Comments on: ‘Waste of time’: Community college transfers derail students

By: Andrew Lars Ekstrom

Andrew Lars Ekstrom — Sun, 21 May 2023 15:04:41 +0000

1) The article refers to community colleges as a waste of time and focuses mostly on California. There is more to the country than CA.

2) Community colleges offer classes that are career prep and or remedial. These types of classes rarely ever transfer. If the lowest class your university offers in math is say Pre-calc, all the courses a student takes at a community college to get ready for pre-calc will not transfer. So sorry, your hs level pre-algebra, algebra 1 and 2 won’t make the cut.

3) I tell my students to take 60cr of classes that transfer into their program of choice, not the university. You might need to take 80cr at the comm coll, but, starting as a Junior is worth it.

4) Some community college class are harder than university classes because they will have 1 course that covers everything at all the other universities. University students might do a selection 10 chapters from a book. The comm coll will do 12 chapter from that same book, just so the class transfers everywhere.

5) Some universities have really dumb transfer policies. In my state, Wayne State University used to deny transfer of all foreign language classes. One friend took 4 semesters of Spanish in comm coll and spoke Arabic natively at home. She was told her 4 classes didn’t count and she needed to retake a foreign language! A coworker took enough Japanese to have a minor in it from another university, transferred to WSU and was denied any of it. He was told he needed to start over. Both took a language 101 class and quit.

6) When it comes to classes at most comm college vs universities, you can use the same book, same material sometimes even the same prof. Trying to claim the comm coll was inferior to get more money out of students clearly doesn’t work. If most students drop out, the university wasted time and money of the student, money from the govt, and failed to get all the money it could have.

By: Edmund Chun

Edmund Chun — Thu, 04 May 2023 00:24:15 +0000

The first hit of my Google search “california community college transfer courses” was the Assist site.

Why does a long article about CA transfers cite a small dual enrollment program in Virginia between one 4 year college and one community college but completely ignores CA’s robust Assist program (https://assist.org/) which features transfer agreements and direct course articulation between all CA CCCs, CSUs, and UCs? This is the agreement for Chemistry between Columbia College and CSU Bakersfield: https://assist.org/transfer/report/26512541
Here it is for music:
https://assist.org/transfer/report/26512518

It took me 2 minutes on the Assist site to pull down both reports.

By: Giovanni Magginetti

Giovanni Magginetti — Tue, 02 May 2023 23:57:18 +0000

Thank you Rachael Harralson! This article was extremely skewed against the CC system. I am shocked to hear that half of all students lose transfer classes. So much so I’d loves citation since none are provided in this article that makes me question the validity of this article. I’d also like to mention that the one in seven don’t get a bachelors… most CC students don’t WANT a bachelors. They are mostly CTE students getting degrees in dental hygiene or mortuary science or automotive tech or aviation or or or… many things! I would also mention every CC needs to do their Student Learning Outcomes to transfer. Some colleges do better than others. My CC I work at is number one in the state at transferable classes. While I’d much prefer a college system more like Canada’s, this is the system we have and students have to choose their classes and colleges carefully, just like they need to choose four year colleges carefully. It matters where you go, and students should already know that IMO.

By: William Zhang

William Zhang — Tue, 02 May 2023 20:19:56 +0000

Still saved a few thousand bucks and a few credits, pity you lost a year from bad transfer advising

By: Rachael Harralson

Rachael Harralson — Tue, 02 May 2023 18:16:21 +0000

California State colleges and UC has a guaranteed admission program for community college students and no one looks down on them. What’s more likely is either the students did not make sure a class would transfer before, expected too many credits to transfer or the “not transferring” classes are because of major requirements, not general education requirements. A college degree is worth something and students need to be willing to work for it and pay for it. The article does not say if the extra year the students spent meant it took 3, 4 or 5 years to graduate. However it’s very reasonable to expect it to take at least 2 years to complete a degree at a Cal State or UC after community college. Those colleges are right to ensure that students starting at community college earned the same degree as students who attended 4 years. They should not reduce their standards. We need to encourage students to learn the material and work for their degree instead of playing the victim and demanding exceptions to the graduation requirements. Inclusivity does not mean watering down the requirements for some!

By: Bonita L.

Bonita L. — Tue, 02 May 2023 06:30:26 +0000

These colleges in Cali are all about the money. I experienced the same problem when I transferred from a community college to a CSU. I thought I was going to learn something new. I had to take most of the same classes again. The only difference between CSU & community college is the tuition. I’m not even excited about getting a Bachelor’s degree anymore.

By: Jacob Vasquez

Jacob Vasquez — Tue, 02 May 2023 00:35:51 +0000

Preaching to the choir. While my CC has pathways for transfer students that seem good, I can’t speak for all of them or everyone, I know for a fact I can’t attend any of my school’s partners. I relied on financial aid for CC, and managed to attend purely because of my financial aid. That doesn’t extend to any of my local universities though. NAU and UofA both accepted me, only to place my education behind a paywall that forced me to reject both of their offers. If the cost of attendance wasn’t enough then comes in graduation requirements, and since I have been trying to work abroad and chose to be a Japanese major I have to account for the added cost of studying abroad. What was roughly $30,000 per year, $60,000 for both, could easily balloon to the mid-70s or low 80s just for two years of school. Would you accept that many student loans?
I genuinely do not know if I will be able to finish college, and the past two years of school are filled with nothing but regret. I could have been working and saving money to pay for a larger university, but here I am with nothing. Am I the fool for attending CC, or am I the fool for thinking that I can even go to college?
Fun fact for whoever reads this: I graduated top 10% of my high school. I was on the free lunch program until the state redefined poor. I could only afford to apply to the universities that offer free applications. My elementary school and high school were both Title 1 schools. Neither of my parents finished high school. But here I am, the refuse of academia who can’t go anywhere.