Going to CCSF ?

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I have been trying to , as I have said elsewhere here , set up going to City College of San Francisco ~ There have been various matters manifesting themselves , and this is a " marking a wall " post , to fulfill something I said in another forum about starting a line here , I'll say more later .
I'm going to assume that people here know my back story ...........

You should study for the placement tests. They have sample college placement tests online.

Do you have any access to a printer (No....I can't assume you have such access at all, that would be ridiculous....just sort of thinking of that as a slight possibility).

...Now , in the nursing place ? Certainly , there's no printer out here that I see .
I guess you are saying that I should study for that , using a printout ?
Once I'm out , I could print things from the Internet at the library or at remaining pay places (Such as my mailboxes place) , thank you .
You know , frankly , when I left Santa Cruz , I was thinking that I didn't really have enough money to " start anew " in San Francisco , even from a homeless perspective , and now , with everything gone now (Altho I am comfortable/nice AS OF NOW , but it's just the temporary being put up in the nursing place . remember , once I'm discharged I anticipate as of now walking out the door with just what's in my pockets , again - even just one set of clothes - Sorta-compulsive honesty , plus one extra T-shirt I got here , to add to the several tees I traditionall have worn on top of each other ~ But just sweatpants , no underwear even , sweats that were emergency pants gotten at the hospital I was before here !) ~ I had been told , by some other HL in SC , that CCSF had nice programs/special status specifically available for HL (And , in my case , either/both?? my being at least younger end of " older " and handicapped would add to What I Could Get .) , and , I thought I HAD to get some medical help , and it ~ Well , Santa Cruz was bad enough ~ I REALLY was " walking like a crippled old man " ~ I might've improved slightly (+ I'd lightened my ball & chain/stuff I carried) once here just for being glad to've done what I wanted?? ~ But , then , the stuff being stolen happened , and , though I am apparently on The Road To Wellville , I have really nothing now , remember...........

...or some set-up , the idea of going to CCSF was that I would take classes that would allow me - Okay , Kraftiekortie - a, uh , four-year , residential , traditional , BA-track , university , as soon as possible after going to community college (MUCH more on this later .) , to transfer to that - Starting in August/September , to start like a " proper " college student The TV commercials show proud parents dropping off their kids at State U. then , Sunday-newspaper supplements advertising " great storage cubes for the dorm " or even directly aimed at the student hi/erself ~ " Your rules " Well , let's get off this now .
Ass for paying for CCSF , speaking of right now , the idea is very much that I will get it 100% paid for by Pell grants/whatever alphabet soup programs/whatever . Period . I do assume I'm an especially good prospect to get " rehab " $ and even the " normal " modern American , or so I vaguely remember , " can get easily a total of (six figures " grant money for education " and I'm certainly even more of a prospect ~ Of course , one thing I might take is 19th/early 20th Century literature , books that are out of copyright so , if money becomes tight , I could read then online .

...I want the experience of going to " real " college(Ha ha . I'm sorry , KK .) . What I never truly had when I was " the proper age " (18) or even " slightly " later (28 , say) .
Among other things , a residential university (Using the Aussie phrase " uni " from now on .) would certainly be an improvement on being homeless !
And it would probably , at least to have it and go through with it , better that the ~ Really , maybe not all that likely ~ " best " likely thing that - might - happen to me in my state , getting a small apartment in a " refixed up old SRO " here in the Tenderloin in San Francisco - one big vast HomelessLand(R) theme park - or , perhaps more likely?? , getting a room in a traditional cruddy SRO with a bathroom down the hall .
And really , people who are not in homeless/similar bad situations GREATLY overestimate " how much help/nice stuff you can get " , believe me ! And I'm Aspie , shy ! !! !! !!
And I do have a slight record , and at least back in Santa Cruz , I was explicitly told that the local social services , aside from that I mean , even , didn't like me much ~ and I don't fall into the " standard " slots for receiving help that way , being neither a veteran nor recovering from Alk/Drugs problem , or a " serious " ex-con (though at the same time my piss-ant Outside The Law , Bad Boy , status might rule me out in some places , I dunno)...
And , fine . I want the " going to college " experience , just as if I WERE 17 or so ~ It's just been 40 years delayed or so .
I frankly tfeel that doing the uni thing , is the only doorway/passageway there is for me to , possibly , move towards a viable post-homeless life ~ I am not saying here , BTW , that the " useful " going to community college is something I won't do . Okay . It's stepping stones .
Triple-A . Out-of-town tryout for Broadway show . Pay your dues . Check .
I remember my mother , when I was 18 , saying (Back during the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player ) saying , " Oh , no ! First you have to prove you DESERVE to go away to college ! " too !
Okay - another tear-con
One more
I want education , too but I want the uni experience ~ And let's face it , you need " credentials " too , and while I suppose I could acquire such by going to exclusively community college ~ Some " incredibly kewwell and cyber-modern on-line course , just boot up your laptop and go on your balcony/to Starbucks and you can have the best professors from Oxford or Harvard..."Yeah sure . If it's not real time it would just be a glorified Sunrise Semester , and I'm so poor that owning a " regular " " decent " computer is sort of nonlikely for me anyway .
There is one regular site of mine (Prison Talk Online) where my expression of my desire for uni was answered with MASS " No you cannot ! Give up that sh*t ! " responses from EVERYONE on that line .
Speaking to an imagined Authority , too , you , Authority , probably dislike me getting SSDI and want me to " support myself " and , maybe trying to be nice about it , might say " Don't you want to make more than SSDI ? .
Well , bluntly , I can't see ANY scenario where anything that leads to me making for myself an amount of money that surpasses SSDI would happen EXCEPT through at least some education/credentials , directly or indirectly , leading to such a situation . That said , it would probably require years of me getting even more aid , my to-live-on PLUS educational aid ~ So it goes !
Even (I do want to , if I - CAN do it - do as little " loans " - that you gotta pay back - as possible .) if I end up owing a lot ~ just deal with it like " modern-day , young " people do , and if I die owing money , bury me on my stomach and kiss/try to g et money out of my ass ?????
Another point ~ I suppose someone would take the " You don't need uni ," argument further , to " be REALLY virtuous (no longer ) young man , educate yourself through reading The Great Books at the library " . Well , lah tee tah .
Lots of credentials you get that way `1 which is how you rise in status/make more money ~ huh ???????
Yes , I suppose it would make a peachy Readers' Digest " Most Unforgettable Person I Ever Met " piece , huh , me the loveable cherub-faced ex-homeless dude who educated himself . Well , no . I ain't that virtuous ~ your idea of that .
And , did you do that ?????????

I can dig it, man.

You'll be the One with Wisdom. You'll do well if you could get in that sort of situation.

The Wise Man of the Mountain, Beard and all.

I never had the "college" experience myself. I went to a commuter school while I worked. It took me eight years to get my BA.

...I did actually wonder that about you .
Look , to make myself sound pathetic , I did , more or less , when I was 18 , think " Now my teenage fun starts " . Nope , it didn't .
Now , my " collicth " ideal is not , really , particularly an MTV-esque " frathouse fun " idea . ~ It's more a " sub-Philip Roth novel " idea of uni .
I don't greatly think I'd make lots of 18-yr old friends (Tho a few would be nice) ~ If anything , I suppose that a lot of modern-day kids' " helicopter parents " would , if they heard about me , want me Away From Junior ~ Or some of those kids themselves .
I'dve likely been not really popular widely if I'd gone at " standard age " (And , of course , maybe modern-day 18s would be OK , but just too different from me to really be friends , and I'm Aspie , " friends " is a rather foreigen concept??) .
Bluntly , having my meal needs taken care of in the cafeteria plan would , if nothing else , be a touch better than the " go to the numerous free feeds in the Tenderloin for chow " pattern that I'd likely fall into again if/when I do " get that SRO " here in the 'Loin . (Which is actually " officially " " The TL " , abbreviation-wise ~ See , someone else shares my initials fascination .) Look , I want it ! !! !! !! !! !!
U know , unfortunately , aside from the " getting in/paying and having enough energy/dedication for it " question , the CCSF scenario might have two problems that , because it would be lengthy digressions to go into them at length , I'll just hint at:
(1)Unique-ish to me?? , my legal s**t led to a situation where it's ?-able that I could get into the obvious " real collitch " destinations in The Golden State , the University of California (The #1 system) and California State University (The #2 system) campuses .
(2) Also , as far as "" transferring CC (any such place , not just CCSF) credits " goes ~ I had thought " Surely any credits you get at , as least on a " normal " subject , could be transferred to any uni in The 50 States & DC ? . Apparently ~ nope .

...I should clarify the above ~ Getting a degree exclusively from CC , Night School Only (NSO ~ whee , more acronyms !) , so to speek , isn't the same thing as the " kewwell ' do-it-at-Starbucks ' cutting-edge online education ! !! !! !! !! " that I satirized above .
Fine . I want the uni experience . Maybe (Assuming I do - can set it up - it and am up to - can continue :- it ) it would be " just for a while " , maybe after doing it briefly I'd " grow up , and be mature , and get an apartment off campus " - Fine .
I do think people are automatically tending to try & fob you off with the " kewwell cutting-edge on-line course " chimera . I want the real thing . Okay , I said that .
Fine , I'm pathetic & old and " desperately wan what I feel I missed as a young'un , at least some sembalance of it " . So ??? ( really was crying as I wrote this paragraph .You got a better alternative ???
As I said , I do sorta feel that , assuming that I'm " supposed to " take the kewwell online course while living in my supposed Tenderloin SRO , be really virtuous and stuff - I will likely have so little money that buying a " normal " computer , having enough money for that , seems a bit questionable as a prospect , anyway .
Two side points ~ I have referred in the past when I was in Santa Cruz to a person there who claimed he could get me into one specific UC system ~ UC Santa Cruz itself .
That's rather on the back burner now but I'm not dumping it entirely . He had earlier claimed I could apply in late 2015 to get in for fall 2016 ~ That seems unlikely now , but~
Do you ever see " trashy " TV shows of the Jerry/Maury type ? They've advertised these " Own A Computer If You Have A Regular Income ! "-type things ~ Probably sort of " rent to own " and likely a little " rip off-ish " , at least in the Consumer Reports sense ~ (One had Russell Simmons , the Def Jam guy's , name attached to it .) ~ But the thought occurred to me that , at some future " marginally housed " time , perhaps , if they're not too utterly ripoffish , I might avail myself of them .
Oh , BTW , CCSF , specifically , has been ensconsed in this long-running " almost getting their credentials pulled by the CA board for community colleges " soap , they've been rescued from an immediate death sentence/s , but still aren't out of it 100% ~ So , maybe that means they're less picky/really desire to get butts in seats ? Gee , I have a great opinion of myself , huuhh ? (They were just accused of " financial/not filling out the correct forms " stuff , IIRC)
I've heard the accusation made that the motivation was that The Powers That Be would really like to turn their space into a for-profit college ~ This sounds distinctly plausible to me ! !! !! !! !! !!

...In all honesty ~ aside from wondering if I COULD get into uni (and how long it would take , and what I would do in the interim ) ~ I do wonder if I'd be up to it ~ Writing lots of reports ? Figuring out (too an extent) what your professor wants to hear , so as to get good grades (If I did get in it'd likely , I suppose , be on some " good grades required " scholarship) ? Frankly , if my hands/arms would even , really , be up to the amount of typing required w/out developing CTS ?
Kraftie Kortie ~ Really , how would I get there ? Now I'm sad now ...........

...Okay , now I'm going to detail my problem with transferable credits and going to certain university systems .
(1) I assumed that , if you took community college (CC) courses for credit , the credits could be transferred to any uni anywhere in the US , at least for a " normal course " .
This appears not to be so . It appears that , at any given CC , the credits you get can only be transferred to some unis in that area , perhaps that state and maybe couple of ajacent states , leaving the other 47 and DC out of reach .
Really , no matter how much some people might try to put a positive spin on it , that's what it is . For example , when I brought this up here before , someone said IIRC " I'm in Kansas and they'll take my credits in Iowa and Nebraska ! !! !! " . Well , yeah , exactly . That's what I'm saying !
What if I'd like to go to uni in Maine , or Texas , after credits here ?
I can't , I guess .
I guess that shows how low-status CCs really are , for all the rhapsodizing about how " democratic ~ the gateway to higher education " and wonderful CCs supposedly are , that you're (Even just in America) supposed to " stay where you are " , you can't go anywhere else :cry .: .
Another possible problem re: going to CCSF relating to the above...........
Naturally enough , I guess , credits at CCSF seem to tend to concentrate on transferability to the two California state systems , the University Of California system and the (the #2 one) California State University system .
However , for a long reason I won't detail now , going to either UC of CSU isn't , really , an option for me , I could not go there (It's not a grudge by me , it's something from outside .) ~ But , UC/CSU transferability , I guess , occupies much of the " space " for places to transfer from from CCSF , I would think .
I don't really know what other residential unis there would be , if the transferable-to unis near CCSF are limited to nearby-ish ones , in this area I could choose from/would like/could get into (No , realistically Stanford is not an option !) . o , what do I do ?????????
Find another plae I want to go to and find what CCs are near them ? Talk about backwards engineering !
And if I do something like that and don't get into the chosen Cuni from the other-area CC ? What do I do then ? Pick only from that area ? Start the process all over again ~ at 58 or so?
Perhaps it can work out better than that ~ But I really have to ask ~ and I can't do it now ~ and I don't anticipate the Powers That Be giving me a particularly straight answer , perhaps even giving me what they'd think of as " a comforting lie/mislead" , " oh , I betcha you can transfer ANYWHERE ! The sky's the limit !...Well , no , it DOES NOT appear to be that way , but I suppose they might hand out " comforting b******t " ~ condescending me/maybe trying to steer me to less .

I'll really have to do some research on this. I'm shocked, actually, that Community College credits aren't transferrable beyond a local area.

...That would be nice . Please do .










te="kraftiekortie"]I'll really have to do some research on this. I'm shocked, actually, that Community College credits aren't transferrable beyond a local area.[/quote]

Community colleges usually have agreements with other 4-year colleges and universities (usually in the same state or nearby states) for transfer of earned credits. This is especially true in the mid-western part of the USA. This is part of accreditation process for the community college. If nothing transfers to another place, then that school is basically unaccredited and has a lower reputation than an accredited school. What you have discovered is that not every community college is academically accredited with every other community college, 4-year college or university across the USA. Higher education does rank schools and this does lead to problems when going from a lower school to a much higher school, as some credits will likely not transfer. There are a few ways to view this problem:

1.) Check out the classes that you want to take and compare them to the place that you want to transfer to. Be proactive in this process. Ask the other college if those classes will transfer from the community college that you are at. If not, you may want to find ones that do and take them first. Usually general education credits transfer the best between community colleges and other schools.

2.) Completing an AS/AA degree usually helps lock in a minimum number of transferable credits to other places. This does not always work, but is better than nothing transferring at all. Certificates are a gamble here.

3.) Sometimes credits will not transfer because the college/university you are trying to get into does not have that particular course. I doubt that you will have this problem at a community college, but it does occur. I had that happen to me once with my nuclear engineering credits, as they would not transfer to another school, since the other school did not have a nuclear engineering program there.

4.) Keep a copy of all of your syllabi that you get for each class in case you have to prove what was taught in each class for credit. This can sometimes be the difference for something transferring or not. In the end, it is the other school that makes the final decision on transferrablility of course work.

5.) Do not be surprised that a 4-year college or university downgrades a community college course number to a lower numbered class on their scale.

6.) Good luck and do your best!

[quote="QuantumChemist"




















...Thank you .
Emotionally commenting on point No. 5 - So my wonderful (assumed) CC , this " wonderful stepping stone to higher education " , is really second- (or lower) class against any 17-year old's HS ?
I tend to assume that a San Francisco one would ~ likely ~ be " decently " ranked , anyway .
As I have said above , I want to be " a college student " ~ meaning residential uni ~ as quick as possible , despite what for instance those people at PTO said .
What I would want would be likely pretty " standard " English/history/film , say (At least to start .) for what I'd take at CC .
There's really some incredibly obscure distinction between different schools' versions of what I thought were " pretty standard meat and two veg " courses ??????? Okay , I'm expounding away ...........






]Community colleges usually have agreements with other 4-year colleges and universities (usually in the same state or nearby states) for transfer of earned credits. This is especially true in the mid-western part of the USA. This is part of accreditation process for the community college. If nothing transfers to another place, then that school is basically unaccredited and has a lower reputation than an accredited school. What you have discovered is that not every community college is academically accredited with every other community college, 4-year college or university across the USA. Higher education does rank schools and this does lead to problems when going from a lower school to a much higher school, as some credits will likely not transfer. There are a few ways to view this problem:

1.) Check out the classes that you want to take and compare them to the place that you want to transfer to. Be proactive in this process. Ask the other college if those classes will transfer from the community college that you are at. If not, you may want to find ones that do and take them first. Usually general education credits transfer the best between community colleges and other schools.

2.) Completing an AS/AA degree usually helps lock in a minimum number of transferable credits to other places. This does not always work, but is better than nothing transferring at all. Certificates are a gamble here.

3.) Sometimes credits will not transfer because the college/university you are trying to get into does not have that particular course. I doubt that you will have this problem at a community college, but it does occur. I had that happen to me once with my nuclear engineering credits, as they would not transfer to another school, since the other school did not have a nuclear engineering program there.

4.) Keep a copy of all of your syllabi that you get for each class in case you have to prove what was taught in each class for credit. This can sometimes be the difference for something transferring or not. In the end, it is the other school that makes the final decision on transferrablility of course work.

5.) Do not be surprised that a 4-year college or university downgrades a community college course number to a lower numbered class on their scale.

6.) Good luck and do your best![/quote]

Do not automatically assume that your community college is a low ranked one. But, do some research and find out exactly how it does rank overall though. It must not be too bad or it would not have accreditation to those 4-year colleges and universities within your state. One thing I wanted to mention is that even some of the Ivy League schools (Harvard, Cornell, Stanford, etc.) do not always accept transfer credits between each other. It does happen even at that level sometimes.

...I should say that PTO refers to Prison Talk Online ~ http://www.prisontalk.com/ ~ were I got verbally reamed par excellence for expressing my desire for sleepaway uni at " my advanced age " .