Community College Transfer: What Should I Expect?

[Marioqwe]

I will be transferring from a community college to a 4-year university next fall as an engineering major and I was wondering if you could answer some of my questions, of course, if you have gone through a similar experience.

What essential things were not covered in your CC curriculum?
Where the classes much more harder?
If you could go back in time, what would you do to be better prepared?

That's it for now. Thanks for your honest replies.

 

[hitmeoff]

I am a transfer student, tho I am a math/physics transfer and not engineering.

What I do know about engineering transfers, from some of my friends who were is that they found that a lot of the engineering courses they took in the CC did not transfer over completely or at all, so you might find that you may have to retake a lot of courses you already took. Again, I don't know this first hand, rather it is something that I've heard from my engineering friends.

As far as the classes being harder, for me, higher level math hit me like a brick wall, but I think that would have been true for anyone going from Calc I-III and Elem Diff EQ/LA to Abstract Algebra and Analysis, because just about EVERYONE transfer or not, seemed to struggle a lot with those first junior level math courses. Certainly my physics classes are harder, but again aren't they supposed to be harder, not because they are at a 4-year, but rather because they are major level classes?

If I could back in time, I think I could have put in more effort to understand all of the material in my elementary courses better, rather than just learn the material well enough to get a good grade. Again, I don't think this is a regret of JUST cc transfers.

 

[Shackleford]

I am a transfer student, tho I am a math/physics transfer and not engineering.

What I do know about engineering transfers, from some of my friends who were is that they found that a lot of the engineering courses they took in the CC did not transfer over completely or at all, so you might find that you may have to retake a lot of courses you already took. Again, I don't know this first hand, rather it is something that I've heard from my engineering friends.

As far as the classes being harder, for me, higher level math hit me like a brick wall, but I think that would have been true for anyone going from Calc I-III and Elem Diff EQ/LA to Abstract Algebra and Analysis, because just about EVERYONE transfer or not, seemed to struggle a lot with those first junior level math courses. Certainly my physics classes are harder, but again aren't they supposed to be harder, not because they are at a 4-year, but rather because they are major level classes?

If I could back in time, I think I could have put in more effort to understand all of the material in my elementary courses better, rather than just learn the material well enough to get a good grade. Again, I don't think this is a regret of JUST cc transfers.

The physics classes are generally harder. Some of the hardest problems to solve mathematically are physics problems.

 

[hitmeoff]

The physics classes are generally harder. Some of the hardest problems to solve mathematically are physics problems.

Right. I am doing Classical Mechanics right now, our official text is Taylor but the homework is out of Thornton and Marion and of course, compared to freshman level physics, these problems much harder than anything I ever saw in Halliday and Resnick.

 

[Shackleford]

Right. I am doing Classical Mechanics right now, our official text is Taylor but the homework is out of Thornton and Marion and of course, compared to freshman level physics, these problems much harder than anything I ever saw in Halliday and Resnick.

I'm in Classical, too, with the associate physics chair, and our textbook is Thornton and Marion's Classical Dynamics. He gives us 10 homework problems per problem set. We've done chapters 1-3, 5-7, and half of 9. I think he gives us 5 problems too many. They're always very time-consuming and difficult.

 

[hitmeoff]

Is that a 10 problem set per week? That is about 5 problems too many. We get our HW from M and T and we get about 5 a week and that's about right. We've covered the equivalent of 1-3, a tiny bit of 4, 5 and 8 and we are now doing 6 and 7 which should be it for this quarter (10 week sessions).If our prof did assign more work, id be in serious trouble since my abstract algebra homework takes AGES to do and my Observational Astro class, though not difficult in concept, is so damn haphazard and disorganized that projects that should only require 6 hours of work a week end up eating up almost all our time. Again, not because the material is hard, rather because we spend all of our time fixing things that the professor should have already figuered out. In the end, that class make my ANalysis class much more difficult than it should be, because I just don't have the time to spend on it as much as I should.

I certainly never had to work like this when I was at a CC. I am taking 5 courses next quarter instead of the four I am taking now, but that schedule is looking like real nice since I won't be having a lab class at all!

 

[Shackleford]

Is that a 10 problem set per week? That is about 5 problems too many. We get our HW from M and T and we get about 5 a week and that's about right. We've covered the equivalent of 1-3, a tiny bit of 4, 5 and 8 and we are now doing 6 and 7 which should be it for this quarter (10 week sessions).If our prof did assign more work, id be in serious trouble since my abstract algebra homework takes AGES to do and my Observational Astro class, though not difficult in concept, is so damn haphazard and disorganized that projects that should only require 6 hours of work a week end up eating up almost all our time. Again, not because the material is hard, rather because we spend all of our time fixing things that the professor should have already figuered out. In the end, that class make my ANalysis class much more difficult than it should be, because I just don't have the time to spend on it as much as I should.

I certainly never had to work like this when I was at a CC. I am taking 5 courses next quarter instead of the four I am taking now, but that schedule is looking like real nice since I won't be having a lab class at all!

No. It's about a week and a half or so. He basically covers virtually everything in the chapter, but we did skip over the last two sections or so in chapter 7. I'm also taking Modern Physics II right now which is really QM undergrad. I'm going to do not very well in Mechanics. I'll probably pull off a B in Modern. I work 20 hours during the work-week and I could only take two classes. I'm glad because Mechanics is very time-consuming. I'm switching to math major/physics minor. I'll probably take Abstract Algebra next fall along with Intermediate Analysis.

 

[hitmeoff]

No. It's about a week and a half or so. He basically covers virtually everything in the chapter, but we did skip over the last two sections or so in chapter 7. I'm also taking Modern Physics II right now which is really QM undergrad. I'm going to do not very well in Mechanics. I'll probably pull off a B in Modern. I work 20 hours during the work-week and I could only take two classes. I'm glad because Mechanics is very time-consuming. I'm switching to math major/physics minor. I'll probably take Abstract Algebra next fall along with Intermediate Analysis.

If you plan on taking the second semester/quarter of Mechanics, you might consider buying a used copy of the Taylor book. I have both Taylor and M and T, and though I find Marion to be a great book as reference/review, I would not want to learn this stuff for the first time from Marion and Thornton. For a first course in Theoretical Physics, Taylor is simply AWESOME. VERY VERY wordy, extremely wordy, but I think his style of writing, the wordiness makes all the difference in the world.

Not withstanding Obs Astro, Abstract Algebra definitely takes up the largest bulk of my time. It is certainly the hardest course I've ever taken, but I am loving it. Analysis is aiight, honestly I personally find it to be very bland compared to abstract algebra, but its definitely more concrete, its by no means easy and I certainly have had my battles with it. Though I doubt I will be able to use any of this math in my undergrad phys courses, I do think that they help me out a lot with my physics, because the classes force me to think very creatively which of course helps out tremendously with solving physics problems.

 

[Thermalne]

I just transferred from a community college to a full university this semester. I will say it really depends from school to school. My community college was a feeder transfer program for Georgia Tech and had a lot of GT graduates teaching classes. Plus the calculus sequences and differential/linear algebra was much more like real university classes. The only engineering courses that didn't transfer was my physics course. The upper level ones were counted by they messed up my lower basic mechanics courses.

Of course I'm not the best to ask because my AS degree was in math.

 

[mateomy]

Right on, congratulations!

 

[Shackleford]

If you plan on taking the second semester/quarter of Mechanics, you might consider buying a used copy of the Taylor book. I have both Taylor and M and T, and though I find Marion to be a great book as reference/review, I would not want to learn this stuff for the first time from Marion and Thornton. For a first course in Theoretical Physics, Taylor is simply AWESOME. VERY VERY wordy, extremely wordy, but I think his style of writing, the wordiness makes all the difference in the world.

Not withstanding Obs Astro, Abstract Algebra definitely takes up the largest bulk of my time. It is certainly the hardest course I've ever taken, but I am loving it. Analysis is aiight, honestly I personally find it to be very bland compared to abstract algebra, but its definitely more concrete, its by no means easy and I certainly have had my battles with it. Though I doubt I will be able to use any of this math in my undergrad phys courses, I do think that they help me out a lot with my physics, because the classes force me to think very creatively which of course helps out tremendously with solving physics problems.

We have 16-week spring/fall semesters, though sometimes it's really like 14 or 15 depending on holidays and what not. For us, there is no second semester. The only class after this is Advanced Mechanics in graduate school.

 

[phriot]

I also transferred from a CC to a 4-year school (small liberal arts school with a good local reputation though, not a university), but in a science, not engineering. The classes aren't much harder, but that's because I put more effort than necessary into my CC courses.

While I can't comment on anything curriculum specific, I do have some advice: Find out if there is an articulation agreement of some kind between your CC and the University. If there is, make sure you follow it as closely as possible. I'm taking two courses right now that I could have taken in place of others at my CC and retaking one from my CC that I could have put off until I got here. Three courses might not seem like a big deal, but these three, along with several other course requirements for my school that I couldn't have fulfilled at my CC, are making it a real crunch to finish in two years. (I have a scholarship that is renewable for a total of two years only.) Now, as a bright engineer, you've probably already looked into this or at least taken a look at your degree requirements, but unless you're certain you've taken an optimal sequence of courses, I'd really suggest taking another look now, possibly with an adviser or transfer counselor of some sort before your last semester at CC.

I also would have looked harder into summer courses the summer before I transferred. I was completing a research opportunity at the time, so I only took one, but now I'm a junior on credits taking mostly sophomore level courses in my major and having to cram the last two years of my Bio courses into one year. I wish I would have tried to take Organic Chemistry I or something during the summer as well. Again, you may have already checked into this, but make sure you are indeed doing everything to give yourself as much wiggle room as you can in your university courses; you might find that you develop an interest in philosophy or something, but don't have room to take any electives not required by your program.

Good Luck!

 

[Marioqwe]

That is interesting. I'll be looking the classes they offer on the summer. Thanks for all of your inputs.