Berkeley, UCLA, and UC San Diego do not have a guaranteed transfer agreement with California community colleges. https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/admission-requi...

That being said, they prioritize California community colleges when it comes to transfer admissions, so getting in via a CC is a little easier than trying to get in for regular 4 year admissions.

It gets better. Due to drop out rates of first and second year students at first tier schools - there are vast openings for juniors [schools lose tuition]. UC Berkeley, Standford, CalTech are super motivated - have streamlined systems to take in strong CC students. Honestly, if you get all As, cover the same two years [you need a detailed plan signed off on] - you can write your own ticket.

(IMHO during covid this option was king)

Transfer rates for Stanford has been extremely low historically: 42 admits out of 1,959 applicants in 2016 (https://admission.stanford.edu/apply/selection/profile16.htm...). I believe Caltech is even lower (single digits) as they only matriculate 250 freshmen every year. I certainly won’t count on getting admitted to either of those colleges as a transfer student even if you get straight As.

"42 admits out of 1,959 applicants in 2016"

Crazy enough. That is a HUGE amount. CC isn't a huge funnel success -- stories are rare - most students drop out etc.

> UC Berkeley, Standford, CalTech

I sincerely doubt this for Stanford and CalTech. The only college of ~equivalent prestige to Stanford that takes a non trivial number of transfer students is Columbia and CalTech doesn’t have classes that teach material equivalent to CC courses. It’s assumed you know it already or will pick it up in an hour or two if you need it.

UC colleges are completely different because they’re forced to have a clear path for transfer students.

I’m pretty sure there is a guarantee that you can get admission at one of the UC campuses. That includes, for example, UC riverside or Merced which are very different from UCLA and UC berkeley

Looks like De Anza has guaranteed transfer agreements with most UC campuses but not the big two (UCLA & Berkeley):

https://www.deanza.edu/articulation/guaranteed-admission/tag...

I'm 95% sure that didn't use to be the case. I am a transfer student from De Anza and I recall being torn between Berkeley and where I eventually did end up. Maybe it was dropped more recently?

Even without the guaranteed transfer though, the acceptance rate for transfers from local community colleges is waaay higher than applying out of high school. If you keep good grades (which is easy to do at CC because you're graded on a curve with classmates that aren't all in the same league) and apply every quarter/semester from the moment you're eligible, you're likely to get in before having exhausted classes to take at the 2 year college.

I have known CC (technically JC, Chaffey) people who transferred to Caltech but there is a strict battery of entry exams.

Absolutely. I graduated with an Associate's degree from De Anza while already working in industry, then transferred to Cal State to complete my B.S. in C.S. I did it all while working and all without taking out a single student loan or any external (like family) support.