP put it) in a freshman dorm with a bunch of 18 year olds.

Hope that helps!