Transfering to a 4-year college after community colleg?

[tbb113]

Okay, my son (a HS junior) is probably going to go to the local community college for his freshman year because of his current HS grades. While this wasn't my original plan (or his), reality rules!

Do you know if the colleges will still look at his HS grades when he goes to transfer? Will he still need to retake the classes that he has a 'D' in over the summer/next year. I know that he would if he was trying to go directly as a freshman but I'm not so sure know.

I will also follow up with his HS Counselor (yes, we still have them at his HS :) ). Also, is he better off going to a community college in the state that he wants to go to school in or does it not matter?

[donleyk]

Also, is he better off going to a community college in the state that he wants to go to school in or does it not matter?

FWIW...Here in Ohio they are really gearing up the CC's so that the credits transfer to other Ohio 4 year colleges. I know that's not much help.

[Gumbeaux]

Also, is he better off going to a community college in the state that he wants to go to school in or does it not matter?

In my state a lot of the Jr. colleges have connections with four year instituions in the state so that all of the credits and courses taken will transfer seamlessly.

[gracey]

We have friends whose son was in the same situation. While looking at both, the admissions counselor put much more weight on his performance at the community college. He worked much harder during the year and a half there and the improvement was noticable. He wouldn't have gotten into the university otherwise and his grades are better now because of the prep courses he took at the community college.

[Grace]

College was a long time ago for me, and I can't really answer your questions (I either don't remember, or his issues were never my issues).

What I can tell you about is what was a problem for me. I didn't know which 4 year school I would end up at after community college. Because I didn't know the 4 year school's requirements in advance, I took a lot of classes in community college that counted as electives at the 4 year school. I got credit for them (they transferred over no problem), but they didn't count toward my major in any way, so I ended up having to go to the 4 year school for an extra full semester to fulfill the curriculum requirements for my specific major, and I graduated with WAY more actual credits than one needed to graduate (which in and of itself isn't a bad thing, only I HATED school, and having to stay an extra semester was torturous not to mention more expensive).

But be forewarned also that no matter how well you plan, curriculum changes, so even if you plan today for 2 years from now, the curriculum could be different two years from now. :rolleyes:

I'm sure others with more recent experience can answer your specific questions. Good luck to you and your son in figuring all this out. I remember it was a lot of stress for me trying to figure out the hows, whys, whens, wheres (and the how much!) of everything!

[mrswaz]

Every college he transfers to will want the HS transcripts. If he switches colleges 5 times, that fifth one is still going to want the HS transcripts. If he can repair bad grades, it would still benefit him to do so.

You will want to check with your community college as far as where he could go to school after them They should be able to give you a list of colleges who will accept credit transfers from them, and then you could try planning accordingly.

[Hammster]

Have DS do the 2 year thing and get his AA from the CC. In California, they get preference when applying to UC colleges. So he could be a shoe in for a UC college once he gets his AA from the CC. UC mean University of California.
So whatever UC campus you have near you he could go to once he gets his 2 year from the CC.
And he only has to go for his last 2 years at the UC. Cool huh??
:D

[KimE]

Both of my DD's did this. We live 2 miles from a CC so it was really in their best interest, also $'s were a huge factor.
The grades really won't matter much unless they were in something he will have to test in for CC, like math for placement or english. When he transfers they will look at his CC grads & transcript.
This is the most important thing: He HAS to get his AA, not just go for 2 years then xfer!!!! Not all credit will xfer he will need to decide where he wants to go and follow very closely with the classes he will be taking.
My 2nd DD got an AA and xfered over as a Junior, my first did not, because we did not know about it and xfered only as a sophmore. HUGE mistake.
If they have an AA they usually, I say usually because different 4 yrs have different rules, but they will not have to take additional math or english core classes for their major.
Have him do his homework and check with the people at the CC he is going to but also keep a close eye on it with the xfer college.
Good Luck! It really is well worth is. It saved us and them about 40K combined :D
If you have anymore questions, just let me know
Kim E

[tbb113]

Have DS do the 2 year thing and get his AA from the CC. In California, they get preference when applying to UC colleges. So he could be a shoe in for a UC college once he gets his AA from the CC. UC mean University of California.
So whatever UC campus you have near you he could go to once he gets his 2 year from the CC.
And he only has to go for his last 2 years at the UC. Cool huh??
:D

I know that but he doesn't want to go in-state. He is interested in Oregon or Washington (I think) at the moment. I have said to him that he needs to pick what UC school he would attend and pick the CC based on that (we live close to 2 CC and not far from another 2 (that I'm not sure are as good) so he keeps his options open.

[tbb113]

The grades really won't matter much unless they were in something he will have to test in for CC, like math for placement or english. When he transfers they will look at his CC grads & transcript.
This is the most important thing: He HAS to get his AA, not just go for 2 years then xfer!!!! Not all credit will xfer he will need to decide where he wants to go

Kim - he is hoping to transfer as a sophmore after one year of CC. I understand that if he stays at the CC for 2 years, he would need to earn his AA. Currently he has 3 D's. One in sophmore english (that he can repeat either this summer or by taking British Lit as a senior), one in US History (showing up late DOES affect your grade :rolleyes: ) and one in Alegbra 2. Sad thing is that he took a practice SAT and scores decently. Not great but strong enough to get into what in my day was called a 'competitive school'. But with his grades...he isn't working up to his potential :rolleyes:

[KimE]

OK, with his D's in english & math I would suggest he take the courses this summer but still sign up and test at the CC for Fall quarter, remember the CC's fill up really quickly. He can tell them when he signs up for the classes that he is taking the summer courses and they might let him sign up for at lease a credit english & math class. Some of the really basic classes do not xfer at all.
I have 1 DD that xfered to a private college in Portland, OR. She is the one that only xfered as a sophmore and the other is going go WSU Washing State University and she is going as a Junior. At least they will both graduate the same year :rolleyes:

If he wants to xfer as a sophmore then just know he will probably have to go for a little over 4 yrs, some of my DD's friends that xfered after 1 year they took a couple of summer classes to make sure they graduated in 4 yrs.
Good luck
Kim

[sillybeans]

I don't know what the requirements are in California or other states, but here in Illinois you must have residency to be admitted to a community college (to attend one of the Chicago city colleges, you must live IN Chicago when you apply). That's definately something to consider.

General education credits most likely transfer easiest (as opposed to electives), but I think your son should probably count on the 5-year plan, or summer school, once he transfers and declares a major.

Good luck.

Tracy

[Aubergine]

first point you need to know: there are credits, and then there are credits towards a degree. they are not the same. you never "lose" the credits for any course you pass, but they may not count toward graduation at a given school with a given major.

my DS is currently a "Super Senior" (5th year) in the UCal system, and is carrying 20 credits this semester :eek: in part because he was not given graduation credit for some basic courses he took at the local CC while in HS; moreover, even though he spent a year overseas on a UCal program, he didn't get full credit towards graduation for that year.

i'd suggest talking with someone at the CC to find out what's what. at our CC, all students are required to take eng/math proficiency exams, and at least 50% of them have to take remedial courses in their first year; those do not count towards even an AA, but they can be critical to success in what college work requires.

be grateful for the CC proving-ground; we are going through this with SO's 19-y-o GS, who has found after one year that he really dislikes college, even though he wanted to be a teacher. he's now looking into law enforcement as a career. college isn't for everyone.

[Gumbeaux]

Another way to get information on transferring credits from a community college to a university is to do a Goggle search on "California Articulation System". This will give you a lot of information specific to California.

Other states have articulation websites also.

Here (http://www.cansystem.org/) is one California Articulation link to start with. The CAN Guide in Adobe Acrobat format explains everything.

[juliew]

Everyone I know that went the transfer route has ended up taking at least 4.5 years to graduate. Even when they knew where they wanted to go and what they wanted to major in, the requirements were either misinterpretted by the counselor, or were changed.

I would say, at least in IL, the transfers to a 4 year school from a community college would require less red-tape than an out of state school. Most of the Universities are familiar with the community colleges. For example, I had a generic econ course I took one summer and the CC knew exactly which of their courses I needed to take and I had zero problems transferring the one course.

The possible down side to going to a CC out of state (and probably a biggy) is that as far as I know CC don't usually have dorms. I couldn't imagine how much additional stress there would be trying to both live on one's own in an unfamiliar place (I am assuming this would be the case) and try to excel in academics when he already was having issues.

[tbb113]

I agree about the out of state community college. Since personal responsibilty (waking up, moving out the door, doing homework) is his downfall, I wouldn't send him away if I could help it. Was just curious if anybody knew the transfer rate from one state's cc to another private/public college. He does have time to think about this since he is a Junior...but time is running out for him and he does need to decide what classes (if any) he is going to retake.

The counselors come and talk to them in the beginning of March about classes for next year. After he comes, I will follow up with him and my son.

[colleency]

Everybody else pretty much said this, but my advice:

1. If he ends up being in CC for two years, get the AA.
2. Before starting at the CC, make sure you know requirements of his degree and what they accept from CC for transfers. There are classes that are requirements that sometimes don't transfer.
3. CCs charge a LOT more for out of state students. Do universities? If they do, maybe he can establish residency while going to CC. Maybe out-of-state is cheaper at CC. I believe it takes one year to establish residency.
4. Starting at CC generally takes longer than straight through university, but many times this can be fixed with really thorough research. Try to talk to counselors at high school, CC, and university. Maybe you can save some trouble.

And some things that no one's mentioned:
5. The culture of CC is VERY much like high school. He may not get very motivated to do things on his own...like get to class on time.
6. Some CCs (at least as of 6 years ago) in CA have a special program, but he would have to work his butt off beyond just keeping grades up. You have to work with each teacher individually, and they give you a lot more work. Each class is worth more credits, but they are guaranteed transer to UC (which won't help out of state) and a large number of students in this program get full scholarships to the university. It was available at Cerritos College the last time I was there.

[tbb113]

Colleen - at least when I was a college student (many years ago) residency was determined by where your source of support was. So even though I had an Arizona drivers license, rented an apartment and registered to vote, I was still an out of state student since my parents lived in Illinois.

I really wish he didn't need to go this route...but I can't force him to pay attention and succeed. He now realizes I was right all a long :rolleyes:

[colleency]

Hmm. I moved to AZ to go to community college in 1986. I lived with my grandmother, but I had to work for a year to establish residency. I had, however, been living on my own for 1 1/2 years in CA. I could have been doing it wrong, and the rules have probably shifted since either one of us was in school. :) I guess counselors or younger people answering is the answer.

Btw, I couldn't stand living with my grandmother, so I moved back to CA. :o

[tbb113]

I bet it was the living on your own and not having the tuition checks coming from a bank in Illinois that made you a resident ;)

[Aubergine]

residency requirements can be complex, so please be aware of that. in the UCal system my DS has never managed to establish 'residency status,' because the requirements are beyond his ability. for example, he would only be allowed to leave the state for 2 weeks, totaL, per year. since the entire family lives on the east coast, this was preposterous.

point being, the schools aren't stupid, and it's not as simple as a driver's licence. i can't blame them; a lot of people would take advantage of it, which isn't fair to the county taxpayers.

[aggie94]

Another comment on residency, since the difference between in and out of state tuition can be extraordinary. In many states, you CAN NOT establish residency while going to school. If you start an out-of-state student, you will stay an out-of-state student no matter how long you live, work, pay taxes in the state SO LONG AS YOU ARE GOING TO SCHOOL. And many times, if the student is a dependent, his/her residency will be determined by where his source of income is. For an independent student to get in-state status, he/she pretty much has to live and work in the state for at least a year (in some states it's longer) BEFORE starting school. Once you've started, it's too late.

I used to handle residency appeals for the universities in Oregon, and I heard many a sob story, but they enforce their residency rules VERY strictly. I had one case where the rules were enforced so strictly as to deny residency to a kid who was born, raised, and had lived in Oregon his entire life (never left the state), but was solely financially dependent on his father, who divorced his mom and moved to Florida when the kid was younger. Just remember that for tuition purposes, you do not have to be a resident of ANY state.

Just a thought to keep in mind if DS is considering going to Oregon or Washington for college.

[Laura]

Tyra, there is a program that allows students in many of the western states to attend school in a different western state for 1.5 times the amount of the in-state tuition. Not all schools participate but in Colorado I know that Colorado State University does, in Washington, Washington State University does, and in Oregon, I think it is Oregon State. Schools in Wyoming, Utah, Hawaii, Idaho, and Montana participate as well. Also, some schools only offer the program for selected majors (I am pretty sure that is the situation with ASU). I will look for the information, and send you the link, but your son's school's counselor should know of the program too.