Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 11:10     Subject: Community college ——-> University path
Anonymous wrote:For a variety of reasons, it’s looking as if going to community college then transferring to a four-year university may be the best path for my child. If your kid has done this, could you share your experiences, tips, advice? (Please only your own family’s experiences, not what you’ve heard from or observed in others.)

I'm also disregarding your request because it's my own experience, not my child's, but I think it might help.

I have posted on this before. I went to Santa Barbara City College for not two but three years, and got a degree in graphic communications. I worked and lived at home.

I transferred to UCLA and lived in a room in someone's house the first year, then in someone's garage for the rest of the time. It took me three more years because at the time the general education requirements for each UC was different, and I had done the requirements for UCSB, not UCLA, so had to take extra classes.

I graduated summa cum laude, did a couple of internships in DC, and then went to Harvard Law School. (Then into BigLaw yada yada)

I had no money and no hooks. My mom had remarried when I was at UCLA, and it blew my financial aid, but my stepfather stepped up and compensated. So I did always have my food/housing taken care of, but other than that, I was really scraping by and often didn't eat until I got home so as not to spend $ on food on campus.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 11:09     Subject: Re:Community college ——-> University path
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.


Some colleges provide housing options just for transfer students to help with that integration into the new school.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 11:06     Subject: Community college ——-> University path
Anonymous wrote:My daughter is doing this right now. For a variety of physical and mental health reasons, going to a 4-year university, especially away from home, was not a good option for her, so she enrolled at Montgomery College. She was in their program that provides automatic admission to UMD (as long as certain requirements are met).

She just got her acceptance to UMD and will be there this fall. The transfer process has been very easy to navigate.

I don't have any experience about managing at a 4-year institution, since she's not there yet. I do have a few concerns (her health issues are much better but not completely resolved), but UMD is close enough that she can keep her regular doctors and we can provide support as needed.


The one thing that I will add is that she's had some great professors at MC - smart and really dedicated to teaching.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 11:05     Subject: Community college ——-> University path
Anonymous wrote:The primary suggestion I would give is to avoid taking community college courses as prerequisites for more advanced classes in a major area. Depending on the community college, classes sometimes are less rigorous tha their counterparts at a four year university.

Community college is great for taking care of “distributive requirements” or whatever they may be called at a given university. A person who plans to major in literature, for example, probably could take care of math and science requirements at the community college.


Interesting that you say this. I have a cousin and a niece who teach both at CC and four year institutions. They teach the exact same classes at both with the exact same content. Both say they don’t understand why people pay four year school prices for classes they can get at a CC.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 11:04     Subject: Re:Community college ——-> University path
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.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 11:02     Subject: Community college ——-> University path
My daughter is doing this right now. For a variety of physical and mental health reasons, going to a 4-year university, especially away from home, was not a good option for her, so she enrolled at Montgomery College. She was in their program that provides automatic admission to UMD (as long as certain requirements are met).

She just got her acceptance to UMD and will be there this fall. The transfer process has been very easy to navigate.

I don't have any experience about managing at a 4-year institution, since she's not there yet. I do have a few concerns (her health issues are much better but not completely resolved), but UMD is close enough that she can keep her regular doctors and we can provide support as needed.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 11:02     Subject: Community college ——-> University path
I know of 3-4 Eastern bloc immigrants who went from a a specific community college in Florida then transferred to Harvard undergrad in the 2000s. And I think quite a few more ended up at other Ivies.

It was definitely a well-known path in that community. It was easier to get a student visa to the community college, if you were coming in from overseas. These kids were all really smart and basically immigrating to the US on their own at age 19. Pretty crazy.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 10:59     Subject: Community college ——-> University path
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If the end goal is a BA at a state flagship, make school his job. If you want he to get the grades for admission, don't make him hold down a full time job as well or let him hang out with his buddies constantly. The CC-->university path is pretty risky because if they fall off track they end up with an associates degree and a tough time applying for college


Thanks for the good advice re: working and hanging. I don’t understand your last sentence, though. Is it harder to transfer to a four-year college with an associates? I thought that was a requirement for some of the guaranteed admission programs?


pp here, if he starts bombing at CC, transferring with a terrible GPA into a good program is going to be an uphill battle


Ah, I see. Thanks.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 10:55     Subject: Re:Community college ——-> University path
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.


Wow! Thank you for replying. Well done to your daughter!
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 10:52     Subject: Community college ——-> University path
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If the end goal is a BA at a state flagship, make school his job. If you want he to get the grades for admission, don't make him hold down a full time job as well or let him hang out with his buddies constantly. The CC-->university path is pretty risky because if they fall off track they end up with an associates degree and a tough time applying for college


Thanks for the good advice re: working and hanging. I don’t understand your last sentence, though. Is it harder to transfer to a four-year college with an associates? I thought that was a requirement for some of the guaranteed admission programs?


pp here, if he starts bombing at CC, transferring with a terrible GPA into a good program is going to be an uphill battle
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 10:50     Subject: Re:Community college ——-> University path
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.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 10:47     Subject: Community college ——-> University path
Anonymous wrote:If the end goal is a BA at a state flagship, make school his job. If you want he to get the grades for admission, don't make him hold down a full time job as well or let him hang out with his buddies constantly. The CC-->university path is pretty risky because if they fall off track they end up with an associates degree and a tough time applying for college


Thanks for the good advice re: working and hanging. I don’t understand your last sentence, though. Is it harder to transfer to a four-year college with an associates? I thought that was a requirement for some of the guaranteed admission programs?
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 10:43     Subject: Community college ——-> University path
If the end goal is a BA at a state flagship, make school his job. If you want he to get the grades for admission, don't make him hold down a full time job as well or let him hang out with his buddies constantly. The CC-->university path is pretty risky because if they fall off track they end up with an associates degree and a tough time applying for college
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 10:36     Subject: Re:Community college ——-> University path
Anonymous wrote:Hey OP do you mind telling us which CC you are considering for your child? Is it NVCC or MC for instance? You might have more people sharing their experience if you tell us which one your child is considering
Each community college has articulation agreements with specific 4 year universities For instance, MC has articulation agreements with UMD, Towson etc and even Georgetown. For UMD, you are guaranteed admission as long as you have an Associates degree and meet the GPA cutoff. I don’t remember what it is - it might be 3.0. Most students earn an Associates degree in a specific discipline (eg Business) and take care of most of their distributional requirements as well as intro classes and prerequisites before they transfer
If you want to attend a “limited enrollment program “ at UMD (think Engineering, Nursing, Business), admission is not guaranteed. You have to get top grades, good recommendations, strong ECs etc.
While it is very competitive to get into a LEP at the flagship state university, it is easier to get into these programs at Shady Grove for instance and the student experience at Shady grove is great as is their job placement.
What else did you want to know?
The California poster had some great insights into the educational experience- small class sizes, committed professors etc.
Tell us a little more about what you are interested in learning


Hi, I’m OP. It would be NVCC. Part of the reason my son is considering it is has no idea what he wants to study. It could be government, it could be chemistry, it could be music. He’d interested in a ton of stuff. (His grades are respectable in all areas and he’s taking honors/AP courses, so that’s not an issue.) He says he wants to pick a college based on a specific program, rather than picking a school then being limited to the programs they have.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2021 10:36     Subject: Re:Community college ——-> University path
Anonymous wrote:Hey OP do you mind telling us which CC you are considering for your child? Is it NVCC or MC for instance? You might have more people sharing their experience if you tell us which one your child is considering
Each community college has articulation agreements with specific 4 year universities For instance, MC has articulation agreements with UMD, Towson etc and even Georgetown. For UMD, you are guaranteed admission as long as you have an Associates degree and meet the GPA cutoff. I don’t remember what it is - it might be 3.0. Most students earn an Associates degree in a specific discipline (eg Business) and take care of most of their distributional requirements as well as intro classes and prerequisites before they transfer
If you want to attend a “limited enrollment program “ at UMD (think Engineering, Nursing, Business), admission is not guaranteed. You have to get top grades, good recommendations, strong ECs etc.
While it is very competitive to get into a LEP at the flagship state university, it is easier to get into these programs at Shady Grove for instance and the student experience at Shady grove is great as is their job placement.
What else did you want to know?
The California poster had some great insights into the educational experience- small class sizes, committed professors etc.
Tell us a little more about what you are interested in learning


The above is really important when your student is thinking about a path to a 4 year degree. Check out the agreements the CC has with BA-granting colleges and universities. Students may need to take certain classes, in addition to the GPA requirement, to qualify.