I went to both Skyline College and College of San Mateo during my one-year stay at CC before transferring to Cal (i did 60 units in one year). Must say the staff at Skyline were extremely helpful. The Honors Transfer Program is extremely legit. I really wanted to go to UCLA out of CC and the program at Skyline offers TAP (Transfer Admission Priority) which only a selective amount of CCs have. I ended up getting into all the schools I applied to and have to credit Skyline for it. FWIW, a girl in my "class" also got into Cornell.

But that being said, you also run into the bad bunches at Skyline too. There was a shooting in the parking lot the year after I left. I also hated the extremely cold weather.

cccbear04;464265 said:

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I can't remember exact numbers but every California public school student who graduates within a certain top percentile, in their class, automatically will be admitted to a UC. This is similar to the way jc transfers are determined. More than competing against every applicant to Cal you are really competing with every Cal applicant from your school.

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Really for JC transfers? That would change things I guess.

cccbear04;464265 said:

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There are a few UCs that still have it though Davis being the most prominent from what I remember. Unfortunately the transfer agreements to Cal do not exist for the average student any more. I will admit its been two years since I last payed attention to the transfer statistics.

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I remember too.

believe me it's something you would never know if you didn't ask. I was aware of the high school version and when I asked both the transfer coordinator at my school and the cal representative they both stated that something very similar was true for jc transfers. The reason of course being that if admission were strictly based on gpa and statement alone there would be a disparity in admissions due to factors like grade inflation at one jc over others in the area.

MiZery;463996 said:

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Hello

I have a family member who wants to attend a Community College for a couple of years in the Bay Area and transfer to one of the UCs. Shes currently on the East Coast.

I was wondering, what is the best CC in the Bay Area academically? Which of the colleges send most of their grads to 4 year schools after 2 years? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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I went to College of Marin but it was early 90's. At that time, Marin was sending a ton of transfers to Cal in particular. Not sure what its like now but it was awesome back then.

ShajMaster12;464105 said:

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Foothill and DeAnza. No question.

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#1 DeAnza in Cupertino
#2 Foothill in Mt. View (I think, could be Los Altos)

Both schools are highly rated, in nice areas, with nice campuses

Utexbear2;464392 said:

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I went to College of Marin but it was early 90's. At that time, Marin was sending a ton of transfers to Cal in particular. Not sure what its like now but it was awesome back then.

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My cousin's son is playing baseball there, sharing an apartment with some other players and having a great time.

93gobears;464211 said:

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I had UCSB and UCLA out of high school, but had my heart set on Cal. I saved my family a ton of money by going to DVC. Two years later I was in the Haas undergrad program. I never looked back.

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My youngest daughter was getting good grades in high school and had a good SAT score, was a National Merit and National Achievement Scholar and getting scholarship offers, but was missing a lot of school with stress related illness (and worried about the impact that would have on her grades and college applications) and was needing more sleep than high school allows and just generally not liking high school. She ended up taking the California High School Proficiency Exam, skipping would now be her senior year and is in her first year of JC instead (Ohlone College) getting straight As. She'll most likely be transferring to UC as a junior the Spring of her high school friends' freshman year and is really interested in the study abroad programs.

cccbear04;464035 said:

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I transfered to Cal 4 short years ago from Contra Costa College and found it worked out great. Its a hugely underrated JC because of it's location but its acceptance rate to Cal, while I was there, was higher than DVCs. It's a smaller school but the academics are very strong. Of course any teacher is hit or miss so no matter where you go you always gotta do your homework before you enroll.

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When I was a kid, the nickname of the place was "University of California Behind Mervyn's". Of course the Mervyn's (as well as the rest of El Portal Shopping Center) is gone or has gone way downhill.

I took one sitting of the SAT there.

Funny you say that cause my first day on campus some one told me that and said it's too bad mervyns got torn down cause now we lost our "UC" status.

Physical presence within the state solely for educational purposes does not constitute the establishment of California residence under state law, [U]regardless of the length of your stay[/U].

NONRESIDENT UNDERGRADUATES: The process of obtaining California residency for tuition purposes is extremely difficult for undergraduates with nonresident parents (this includes transfer students from community colleges and other post-secondary institutions within California). [U]Virtually all nonresident undergraduates with nonresident parents remain nonresidents for the duration of their undergraduate career at the University.[/[/U]B]

Both the above come from http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html
which needs to be read for all the details.

cccbear04;464570 said:

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Funny you say that cause my first day on campus some one told me that and said it's too bad mervyns got torn down cause now we lost our "UC" status.

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Well - I do remember at my high school, the kids planning on attending Diablo Valley College looked down on the kids planning to go to Contra Costa College. I thought it was a bit odd given that there were no admission standards for either save having a HS degree.

cccbear04;464350 said:

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believe me it's something you would never know if you didn't ask. I was aware of the high school version and when I asked both the transfer coordinator at my school and the cal representative they both stated that something very similar was true for jc transfers. The reason of course being that if admission were strictly based on gpa and statement alone there would be a disparity in admissions due to factors like grade inflation at one jc over others in the area.

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I guess that makes sense.

oskigobears;464595 said:

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Physical presence within the state solely for educational purposes does not constitute the establishment of California residence under state law, [U]regardless of the length of your stay[/U].

NONRESIDENT UNDERGRADUATES: The process of obtaining California residency for tuition purposes is extremely difficult for undergraduates with nonresident parents (this includes transfer students from community colleges and other post-secondary institutions within California). [U]Virtually all nonresident undergraduates with nonresident parents remain nonresidents for the duration of their undergraduate career at the University.[/[/U]B]

Both the above come from http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html
which needs to be read for all the details.

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So the question is, if you work, pay California taxes and attend a CC, is that "solely for educational purposes"?

calumnus;464634 said:

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So the question is, if you work, pay California taxes and attend a CC, is that "solely for educational purposes"?

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It's an interesting question - if I understand it right, if under 24, UC will ask for proof of income sufficient to FULLY support oneself, but it's a a big catch 22 because when one is going to college, there isn't always lot of extra time to work, and now most of the jobs one can get with essentially only a HS degree aren't going to pay enough to support oneself due to the cost of living in Berkeley and UC's rising tuition.

They will also check for gifts from parents/relatives or parents/relatives co-signing a loan - not sure if it's as easy as it used to be to get a no cosign loan without much of a real job.

The 'paying taxes' part of it isn't going to count for anything in UC's eyes - the amount of taxes paid by someone with a HS degree who working and going to CC is going to be far far less than the differential of non-resident tuition, and there are CA residents who have paid taxes for the entire 18 years of their kids lives, and more, that won't get into UC.

Non-resident tuition is a BIG BUSINESS to popular universities - schools like Michigan and Colorado fund a huge amount of their instate students with non-residents' money. UC knows these loopholes and is not going to make it easy to beat the system. It's definitely not going to be as easy as just taking out loans to cover the cost of living - any out of state student could do that and get residency if that's all it took to become self sufficient.

Only possible loophole that I see is setting up some kind of trust fund for your kid and having it be sufficiently large to create financial independence - but the rules say no contributions after someone is 14 years old. And even that might not fly. Also, your kid could be come a spoiled POS with that route.

But it would be a dangerous game to expect something to work out in regards to residency without asking someone at UC admissions a direct question and running through specific scenarios with them.

Santa Barbara JC has the best JC location known to man

tommie317;464794 said:

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Santa Barbara JC has the best JC location known to man

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ColoradoBear1;464676 said:

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It's an interesting question - if I understand it right, if under 24, UC will ask for proof of income sufficient to FULLY support oneself, but it's a a big catch 22 because when one is going to college, there isn't always lot of extra time to work, and now most of the jobs one can get with essentially only a HS degree aren't going to pay enough to support oneself due to the cost of living in Berkeley and UC's rising tuition.

They will also check for gifts from parents/relatives or parents/relatives co-signing a loan - not sure if it's as easy as it used to be to get a no cosign loan without much of a real job.

The 'paying taxes' part of it isn't going to count for anything in UC's eyes - the amount of taxes paid by someone with a HS degree who working and going to CC is going to be far far less than the differential of non-resident tuition, and there are CA residents who have paid taxes for the entire 18 years of their kids lives, and more, that won't get into UC.

Non-resident tuition is a BIG BUSINESS to popular universities - schools like Michigan and Colorado fund a huge amount of their instate students with non-residents' money. UC knows these loopholes and is not going to make it easy to beat the system. It's definitely not going to be as easy as just taking out loans to cover the cost of living - any out of state student could do that and get residency if that's all it took to become self sufficient.

Only possible loophole that I see is setting up some kind of trust fund for your kid and having it be sufficiently large to create financial independence - but the rules say no contributions after someone is 14 years old. And even that might not fly. Also, your kid could be come a spoiled POS with that route.

But it would be a dangerous game to expect something to work out in regards to residency without asking someone at UC admissions a direct question and running through specific scenarios with them.

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If you spend 2 years at a California JC, even paying out of state fees and then attend UC for two years, even paying out of state fees, you are still way ahead of the game. The JC to UC path is just an amazing bargain.

Don't know if you consider SC County in the greater Bay Area, but if you do, I know Cabrillo CC was ranked in the top 5 in the state when I took many fun classes post retirement there some 4 to 5 years ago. Would hope it still has that strong reputation. Then, I know it would be considered with any mentioned above, and to be less than a mile from the ocean and redwoods. Pure heaven. go Bears

I always found the arrogance of DVC students towards CCC students as completely ridiculous. As you said there are no admission differences between them and the staff is almost completely interchangeable. Every friend of mine from high school (who went to jc) went to DVC and told me they would never step foot on CCC. The only reason I can figure is the racial and socio economic differences between the two. As bad as that sounds I can't think of another reason people would drive an hour or more rather than 15 minutes for the same education.

calumnus;464815 said:

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If you spend 2 years at a California JC, even paying out of state fees and then attend UC for two years, even paying out of state fees, you are still way ahead of the game. The JC to UC path is just an amazing bargain.

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Yes that would be true in a lot of cases, depending on the quality of a person's in-state options. And especially if you want to move to CA anyway. Not sure if the easy progression from JC to UC is true for OOS students though. It would be a shame to go through it and then end up at riverside or merced. But there are a lot of **** holes in this country that people would leave for anywhere in CA.

I also transferred from DeAnza to Cal. I know that all of friends who wanted into a UC got in, and all but one got the campus of their choice.

My experience at DeAnza was great. The instructors I had were very good, and were usually very welcoming during office hours. I think that one of the great things about community college is that ability have as a student to interact with your instructors on a personal level that is very hard to get at a big institution like Cal.

At the time that I was there, DeAnza claimed to be rated the top CC in the state, and in the nation. I'm not sure what they claim these days. I'll have to check with my son. He's attending classes there now, and is eagerly (hoping with crossed fingers) awaiting receipt of that large envelope from Cal or UCLA (got to have a fallback position don't you?) sometime soon.

cccbear04;464862 said:

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I always found the arrogance of DVC students towards CCC students as completely ridiculous. As you said there are no admission differences between them and the staff is almost completely interchangeable. Every friend of mine from high school (who went to jc) went to DVC and told me they would never step foot on CCC. The only reason I can figure is the racial and socio economic differences between the two. As bad as that sounds I can't think of another reason people would drive an hour or more rather than 15 minutes for the same education.

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Its not arrogance, DVC = safe place to go to school. CCC = not safe to go to school. I grew up in Richmond, I know CCC very well..had friends go there. One of those friends was shot and killed at CCC. Its located in an absolutely terrible part of town. I'm actually amazed you can't see that for yourself...the appeal of DVC over going to CCC. It has nothing to do with race. Yes, my safety is worth driving 30-40 mins to DVC vs 10 to CCC. Personally me and 2 friends carpooled from Richmond to Pleasant Hill..so money wasn't a big thing split 3 ways.

MiZery;463996 said:

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Hello

I have a family member who wants to attend a Community College for a couple of years in the Bay Area and transfer to one of the UCs. Shes currently on the East Coast.

I was wondering, what is the best CC in the Bay Area academically? Which of the colleges send most of their grads to 4 year schools after 2 years? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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UC and the CSU systems have a guaranteed transfer program in place. Last I checked, Cal and fUCLA don't participate. If you are willing to go to another UC though, check out the program. As long as you take the required courses, maintain your GPA and are willing to transfer to a select list of majors its a good way to move to a UC. I think you need to get your AA as well.