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There's nothing wrong with going to a community college, it basically lets you take all the bullshit first 2 year courses (electives and CORE shit like English, history, writing, speech, w/e) at 1/5 the price of a good university.
She's actually saving your family (and herself) thousands of dollars. Also, MOST community colleges have special programs for transfer for in-state universities. So a CC transferree with 3.5 gpa will have higher priority than a random high schooler with 4.0 gpa and they also guarantee that most of your credits will transfer.
So the kids who are in community college are the ones who A) don't have the grades/test scores to get into a better university or B) are too lazy to get a job to afford a better university.
That's quite condescending and not true at all. A lot of people are there just to save money, because it doesn't really matter where you get your first 2 years since it's all gen ed 100-200 level courses anyway. Kids getting a job to afford a better university? What job is a 18-19 year old going to have that's going to pay for "a better university" while also being a full time student?
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On October 12 2009 08:06 zoLo wrote:
You don't know what you're talking about vAltyR and itzme_petey since half your posts are old stereotypes of community colleges.
Based on her grades, school standing, and high SAT scores; it is better that she go to a 4 year university.
I understand that she wants to save money. I agree that it will cost less (out of pocket, assuming no grants/financial aid) to go to a CC instead of a 4-year university. However, the only reason she will not have money to go to a 4-year is because she wants to go to an out of state school. That is honestly the biggest underlying problem. A 4-year in-state university will not cost that much more than a CC.
If she is determined to go CC then out of state route. Heres what she can do.
1. Apply to Houston Community College
2. Speak with counselors to ensure that her credits will transfer to California's education system
3. Certain basic courses are required in Texas but not in California (Texas requires American history as well as Government, not sure if California is the same)
4. Take as many placement tests and AP tests as possible (Im assuming she is still a senior in HS)
5. Transfer those credits into Houston CC and from there to California
Hopefully she can cut down 1 year of CC and transfer to Cal.
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The financial reasons should not be a big issue if she is a strong student, even going to a 4 year university. IIRC, my university gives half tuition for 2000+ SAT or 30+ ACT (not positive on numbers, but it is not high at all) and that is set-in-stone merit-based scholarship. Not taking the SAT is a huge mistake, because that will completely limit her options. She should at least prepare for it a little and take it to see how she does because many colleges have online scholarship estimators or set-in-stone scholarships based on such scores and having that SAT score let her decide later if a CC is something she really wants to do or if she wants to attend a 4 year university because they promise to give her a significant amount of money for her SAT score instead of forcing the CC option. In addition to the scholarship aid, the amount of financial aid you can get can surprise you. For example, two of my friends who are currently attending the University of Texas are paying nothing and under 5k a year, and they're not even extremely poor (it even surprised them). There's enough scholarship opportunities out there (even small ones on fastweb.com if you can't land big ones). The scholarships coupled with the financial aid should almost nullify the financial problem completely. You'd be surprised at how much scholarship Universities like A&M, Baylor, and other non UT/Rice Texas universities will give you.
IMO, if she can get satisfactory scholarships to attend a 4 year college in California right away, she should, but if she still is short financially, then it's not worth going through two years of CC just to get there. I know that you should choose your university based on where you want to live for the next four years of your life, but giving up two years of the great experiences of a 4 year college that a CC lacks (university activities, living in a dorm, just having fun) in order to achieve that final dream college is not worth it since she has other options. Yes, the basic classes are the same, but college isn't one of the most memorable experience of one's life just because of what you learn there. She shouldn't limit herself to just California and accept the options that her grades grant her instead of going to both extremes (one extreme being straight up attending it since she has enough money, and the other one being dropping down to a CC just to attend that on college). Texas public schools are required to accept the top 10% automatically, and she would easily get into any public school she wanted here in Texas (and there are great schools here in texas). Why not try attending an in state university that you can easily afford? I was offered 100k to go to an out of state university, but I still would have ended up paying 7k/year despite that, whereas that money in a Texas school would've been more than enough for everything (Texas public schools average like 7-8k/year for tuition only). While it may seem like I'm dissing the CC's, it's true from my experience and those of others that CC's lack a lot of the great experience of attending a 4 year university. Giving that up due to financial reasons spawned from nostalgia is not worth it IMO.
As for the undecided major reason, that shouldn't matter at all. Many people attend 4 year universities and are undecided for a long time. No matter what college you go to, your first couple years will be fulfilling basic requirements common to all majors, and you can use that time to decide. If anything larger universities have more opportunities for research and interactive learning that will help you decide what direction you want to go. It should only factor in a little if you have existing financial problems, and I like mentioned above, they won't exist if you take the SAT's, and if they do, you have ways around them that are better than going to a CC.
I'm sorry if my post is a bunch of garbled nonsense and I seem to jump to baseless conclusions because it's 2 AM here and I'm extremely tired.
In summary, people go to CC's because a) not enough money for initial choice, and b) not enough grades for initial choice. People go to 4 year universities right away over transferring from CC's because they want to enjoy college to its fullest and there are more extracurricular things to do. Besides taking the SATs, regardless of what she wants to do, the first thing do is decide if she's truly willing to give up that 'fun' part of a 4 year university for two years to attend her ideal school. It should be this factor and pretty much this factor alone that decides her path. Financial problems should not exist (and if they do, then going in state while giving up her ideal school will solve it, which, IMO is worth it), and academic reasons obviously don't exist.
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She isn't too big on the whole social thing, so i don't think that wil be a huge factor in her decision, although i could easily see her changing that, she looks fine and could easily make friends.
I don't think she's going to take many AP tests. Although i don't know , she might have been studying during the summer or something, i gave her my old AP study books.
To be honest , with FASFA and scholarships, an in-state university would probably be cheaper than a CC for her, at least i would think so.
Speak with counselors to ensure that her credits will transfer to California's education system
She's gonna talk with some people this week, i'll tell her to mention that.
You'd be surprised at how much scholarship Universities like A&M, Baylor, and other non UT/Rice Texas universities will give you.
lol i'll look into A&M, Def. not Baylor though, she tried medical (went to this academy for 2 years and didn't like it).
Hopefully we can just knock out the whole financial deal, i know i was pleasantly surprised when i saw my tuition last year.
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EPT
