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> And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at getting into "Prestigious Schools". I mean,

> And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at getting into "Prestigious Schools". I mean, they're not wrong. You will statistically be less likely to get into those schools. Once you're a transfer student, your acceptance rates go down significantly for prestigious private colleges. (And some public universities too) If your goal is to graduate from a top school, you're less likely to be accepted as a transfer student.

bargl 7y ago
The program doesn't require you to be a transfer student. You actually get a HS and AS/AE degree at the same time. So you have the option to be a transfer student but you also have the option to go through the normal application process and have your credits treated as HS classes. All that said, it is probably still more likely to hurt you on an application to some programs. Now they've got to compare apples to oranges rather than an easy AP student to another AP student. I did the program and got into most of the schools I wanted to but missed out on one that I really wanted. I saved myself 1 years worth of college, and could have saved more if I'd planned a little better (taken engineering physics instead of normal physics) and a few more classes that would have transferred directly. Overall I saved about 2x on credits as much some of the AP students, which would have been 3x if I'd known better.
legitster 7y ago
For sure, if you want to get into Harvard, you may have to forge your own path. But I think for the average job and lifestyle people actually want to live, I think they will discover on their own how unimportant the school they went to will be.
sdinsn 7y ago
> If your goal is to graduate from a top school But why is that always the goal that counselors push? The data shows that future income is most closely correlated to major, not school choice.
- bradlys 7y ago
  Maybe they're pushing people to get the best school for their major. I think going to Stanford for CS will open more doors than going to Oregon State. There is a significant networking aspect to these top schools as well. I see it very clearly with my friends who went to CalTech and Stanford. It's probably not a coincidence that many (most?) of my peers in the bay area are people who graduated from top schools and/or programs.
  - metildaa 7y ago
    OSU has quite a bit to offer that can jumpstart a CS career, like the OSU Open Source Lab: http://osuosl.org http://osuosl.org Meanwhile, not really sure I think of Stanford as a CS school, unlike MIT & similar.
    - akhilcacharya 7y ago
      Stanford CS is tied for #1 with Berkeley CMU and MIT
      - metildaa 7y ago
        Berkely (BSD), MIT (of MIT license fame) & CMU (Sphinx) have a history of notable software that has enabled computing for decades, most HN users can name software developed by either institution. Stanford doesn't have that cache, despite what US News & World might say. US News & World rankings tend to be fairly subjective, look at their top 15 cities. Edit: CS School Rankings for those interested: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-sch...
        hellocs1 7y ago
        Are you seriously saying Stanford doesn't have the same cache as Berkeley, MIT, or CMU in CS because you couldn't name something invented from Stanford? How about number of Turing laureates? Stanford has the most for alumni + faculty, and comes second if you only count alumni (to Berkeley), and comes second if you just count long-term faculty (to MIT), and comes first for short-term faculty.[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Turing_Award_laureates_by_university_affiliation#Top_15_universities_worldwide_since_1966 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Turing_Award_laureates...
inlined 7y ago
AP isn’t the worst thing in the world. I technically entered college as a junior. I still took four years, but I got preference in picking my courses, dabbled with extra math classes (was going for a minor but it would have taken me past 4yrs which is all I had funding for), and I changed my major slightly.
nostrademons 7y ago
You have the option of going as a normal student. If you do, top-tier colleges usually look at college and AP courses taken at other institutions as a bonus towards admission. I went to Amherst College (#1 liberal arts college in the U.S. when I matriculated), having taken courses at Harvard Extension School, UMass Lowell, and Boston University as a high-schooler. They didn't give me credit for any of them, nor for the 8 AP tests I passed. However, I was told that they were a big plus on my otherwise-lackluster application. The fact that I could take and ace college courses at other institutions was a great way to nullify the fact that I was failing my high-school courses. My sister did courses at Middlesex Community College (again, through the same MA dual-enrollment program that I used) and went to Rice University and my wife did courses at Foothill Community College (through CA's dual-enrollment program) and went to UC Berkeley, so not an isolated experience.
- bradlys 7y ago
  I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm saying it's just less likely. The admissions statistics for these universities show that. After all, they really only admit transfer students to fill in for students who dropped out of their school. They base class size solely on the freshmen class. In your case, I don't think you were applying as a transfer student. You were also not going to your local CC. Those universities are a higher tier than your local CC. In the case of "running start" the whole premise is that you have 2 years of college completed when you graduate. Not that you spent 2 years doing college courses to just restart from level 1. You can do that but I think it's a waste of resources and will unnecessarily crowd local community colleges. And it did where I went to community college. I had to deal with a bunch of 14-17 year old high school age kids. >=25% of the student body was high schoolers with some of my classes at 50%+. Gets kind of annoying when you have to constantly deal with those kids still being kids.
  - nostrademons 7y ago
    I wasn't applying as a transfer student, and I'm saying that it absolutely does make sense to restart from level 1 if you get into a high-tier university, and that doing so can help you get into such a high-tier university. Yes, it does unnecessarily crowd local community college. Such is the arms race that is today's college admission's scene.
knicholes 7y ago
I went to Utah Valley State College and was accepted into the Georgia Tech's ONLINE machine learning master's program-- But maybe that had to do with me being an Adobe employee and less about my less-than-impressive selection of college. Or maybe it was because it was the online program. Furthermore, I've never taken the SAT or ACT.
- julianj 7y ago
  Thanks for this. I was planning to try this from a similar background. I am glad to know it is at least possible...
akavi 7y ago
I imagine you just wouldn't apply as a transfer student. Texas has a program called TAMS where you take your 11th and 12th grade classes at the University of North Texas. While some students "transfer" at the end (I think to do an end run around UT Austin's 10% rule?), most apply to college as normal high school seniors.
cobookman 7y ago
I wonder if that's a biased sample. Top % of students likely transfer less often than bottom %. Therefore transfer pool often has students from lower %. And statistically the applicants are worse than from initial application. However that doesn't mean ones ods are less doing a transfer. It might be better given the transfer peers overall worse applications. (This is all conjecture. I have no actual stats.)

bargl 7y ago

The program doesn't require you to be a transfer student. You actually get a HS and AS/AE degree at the same time. So you have the option to be a transfer student but you also have the option to go through the normal application process and have your credits treated as HS classes. All that said, it is probably still more likely to hurt you on an application to some programs. Now they've got to compare apples to oranges rather than an easy AP student to another AP student. I did the program and got into most of the schools I wanted to but missed out on one that I really wanted. I saved myself 1 years worth of college, and could have saved more if I'd planned a little better (taken engineering physics instead of normal physics) and a few more classes that would have transferred directly. Overall I saved about 2x on credits as much some of the AP students, which would have been 3x if I'd known better.

legitster 7y ago

For sure, if you want to get into Harvard, you may have to forge your own path. But I think for the average job and lifestyle people actually want to live, I think they will discover on their own how unimportant the school they went to will be.

sdinsn 7y ago

> If your goal is to graduate from a top school But why is that always the goal that counselors push? The data shows that future income is most closely correlated to major, not school choice.

bradlys 7y ago
Maybe they're pushing people to get the best school for their major. I think going to Stanford for CS will open more doors than going to Oregon State. There is a significant networking aspect to these top schools as well. I see it very clearly with my friends who went to CalTech and Stanford. It's probably not a coincidence that many (most?) of my peers in the bay area are people who graduated from top schools and/or programs.
- metildaa 7y ago
  OSU has quite a bit to offer that can jumpstart a CS career, like the OSU Open Source Lab: http://osuosl.org http://osuosl.org Meanwhile, not really sure I think of Stanford as a CS school, unlike MIT & similar.
  - akhilcacharya 7y ago
    Stanford CS is tied for #1 with Berkeley CMU and MIT
    - metildaa 7y ago
      Berkely (BSD), MIT (of MIT license fame) & CMU (Sphinx) have a history of notable software that has enabled computing for decades, most HN users can name software developed by either institution. Stanford doesn't have that cache, despite what US News & World might say. US News & World rankings tend to be fairly subjective, look at their top 15 cities. Edit: CS School Rankings for those interested: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-sch...
      - hellocs1 7y ago
        Are you seriously saying Stanford doesn't have the same cache as Berkeley, MIT, or CMU in CS because you couldn't name something invented from Stanford? How about number of Turing laureates? Stanford has the most for alumni + faculty, and comes second if you only count alumni (to Berkeley), and comes second if you just count long-term faculty (to MIT), and comes first for short-term faculty.[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Turing_Award_laureates_by_university_affiliation#Top_15_universities_worldwide_since_1966 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Turing_Award_laureates...

inlined 7y ago

AP isn’t the worst thing in the world. I technically entered college as a junior. I still took four years, but I got preference in picking my courses, dabbled with extra math classes (was going for a minor but it would have taken me past 4yrs which is all I had funding for), and I changed my major slightly.

nostrademons 7y ago

You have the option of going as a normal student. If you do, top-tier colleges usually look at college and AP courses taken at other institutions as a bonus towards admission. I went to Amherst College (#1 liberal arts college in the U.S. when I matriculated), having taken courses at Harvard Extension School, UMass Lowell, and Boston University as a high-schooler. They didn't give me credit for any of them, nor for the 8 AP tests I passed. However, I was told that they were a big plus on my otherwise-lackluster application. The fact that I could take and ace college courses at other institutions was a great way to nullify the fact that I was failing my high-school courses. My sister did courses at Middlesex Community College (again, through the same MA dual-enrollment program that I used) and went to Rice University and my wife did courses at Foothill Community College (through CA's dual-enrollment program) and went to UC Berkeley, so not an isolated experience.

bradlys 7y ago
I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm saying it's just less likely. The admissions statistics for these universities show that. After all, they really only admit transfer students to fill in for students who dropped out of their school. They base class size solely on the freshmen class. In your case, I don't think you were applying as a transfer student. You were also not going to your local CC. Those universities are a higher tier than your local CC. In the case of "running start" the whole premise is that you have 2 years of college completed when you graduate. Not that you spent 2 years doing college courses to just restart from level 1. You can do that but I think it's a waste of resources and will unnecessarily crowd local community colleges. And it did where I went to community college. I had to deal with a bunch of 14-17 year old high school age kids. >=25% of the student body was high schoolers with some of my classes at 50%+. Gets kind of annoying when you have to constantly deal with those kids still being kids.
- nostrademons 7y ago
  I wasn't applying as a transfer student, and I'm saying that it absolutely does make sense to restart from level 1 if you get into a high-tier university, and that doing so can help you get into such a high-tier university. Yes, it does unnecessarily crowd local community college. Such is the arms race that is today's college admission's scene.

knicholes 7y ago

I went to Utah Valley State College and was accepted into the Georgia Tech's ONLINE machine learning master's program-- But maybe that had to do with me being an Adobe employee and less about my less-than-impressive selection of college. Or maybe it was because it was the online program. Furthermore, I've never taken the SAT or ACT.

julianj 7y ago
Thanks for this. I was planning to try this from a similar background. I am glad to know it is at least possible...

akavi 7y ago

I imagine you just wouldn't apply as a transfer student. Texas has a program called TAMS where you take your 11th and 12th grade classes at the University of North Texas. While some students "transfer" at the end (I think to do an end run around UT Austin's 10% rule?), most apply to college as normal high school seniors.

cobookman 7y ago

I wonder if that's a biased sample. Top % of students likely transfer less often than bottom %. Therefore transfer pool often has students from lower %. And statistically the applicants are worse than from initial application. However that doesn't mean ones ods are less doing a transfer. It might be better given the transfer peers overall worse applications. (This is all conjecture. I have no actual stats.)