[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by New Era

Yes, they are called admission requirements for a reason. You meet them, or you don't get in. Just because you complete an associates at a community college does not mean you get accepted into the university. You still must meet admission requirements, then meet the pre-requisites for any class in your declared major. So even if you graduated from a community college, with an associates degree, and they have articulation agreements in place, there is no guarantee you are getting into the school or the major of your choice, and even if you do, you may have to repeat those lower division courses to up the GPA to meet requisites of the major.

Do you have first hand knowledge of this or are you just going by what you've researched? I've helped people work through these decisions. My knowledge is strictly for Virginia, so I have no idea how universal it is. The state runs the community college system and runs the Universities. When you sign up to take a transfer eligible 2 year degree, you know exactly where you stand for the various schools. They will tell you which degrees at which universities that particular associates degree will be honored at and what grades you need to achieve to be guaranteed admission. You meet those requirements, you get enrolled and have basically taken all the 100 and 200 level courses that the people who started at the university took. There is a wide matrix of which degrees will transfer where, and which degrees will give you options if you don't know what you want to major in in two years.

Community college is traditionally for students who are not prepared for university. Whether that means needing to take a series of dev ed classes to improve basic skills in areas like math and english, or just get good enough grades to earn entry into a four year program, community college is an option for those who do not earn entry into the university of their choice.

There is going to be a whole wide range of students and reasons they are there. The two year transfer programs are generally pretty academically minded students though. There is a wide range of smart kids whose parents are saving money, kids who couldn't get into the college of their choice. To get into UVA, you need about a 4.3 GPA and 1400+ on your SAT. Are you going to call a kid with a 4.0 GPA and 1300 on his SAT a guy who needs dev ed classes work on his basic math and English skills if he chooses a CC path to try to get into UVA?

I'm a big advocate of community college for a number of reasons, and saving money is one of them, but going to community college does not properly prepare a student for the learning style required to be successful in university. Community college still has small class sizes, a lot of instructor interaction and tutoring, and a style of teaching and learning more in alignment with that of high school. The exposure to classes over 30 is limited, so the concept of sitting in a lecture theater with 250 other students and being a self-starter is greatly limited. Once a student transfers, there is a significant adjustment period which the student still must go through.

Community might be a more gentle transition from high school for a lot of people though. They are not going to baby sit you but you do have access to someone who is likely more accessibly and more interested in teaching. The giant lecture classes are mostly first and second year classes anyway. I did well enough in those classes, but I usually did it by reading on my own, and slept through a good chunk of the actual lectures. I got pretty much nothing out of any of my first year professors.

Your guidance counselors are spinning you a massive line of misinformation. Considering that a massive number of students who enroll in community college never get out of community college (70+%), or earn the grades for admission to a four year school, the numbers are not in favor of that statement. National Center for Education Statistics show that students who graduate from community college see only a 13% success rate of earning a baccalaureate degree in the next two years of attendance at a four year institution. The numbers rise to 22% and 28% respectively for years three and four at the four year institution. Only 60% of students who went to a community college will earn a degree in the next six years!

Her numbers were specific to VA Community college transfer programs and I have no reason to doubt them.

Community college is a stepping stone for students that need remedial classes and to prepare for university. It is not a pathway to success if the student is already prepared for university as it tends to cause the bright students to regress to the mean. If a student proves they are ready coming out of high school, through appropriate measures, they should go to university and get on with meeting the requisites of their degree from the institution they hope to earn their degree from.

That rings as more dated stigma than current reality, at least in this state.