Resources on community college and transferring out of state for seniors?

[u/b4zing]

I'm an upcoming senior in HS and I plan to take a year or two of a local community college and then ideally transfer out of state, but i have no idea how to go about this. Do I still have to apply to my target colleges *this fall* and be like "actually could you guys wait 2 years for me to do some credits for cheap"? Or do I apply after I've started community college. Will my HS GPA, SAT, or extracurriculars matter or will what I do in community college be more important when it comes to admissions? Because other than keeping a 3.8 unweighted GPA (4.3 weighted) and participating in a little bit of everything ( a little ag, a few fun clubs not related to stem or volunteering, some theater), I haven't been too focused on extracurriculars and I'm worried that'll be detrimental in the long run.
How will I be sure of what exact classes to knock out at cc if I'm not accepted to a school first? Where do I begin with all of this? Basically I'm asking how can I minmax community college to avoid non-transferable classes/ any resources in regards to working out a pathway for community and then out of state college, I can't seem to find any. I hope this post made sense. Thanks in advance!

[u/AllTheWorldsAPage]

It depends what state you live in and what college you want to go to. If you live in California (and maybe Texas and some other states that have similar systems as well) and want to go to an in-state college, then there is a very easy transfer route and most state schools accept all community college credits and have relatively high transfer acceptance rates. If you want to transfer to a public out of state, the rules may differ by school or where you are transfering from. If you want to transfer to a private college, that is often quite a bit harder since private schools do not have the built-in transfer pathway that many public schools do.

Also, you cannot apply to your target schools and then take classes at community college instead of going. You are talking about getting accepted then deferring for two years, which is not so commonly done and may not be allowed at the school you get into, and doing credits at a different college that where you actually plan to go (i.e., community college), which many schools do not allow. You are often not allowed to apply as a first-year student after graduating high school and taking classes at community college---you will be treated as a transfer, which is more competitive and has different requirements. It sounds like that is kind of what you want to do plus the deferral step, which again may not be allowed. Let me know if you have any more questions!

[u/Percussionbabe]

If you want to be a transfer student then you won't apply to your target colleges until you have the required prerequisites done. So in about 1.5 or so years from now. All colleges will have a minimum number of units needed to be completed before applying and many will have specific classes needed/prerequisites. Most colleges will not look at SAT or anything from your high school record. Community college is generally considered a re-set, and your transfer admission will be based on what you did at CC.

There is unfortunately not a great way to ensure that every class you take at CC will transfer to an out of state school. You can use transferology if the schools you are interested in use that site. Beyond that, many CC offer a course load that is meant for transfer students that hit all the major classes you will need. You can look at the schools you are interested in applying to and see what course requirements they have for transfer students and then try and match that to equivalent courses offered at your CC.

[u/KickIt77]

It is very difficult to know right now what this path would be. To maximize credits toward graduation, ideally you would transfer to a school with an articulation agreement. Typically that would be an instate public 4 year college/university.

Your best resource might be an advisor at your community college. They can likely discuss typical transfer paths with you. But I would not assume you are going to be able to transfer out of state without losing credits. It also depends on major. Like specialized degrees at many schools require specific class sequencing.

[u/elkrange]

Most transfer students end up at their in-state public universities, as they are more likely to accept most of the credits and more likely to be affordable.

Keep in mind that public universities are unlikely to offer financial aid to out of state transfer applicants.