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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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? 
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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.  
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