Community College discussion

[Sarahfeena]

@Dangerosa

You DO have to be cautious however. Not everything may count - particularly if you are heading toward engineering requirements. If staying instate - from the state CC to the stat university, most states will have a map between their CC programs and their BA programs - so you know what you need to take at the four year school and what you can take at the cheaper CC. I know a number of people who ended up on the five year plus program - having taken the wrong CC courses.

That’s exactly right…that’s why it’s a good idea to get in touch with the admissions department of the university you want to transfer to, to find out which classes will meet the requirements.

Also, in Minnesota, the difference between the Twin Cities CCs and the UofMN courses in terms of work, competition, and curving can be fairly drastic (depending on the program) and you can establish sloppy study skills.

I found that my CC classes WERE relatively easy for me, but it’s hard to say how much easier it was than Illinois, since all my classes at my CC were 100 & 200-level classes, and most of my classes at Illinois were 300 & 400-level classes. I think it is important to remember that switching from lower-level classes at a CC to higher-level classes at a university can be a little bit of a shock in terms of the jump in difficulty…my grades for my first semester at Illinois were not too great, and I had to really buckle down after that.

Finally, not all four year schools have a lot of room for transfer students, so you need to be aware that your first choice four year school may still not accept you after two years.

That’s true, too…another good thing to find out from the admissions department is what your chances of getting accepted are, and what kind of GPA they will be looking for.

[Dangerosa]

@Sarahfeena

I found that my CC classes WERE relatively easy for me, but it’s hard to say how much easier it was than Illinois, since all my classes at my CC were 100 & 200-level classes, and most of my classes at Illinois were 300 & 400-level classes. I think it is important to remember that switching from lower-level classes at a CC to higher-level classes at a university can be a little bit of a shock in terms of the jump in difficulty…my grades for my first semester at Illinois were not too great, and I had to really buckle down after that.

My own experience is that I took a handful of CC courses as a high school senior, then moved to the University of Iowa and almost immediately to the University of Minnesota - so I was taking Freshman level courses at all three schools - now I’m going to Metropolitan State - a State College.

The Freshman level courses at CC were significantly easier than the same level/similar sorts of courses at the Big 10 schools. But fairly on par with the State College.

I’m sure that you can go to “Low Expectation State Junior College” and the same type of courses at Harvard or MIT are much harder. I’m also fairly sure that the difference between a good CC and many four year colleges (both state and private) is practically nothing - and in some cases the CC offers a superior education.

[Shecky]

I got 2 associates at community college. When I went to the first university, I was treated like a number, and had classes that were easily 60-100 kids each. The second university was a small private one, and I found that I’m running into all my old CC teachers!

I’m incredibly pleased that I only paid about 4000 total for the same education these spoiled brats are getting for 23000 a year. On top of it, I actually found the CC to be HARDER than either university I attended. Hell, I learned more in the computers classes there than when I went to tech school 2 years prior!