Foothill College

[homeschoolmom1]

I am looking into Foothill College with their affortable rates for out of state students. I understand that there is a limit of 6 units (on the quarter system) per semester. My question is, can you take 1 course per semester for multiple years in a row? Or is there another limit, like a maximum of total courses at this rate? Finally, is this a community college, so all transfer credit at TESU will be LL?

[bjcheung77]

There is no total, it's 6 units/semester, so that's 12/2 semesters or 18/3 semesters and so on...
That's correct, two year community college credits will all go in as lower level at TESU.

[rebel100]

Uggh...quarter hours? I'd keep looking unless these are incredibly cheap or special in some way.

[homeschoolmom1]

I am not very familiar with the quarter hour system yet. Is it THAT bad? I thought that it would transfer to TESU just fine? Would it say "3 credit hours" per class on the TESU transcript? Anything I should know?

[bghill]

I am not very familiar with the quarter hour system yet. Is it THAT bad? I thought that it would transfer to TESU just fine? Would it say "3 credit hours" per class on the TESU transcript? Anything I should know?

They will transfer to TESU just fine (assuming the classes themselves are OKed by TESU).

They are slightly less time-efficient because they convert to semester hours at a fractional rate (see TESU's conversion chart below). In order to satisfy a 3 (semester) credit requirement, you must have 5 quarter credits. A 4 quarter-credit class won't be sufficient.

If your credits were earned on a quarter system, the following conversion applies:
• 2 quarter hours = 1.33 semester hours
• 3 quarter hours = 2 semester hours
• 4 quarter hours = 2.66 semester hours
• 5 quarter hours = 3.33 semester hours


Oh, and rebel100, Foothill is incredibly cheap: something like $31/qtr credit = ~$150 per course.

[Ideas]

Oh, and rebel100, Foothill is incredibly cheap: something like $31/qtr credit = ~$150 per course.

Oh, darn, there was a 4 credit I was interested in taking.

There is a $16 fee for a Foothill course, so $171 for a 5 credit course (3.33 SH).

[rebel100]

Due to quarter hour credits I ended up with 118 or 119 credits....had to take a whole course at the last possible minute to graduate when I expected at COSC....it's true they will transfer, but not always easilly as you might expect.

[dfrecore]

TESU has no problem transferring in quarter-units, and a 4cr quarter course will meet the requirements of a 3-cr semester course, so that's not a problem. The only issue will be that you might end up short a credit or two at the end, which may need to be made-up at some point. BUT, if you already know this going in, then you can plan for it. Mostly, it's when you don't know that you're .33cr short and think you're ready to graduate that it becomes somewhat of a problem. Again, going into it knowing that you need to plan for this will make all the difference in the world.

Foothill/DeAnza is a huge CC system, with 40,000 students between the 2 campuses. They probably have a gazillion courses. And I know they have a lot of online courses.

[TrailRunr]

Overall, I would recommend Foothill college if it meets your need better than any other option.

The quarter credit thing is not a big deal and not a showstopper. There are free and quick options to get the missing 1 credit if it's in GE or free electives. If the 2.67 quarter credits are in the AOS, you will need to plan an offsetting 4 semester credit course or a 4.5/5.0 quarter credit course that counts in the AOS as a whole. TESU is cool about not forcing you to make up 0.33 credits in specific AOS sections. Instead, they just want the total credits in the AOS to be above the minimum. To avoid this problem, favor the 4.5 or 5.0 quarter credit courses over the 4.0 credit ones when there are multiple options. As long as you plan in advance, you should not end up being short at the end.

Make sure you read the syllabus prior to signing up. You want to make sure exams for your course are not on campus or in-person proctored. IMHO, arranging for another school's proctored exams is a PITA and not worth it. The use of online proctoring is not widespread at California community colleges.

[dfrecore]

Overall, I would recommend Foothill college if it meets your need better than any other option.

Make sure you read the syllabus prior to signing up. You want to make sure exams for your course are not on campus or in-person proctored. IMHO, arranging for another school's proctored exams is a PITA and not worth it. The use of online proctoring is not widespread at California community colleges.

I was going to mention that in my post, and forgot.

DEFINITELY make sure that you don't have a "hybrid" course or one that requires you to have an in-person exam for the final. That IS a deal breaker.