My daughter went to Berkeley City College for a year. Your kid can move out and still go to cc.
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It sounds like this one weird trick only works for really good public universities. Ain’t nobody going from CC to Princeton. At least I don’t think they are, but If I’m wrong, let me know.
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You’re not lying. Honest to god, AP classes at my HS were like shaolin training, what the hell was that.
Could be. I went to Really Good Public U after doing some intro classes as Kinda Good Local U; no idea how the ivy leagues operate. You don’t want to send your kid to Harvard anyway, she might end up like John Yoo or Mat Iglesias.
a big story at my hs were a couple of teachers who went MCC to harvard, then back to teaching
Well I guess it can be done then.
I’ve taken Calc 101 several times (not for failing, just different schools). The difference in teachers can be huge and you’ll be helped immensely if you get a good one, but I wouldn’t say your odds of finding the best teacher are better at a “good” school vs a cc. Same with physics.
MMMV but I found that CS classes were better at my 4 year college. The CS classes at my CC even had some excellent teachers but the curriculum was just so basic compared to the 4 year program.
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My calc class sucked at UCSD (teacher from China with bad accent unfamiliar with teaching US university students), but I did have two-year Great Books sequence taught by some excellent “famous” professors. I also took lower-level classes in my majors, which allowed me to meet people and get to know some of the professors I wanted to take higher-level classes from (and who ultimately wrote letters of rec, etc).
After my first two years at UC, I felt I was on track to be successful at upper division and grad school. I also knew that UCs were sink or swim and the level of work expected. If I had come in my third year I don’t think I would have known what’s going on or how the system works. I think the CC to UC route can be a solid option, but I don’t think it’s all plusses.
I know a guy who went from HS dropout, to CC, to Univ. of British Columbia, to Harvard Law, but he’s a pretty weird dude.
That’s very believable though. Law School is just a numbers game. Just crush LSAT and ~4.0 GPA at a decent uni will get you in to HLS.
You spelled poors wrong.
Well, that is most families.
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The CC to UC thing is basically implemented into CA law via the education masterplan. They may do something similar in NY, but every state system would differ on that point. Ivys, I think, want you to be a Yale Man or Princeton Man the entire time, especially the first two “impressionable” years.
You think an intro class like that is going to be better at a mega school? You’re probably learning it from a 1st or 2nd year grad student who speaks English as a 2nd language and cheated on the TOEFL.
Parents paying for 4 year college seems to mostly about having the extremely fun independent living and partying experience that the parents had and they want their kids to have that too. It’s not because you’re getting a better education, especially in the first year or two. At large state schools you’re taking a ton of GenEds in massive auditoriums where you can just get notes from other people, it’s a joke
Let’s face it: if you don’t have a 5.0 GPA, the poshest condo, a Mercedes gullwing, $5M liquid before your 21st birthday, 99.99th percentile test scores, the biggest dick, and weren’t the fake captain of your high school crew team, you’re fucking nobody and don’t deserve to get into any name schools.
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There’s just a broad a range. My 120 person intro logic class was taught by a great McArthur Award winning professor. My intro to sociology class was like 300 people and taught by a great prof. The “small sections” were with grad students and were hit or miss. You can see which classes are good at a UC via various sources (even pre-internet a must-buy every year was the student course eval book). Into to chem and bio were good classes, and I took some non-intro courses my first couple of years.
Also, say you want to do comp sci. The first two years will be designed to prep you for what they expect at upper level. I would be very nervous about entering upper division physics or engineering classes at a UC from a CC.
That was like 30 years ago.
Yes, and this specific professor didn’t do logic as part of her research work. She just taught the class because she had it dialed in, with a folder for each lecture, etc. Not much new in logic as of late.
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I do think that with education, provided there’s a decent standard of rigor and the right books assigned, it’s basically up to the student. You can get a great education like Abe Lincoln reading law books under a tree. If you read, attend, think about the subject, and work.
My brother dropped out of HS, worked for 5 years, went to a JC, transferred to a cal state, graduated in comp sci at like 29, programmed for an on-base military contractor for a couple of years, then got a masters in comp sci at a cal state, then took a programming job at Raytheon like 10 years ago, and now he’s a fairly senior programmer in charge of real stuff. He started programming when he was like 10 though, had rough teen years from “real” ADD, and he’s “gotten ahead” to the extent he has by being a guy people can dump hard problems on and he’ll solve them.
My point is things are way different now. Aunt Becky paid 500 large to get her influencer faildaughters into [checks notes] the University of Southern California. Have you seen what graduate school entrance exams and admissions look like (not LSAT) now compared to 15 years ago? It’s dire. There are a relatively fixed number of coveted things (prestigious American universities), and everyone wants those things, except “everyone” now includes booming China and India. I’d have to recheck the numbers, but I think China alone has more takes on GMAT and maybe GRE than any country by a significant margin.