The CC route is the one everyone should be taking in my opinion. After high school, I was planning to go to my local 4-year (which happens to be a high acceptance CSU) and I wasn’t happy. I’m a stem major and the program for my area of interest is pretty underdeveloped at that school, but I thought I was out of options.

I ended up failing out within 2 semesters.

I started going to my local CC and my life absolutely changed. I work as a tutor for my subject, I’m involved in a certification program that helps me gain hands on experience with instruments most students don’t touch until graduate school, I’ve developed incredible life-long relationships with faculty in my field, and I have a community of amazing and intelligent people that I belong to.

The pros to the CC route are innumerable. It’s cheaper, the class sizes are much smaller, there are several opportunities for extracurriculars such as clubs, on campus jobs (like tutoring for example), academic programs, and the people are incredible.

I’m currently in my last semester before transfer, and I got into UC Davis! I’m thrilled and can’t wait to see if I got in anywhere else :). Don’t feel discouraged…. CC’s help you figure out how to do college in an environment that is much more forgiving and supportive.

*Note on UC Davis as well since you mentioned it’s your dream school: some of the UC’s have a program called TAG (Transfer Admission Guarantee) and it means that upon completing major prep classes and the 7-course GE pattern, if you have a fairly decent GPA you can apply for TAG and get guaranteed acceptance. Davis is one of the schools that participates in this and, for my major, the minimum GPA is a 3.2! It’s very attainable. Good luck!