Should I get my Associates first and transfer to a 4 year with all gen eds finished or go the whole 4 years?

Question

If I go to the community college, first I'll need to get an apartment. This means money coming from somewhere...I don't know where...maybe financial aid (student loans)? I would be majoring in Computer Internetworking Technologies if all I wanted was the Associates degree because they don't require you to finish all your general education classes for that major...just a couple electives. If I got all my gen eds out of the way at this community college, I could transfer to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a 4-year university. Then I could major in probably Computer Engineering OR Computer Science and have absolutely no gen eds getting in the way. Then I could graduate with a Bachelors degree.

I'm told that UIUC makes freshman and sophomore year gen ed classes very difficult so that they weed out a lot of the people who don't give it their best effort or of course the people that just party all the time. I'll be 29 years old if I start at the university this year.

Benefits of 2 years at the community college:
1. Get all gen eds out of the way
2. Pay much less per credit hour than I would be paying for first two years at the university

Disadvantages of community college:
1. I would have to find somewhere nearby to live because I can't work and go to school at the same time (within walking distance or biking)
2. I would need money to pay for my living arrangements

Benefits of going all 4 years at the university:
1. Making long-lasting friendships
2. Many more clubs and activities to get involved with
3. I got partying all the time out of my system, so this would not be a problem
4. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has one of the best engineering departments of all the universities and colleges in the world

Disadvantages of going all 4 years to the university:
1. Extremely expensive costs for per credit hour
2. I would owe much much more 6 months after graduating to whatever bank I get the loans from or the federal government

You could say that it looks like I've answered my own question, but I haven't. I already finished 1 year at this same university back in 1998-1999, but had to leave because of medical problems. So I'm familiar with the school and I have a guaranteed re-entrance into the school without having to re-apply. Yeah, it HAS taken 10 years. I just need someone with an objective point-of-view. Thanks.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

I'm not sure what would be best, I apologize because I am really sleepy and am about to crash but as a community college student, one valuable information I learned early on is to double check with the equivalency guide of the university you want to go to, to be certain the class(es) from the community college transfer. I am not sure if the community college you want to go to is in the same state or not. Most universities have a way to double check credits from other same state colleges.

I wanted to make sure I let you know that because it saves time and money if you go that route.

Also, if you wantt to go into a specific major, check out their departmnent requirements. For instance, Comp engineering at univ of washington doesn't need english 201, but it does need technical writing. So at the comm college level you wouldn[t need eng 201.

Call/email the contact for the department you want to apply. They usually want to help you prepare for transfer. THey often say FORGET about getting an AA and transferring, jus get the prerequisites out of the way for applying to their department and then transfer. Call and ask if that would be preferable to the department you want to go to.

Hope this info is good for you.

Good luck on your decision, I hope someone else is more awake to help you with that!

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

5 stars for being out of it and still having a good answer : ) I didn't even know about asking the comm college which classes transfer and which don't. I suppose I should also (maybe you already implied this) check the university's gen ed classes they make you take and find their equivalents. Thx!!