IT Major with Plans to Transfer After a Year—Need Advice
Hi everyone,
I briefly mentioned this topic in one of my old posts, but I’d like to get more detailed advice. I’m planning to attend community college with an IT major for a year, and I’m considering transferring to a four-year institution afterward.
I’m unsure whether it’s better to continue with the IT major during my community college time or switch to general studies. I’m worried about whether sticking with IT might limit my options for choosing a different major when I transfer.
If anyone has experience with this situation or can offer guidance on how staying in IT might impact my transfer and major selection, I’d really appreciate your insights!
Thanks in advance for your help!
3 answers
Michelle’s Answer
Although it is always best to check with the transfer school as well as the community college, in general, I do not see anything standing in the way of your plans.
The IT major is a very good one and will be very useful to you regardless of what you change your major to. All colleges are different, but it is my understanding that when you transfer as an IT major from the community college, it is perfectly fine to start a new major at the transfer school. You'll have to find out which courses are transferrable, which ones the four year college will accept as credited. I highly advise not doing a general studies or liberal arts major at either college. It is not a degree that will help you when you graduate because employers never ask for applicants to have a degree in general studies or liberal arts.
You can consider taking your general education required courses for that year at the community college and not declare a major since you're going to transfer to a four year college anyway. If you don't intend to graduate from the community college, why even declare a major there ? Just take your general ed required courses there like English, History, the Sciences, Humanities, whatever the particular general ed courses would be for the four year college. Take maybe a couple of IT courses, too, if that's what you like. It's okay to be undecided but you should be sure of a major by the end of your sophomore year so you can go forward with major courses. Naturally you should visit the colleges, both, and see what their current guidelines are about this, but something tells me that you shouldn't have any difficulty as long as you verify it with the schools involved. If you're going to spend time at the community college, my opinion is to get your required general ed classes done so that you can focus more on a major and the few general ed that may be required at the four year college for your Bachelors Degree.
I'm not sure how similar academia is today from when I attended college a very long time ago, but there were many people that college-hopped, took a class at one college and then three courses at another. etc. I also knew people who used college physical ed department for their personal fitness routine with no intention of obtaining a degree. I had a friend who just kept going to college and accrued so many credits/units, finally declared a major at the end of this long stay in college. I also knew someone who went to college for many years but with no intention of obtaining a degree. So I would imagine that colleges today would be able to accommodate what you want to do, but keep in mind not to declare a major at the community college if you plan to just transfer after a year. Everyone has different plans and preferences, so double check this and all the requirements mostly for the four year college that you intend to transfer to.
I hope that this is a bit of help and wish you all the best !
Steve’s Answer
College is a journey that should teach you how to learn and how to explore your passions and creativity and build that ability to create and iterate and while you will learn the mechanics of many things in Community College the breadth of instructors, classes, clubs, other students and experiences in the 4 year college can help you develop into a fuller technologist, creator and overall person.
Good Luck, The fact that you have the insight to ask these questions tells me that you will be successful however you approach it.
Peter’s Answer
When faced with general tracks in a major vs specialized, I go with GENERAL. Why? A degree program that has tracks in a major will consist of a set of courses (up to 40-50% of the major courses in my experiences) that are the same across the tracks, with the major electives being VERY limited within specializations, but the general track contains major electives/course options across ALL of the tracks, which diversifies your exposure to skills and course topics (and gives more wiggle room in progress).