Is Community College Really Easy?

If cost is a factor, take your core classes at a CC and classes in your major at the University. Even if you start attending a "better" college, it's still worth it to take the harder core classes at a CC because if you don't do to well in the class but still pass it with a C or better, you can transfer the credit but not the grade.

FWIW, I had a 3.97 GPA @ San Jac and a 3.79 @ Texas State. All of the core classes I took at both schools were pretty easy, at least for me.

 

and no one is going to deny that Rice is one of the best universities you can get into period - you don't need to put a qualifier on it.

 

Not sure what the OP wants to do later on life, but assuming you go to any major university in Texas and you do WELL, I don't think it will really make that big a difference. For instance, if you get a 4.0 at A&M plus kill any grad school exams or whatever, I highly doubt that you won't be competitive in whatever endeavor you decide to pursue later versus someone in a top 20 program.

Bottom line is I think the whole top 20 university thing is somewhat overrated except for certain situations, but if you have skills, it really doesn't matter where you go to school in the grand scheme of things.

 

Damn...no one mentioned University of Houston? The school that the great Hakeem graduated from?

UH's tuition is pretty cheap compared to other schools in Texas. Of course, community college tuition is even cheaper. I think UH is a good school. But why are you so hang over about going to a top school anyway?

It's not about getting into college, it's about graduating from it. You could be a smart kid, but if you're distracted, then you could still fail no matter what school you go to. Good luck!

 

if you didn't get into a "top" university now, you'll most likely not be good enough to get in after community college either.

 

you will possibly lessen your chances of getting in a better college if you go as a transfer rather than a freshman. IF you really want to go to better college you should go for a year to TAMU then transfer. You will then show you can succeed, and you never know you may actually like it there.

 

untrue. They are pretty close to other state colleges.

 

Did Hakeem graduate? He played 3 years for UH and came out early when the Rockets got the #1 pick. Did he in fact go back and finish his degree? I don't remember.

 

If you don't remember then I have no way of remembering because I wasn't even born when he was in college! But you're correct. I guess the school fcked up then. What about Drexler? Did he graduate? This is from the school's website.
http://www.uh.edu/about/uh-glance/points-pride

Alumni
CEOs—More than 3,500 of our alumni are head their own company or are presidents or chief executives of businesses or corporations.
Powerful Alumni—Among our more than 160,000 alumni are the U.S. Secretary of Education, congressmen and legislators, the CEO of Sears, the CEO of Dynegy, the CEO of Neiman Marcus, astronauts, judges, educators, actors and artists, and many more.
Texas Legislature—UH has the second-most alumni in the Texas State Legislature.
Cougars in the Limelight—Our long history of successful alumni in the arts includes actors Dennis and Randy Quaid, Brent Spiner, Loretta Devine, and Robert Wuhl; authors Alice Sebold and Padgett Powell; singer Larry Gatlin; artists Julian Schnabel, Michael Ray Charles, “The Art Guys”—Michael Galbreth and Jack Massing; broadcasters Jim Nantz, Tom Jarriel, Dominique Sachse; clothing designer Victor Costa; and film producer Walter Coblenz.
World-class Athletes—Cougar athletic stars include Olympic medalists Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell; Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware; NBA stars Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon; golfers Fred Couples, Steve Elkington and Fuzzy Zoeller; and MLB pitchers Doug Drabek, Ryan Wagner and Woody Williams.

 

I have always held the opinion that CC is harder than a regular university because they usually require attendance and make you hand in regular assignments.

 

I took some basics in CC while at the same time taking regular courses at my actual university. Anyways, the level of teaching is about the same at CC's in comparison to say UT. I actually think its better because the classes are smaller and the professor actually knows your name.

If you take CC in places like in Austin most of the kids in the class actually go to UT as well. Thus it is competitive when it comes to a curve since most of the students are more than qualified to be there.

Furthermore, at the classes I took at CC, the professors all had PH'd's and many of them were former alumni of schools like MIT, UPenn, Berkeley, etc..

 

I guess the first part is right. I never had a 300 person class at a CC. They were all around 25-30 people max and yes, they took attendance. As far as regular assignments, that just depends on the teacher. You can have a teacher at a CC that only gives a mid-term and a final and a teacher at at university that gives 5 tests and 2 projects/essays. I had both types of teachers at both places.

 

When CC's hire faculty, the require a minimum of a Master's degree with a preference for teachers with Ph.D's. The teachers at CC's are just as qualified as the ones teaching at universities.

 

One more note. Schools like UT would probably prefer you attend one of their tributary universities. A 3.0 at UTSA for example should get you in and I think would hold more clout than trying to transfer from say Baylor, TAMU, etc...

 

Well, when I transferred back in state back in the stone age (too much partying, not enough studying) I went to HCC for a year to save some money and bump my GPA. I took several core classes, but a couple of "gut" courses too (Public Speaking FTW!). I barely cracked any of my books and got a 4.0 (Dean's list baby!). According to all those standardized test results, I would consider myself above average intelligence-wise, but by no means genius, so take my story for what it's worth.

 

Wow..

 

Why on earth would you go to a community college? Fill out a FAFSA form, get student loans to cover your tuition and private loans to cover your living expenses. Then head off to Texas or Texas A&M. If you major in ChemE, EE, PetroleumE, etc. you will make $60k or more coming out of school, and will be able to pay your loans off in no time. If engineering isn't your thing, then do the 5-year PPA program for accounting. You'd make $50k+ working for a big-4 accounting firm. Education is an investment, not a cost.

 

I aree with you on your A&M point. Those ranking are bull ****. A&M sucks ass. Not one person from my school was rejected from there this year. Close to 50 kids got a "yes" many of which have 2.5 gpas. What other schools did you get into?

 

Exactly. Transfer requirements are much harder than getting in as a freshman, so if you didn't get into the schools you wanted with a 95% GPA or whatever, chances of getting in as a transfer student from a CC are slim to none IMO.

I'm not saying it can't happen but just remember that there are thousands of kids trying to transfer into Top 20 schools and I would be that a majority of them are coming from other big schools with good grades.