2+2 plans are really, really questionable in my observation. Most students I know ended up doing either 2+3 or 3+3, which since as you pointed out CC are so, so

2+2 plans are really, really questionable in my observation. Most students I know ended up doing either 2+3 or 3+3, which since as you pointed out CC are so, so, so much cheaper than university did save them money none the less. However, if you're going into a field that has any kind of improved earning potential from a degree, you have to look at the opportunity cost, taking into account the fact that if they had just gone straight to a 4 year they would have had an extra 1-2 years of making substantially higher wages than they could before they graduated. If you have a kid who doesn't really know if they want to, say, be an engineer, then a 2+2 plan that they realize they aren't cut out for during the cheap years probably is a huge price save. But for the kid with the tools to succeed in school, a passion for a field that pays well, and the opportunity to get into a 4 year, they should absolutely just go for it off the bat. The other problem with the 2+2 is that you're sacrificing 2 years of one of the biggest advantages of going to competitive universities: meeting other students who could get into competitive universities. I met most of my friends I made in college in the first 2 weeks, freshman year. It's probably the single easiest time in anyone's life to make new friends and acquaintances. And those friends, beyond being invaluable to me for social and romantic reasons, also have benefited me financially: one friend's dad got me an internship, which I was able to leverage into my first job. I got my second job by no small part thanks to the recommendation of another friend who already worked there. Looking back in time, the ROI on the bottle of vodka I brought to the dorm nextdoor move-in weekend is likely in the ~10,000,000% range. Transfer students get a greatly diminished version of that opportunity. By their upper-division levels, most students are spending a lot more time on school work, and much less time randomly meeting their dorm-hall mates. It's still possible to meet people, and my high-school friends who did the transfer route did meet some people, but there's a much greater than 50% loss in networking opportunity.