Should I start at a community college for a 4 year engineering degree?

Question

I am considering going back to school to get a 4 year engineering degree. Should I start at a community college and then go to a university or should I just start and finish at a university? I have been told that starting at a community college is a lot cheaper but there are sometimes classes that will not transfer so it may take a little longer. Is this true?

Also if I got a 2 year degree from a community college would it be possibly to upgrade later on to a 4 year degree? If so how much additional work would it be?

Thanks for any comments

Answer 1

If you have a very strong community college, you can do this. The problem is that many engineering programs have lots of very specific required courses, and many of these courses are sequenced so that one is a prerequisite to others. What this means is that if you can't get the basic courses that you need at your community college, it could take you longer than two more years to finish at the university.

Your best bet would be to get a sense of which university you want to attend, and then to find a community college with what they call an articulation agreement with that university, offering courses which will count for the first two years of the university's program. That way, you won't miss anything.

As to your second question, the answer is yes. Again, it would take two more years if the courses you took at the community college were equivalent to the first two years of the university, otherwise, it could take longer.

Answer 2

You mentioned going "back to school". Do you already have a degree or some college courses? If you do, it is unlikely that anything at a community college would be relevant.

If you get a 2 year degree (called an Associate's or A.A.), then when you go to a 4 year college, you will likely only need to spend 2-3 years there - depending on your field. An A.A. covers most - if not all - of your general education requirements, which is typically the majority of the first two years of a four year school.

Also keep in mind that most engineers do not graduate with a B.S. in just four years. Pretty much every engineer I know - and I went to a college with a strong engineering program - took at least 4 1/2, usually 5 years. Plus, for most engineering fields, a Master's degree is preferred.

I would check with your local community college to see what classes transfer and don't, and also check with a state school (or wherever you would get your B.S.) to see what courses you can take at a community college. It will save you money, but if you are in your late teens or early twenties, I would recommend starting out at the four-year because the experience is worth a whole lot as well!
Good luck!

Answer 3

Be very careful before enrolling by ensuring the CC has ALL the courses you need in a so-called pre-engineering program. This usually consists of higher level math courses (at least through Calc IV); many CCs, especially smaller ones, do not even teach advanced calculus courses, or may offer one section THEN cancel the course due to low enrollment a week before school starts (if that happens, you're SCREWED!) Also check to make sure calculus based physics is offered through quantum mech (not just algebraic physics as it's not going to be accepted by an engineering program). Other prereq courses are usually an engineering-approved computer programming intro course, and an intro circuit analysis class. These NEED to be taken in your first two years as you cannot take higher level engineering courses if you have not taken them. Those are the fundamental stumbling blocks of attending CC -- no offense to any CC students (I was once one too), but CC's tend to cater to less academically inclined students so higher level courses that an engineering program requires are not the norm in terms of being consistently offered.

Answer 4

The *transferable* credit will circulate. Ask the circulate counselor on the community college or the admissions place of work on the 4-365 days college which credit will circulate. credit from remedial classes, vocational classes, and another classes won't circulate.