Dear friends

Junior college; and specially a selective few are just as good as big name schools.

Even for those that live in the bay area; I will recommend two in southern California:

1.0 Santa Monica college

A great junior college that has the ambiance of Berkeley/Stanford. Very international; very much like Palo Alto with nice trees and much like Berkeley with city and small town ambiance. Additionally, it is close to UCLA, Beverley Hills and West LA.

I understand, if the student does well, they can transfer to many UC schools.

It is a great way to save money; yet have the experience of college; big clean city, good weather and access to beautiful California beaches in Santa Monica. I wish my second daughter went there.

2.0 Orange Coast College

This is in Costa Mesa. A very suburban area with large campus. Costa Mesa is near Newport Beach.

One needs to have a car. I understand this JC also provides transfer program like Santa Monica College. Orange County, where Costa Mesa is a rock bed of suburbia clean living; lot of malls and homes.

Respectfully

My experience in getting children through colleges without losing your store:a

I have three children; 35, 32 and 26.

The eldest Vanessa was a straight 4.0; 800 SAT Math girl. Never had to intervene/coach. She ended up at Berkeley undergraduate (Biology + Political Science) took 5 years - graduated 2002; In 2007, she went to Dartmouth School of Medicine for a one year program Masters in Health, and graduated in 2008. She is now in Basel Switzerland working for Genentech and has a 2 year international assignment.

The second one; a 3.0 GPA and average SAT. Leila went to UC Riverside in 2000; left 16 months later and returned to Irvine Valley College took 7 classes and had 6 As and 1 B; went to a private college Concordia University and got a degree in Child Psychology.

The third, Andrew; a 3.5 GPA from high school; went to University of Michigan Ann Arbor. He graduated after 6 years with a degree in Chemical Engineering.
His mom raised him.

So, my experience; some children are not that ready for 4 year college; they might do more well in a junior college as they are 60%uni cheaper than an university.

Respectfully

Lori mentioned that with Community Colleges you are burdened with the process of college entrance paperwork twice. I think that is a small price to pay for the experience of community colleges. Having been a high school counselor for years, I have witnessed the positive consequences of sending students to community college.

Let's not forget the pressure that is lessened to high school students and the financial savings to families who send their children to community colleges. Our high school students currently experience pressure for grades, advanced placement classes, high test scores, bullying; and, students are exposed to peer cheating, peer drug and alcohol usage, and student depression and in some cases suicide. Let's start trying ways of reducing these social pressures. Community colleges are wonderful stepping stones for our children. And, they are one way to create a more fulfilling high school experience by deemphasizing competition for just grades.

Well said, Ginny McShane. Thank you for your additional comments! I always appreciate hearing input directly from the high school counselors.

Thank you, Sea Reddy for your thoughts. You have experienced first-hand how unique your own children's college application process has been - and can appreciate the diversity in college selection. There really is a fit for everyone!

I recently helped my babysitter, a senior at Gunn high school who is graduating this winter, with the first two steps her community college application. It took us about 20 minutes to create her profile and register for her placement exams. She is very excited to be starting her college journey at a community college.

Another benefit of appying to a four-year as a transfer student is you have gained a couple of years in maturity and exposure to a college culture before determining where to complete their Bachelor's degree.

I used to work in Transfer Admissions and spent a lot of time on community college campuses recruiting students. I also met a lot of the Transfer counselors in my former role, and can tell you all with certainty that those folks are a tremendous help to students. They can find colleges to fit their student's needs, evaluate their transcripts to determine which classes will transfer, and assist them with the entire transfer process. It's up to the student to seek the help, but once they do, their transfer process will be quite simple.

More reasons to love community college!

I have an elementary school student in the PAUSD system, so I am several years away from this issue. But, I sometimes hear about all of the AP exams the kids take in high school, and how much pressure these courses bring to the students; and, while AP courses may have existed when I was in high school in Southern California, I never took one -- so I don't have a personal sense of their difficulty or value.

I was wondering, if a high school student is ready for college-level work is it also possible for that student to take single courses at a community college, instead of AP courses at their high school, and to have those CC courses count toward their high-school degree? If so, what are the benefits and downside to this approach? Would colleges, then, potentially allow the student to skip an equivalent course taken from a CC in high school since it really was a college course?

Is this a viable alternative to AP courses? Is it allowed? Wouldn't actual college courses be even better than high school courses with college content?

(forgot to add this in the post above)

Are the courses AP courses easier (or harder), or do they cover less (or more) material than the equivalent CC courses? Is there a content or difficulty reason to go with AP over CC courses?

Thanks, Phil

The link you provided for residential CCs only listed a limited number of geographically restricted CCs. Do you have a link that includes those closer to the Bay area and down the CA coast? Thanks in advance.

I have had great continuing education at our local community colleges as an adult. At Foothill, I earned certificates in both Real Estate, and Travel Studies. The first helped me as a property manager in affordable housing, the second enabled me to work for American Express Corporate Travel, Cruise Holidays, Carlson Travel Network, and start and run my own travel business selling cruises and tours. Currently, I am taking paralegal courses at Canada Community College (beautiful campus). The program is so thorough that it enabled me to get a position in the legal field after one year of classes. I highly recommend community colleges for anyone, at any time of one's life, for any reason - be it higher learning; don't know yet what you want to do when you grow up; or simply to transition into a new career.

Dear Dorms,
I do not have a list of colleges in the Bay Area that offer housing. However, I have suggested to students in the past that they could always move to the community college closest to their desired geographical location and find housing with other community college students. Many of the community colleges websites provide housing options for students.

For example, Santa Barbara City College Web Link and City College of San Francisco Web Link

Hope this helps a bit,
Lori McCormick (author of this article)

California's Community Colleges are great! I agree with the pros listed in the article above.

However, I think that, in fairness, the public needs to be aware that overall completion/transfer rates are low. Students who are not 4-year college eligible in high school are probably most at risk if they need to take "remedial" courses before taking transferable-level work. And, while, community colleges are flexible with working students' schedules, student not taking full-time courseloads often don't complete their educational goals.

And, not living on campus means that students need to be proactive in getting involved in the campus community. There isn't a set "lunch" period like high school and if students are commuting to campus and not staying to participate in clubs, athletics, etc., there can be less of a connection socially.

Dorms have school programming and support. Private student housing might not have any oversight and require students to be more independent right out of high school (e.g. cooking, paying bills--which they might otherwise due at 4-year college after their first transition year). It's also expensive.

Finally, transferring to another college is a big transition, too. There are orientation programs but most students will be freshmen. Transfer dorms are typically more limited. Many friendships have been established and it can be challenging to make connections if students don't proactively get involved in the school community.

Every student's experience will be different. Many will be successful. I just wanted to point out other food for thought.

A quick internet search came up with these California CC's with housing. There are 11

Web Link

Thank you Jim H. This is very helpful.