[quote=davelj]I have some friends who have a son that was a very mediocre high school student (with marginal test scores). He went to one of the local community colleges for two years, did reasonably well (mostly A’s and B’s), applied to UCSD and was accepted, with credits transferred, without incident. I think it only took him two years to graduate from UCSD. If this kid is any indication, going the community college route is both cheaper and easier. It seems a hell of a lot easier than applying with every kid that wants into the system straight out of high school.

http://uctransfer.universityofcalifornia.edu/index.html%5B/quote%5D
It’s not normal to be able to graduate in 4 years if you transfer from JC. If you want to speed things up, you can take JC classes while you’re in HS, during summer and at night to clear out all of your GEs. Then go to a UC (like UCSD) with good reputation, and continue to take JC classes during the summer as well. If you do that, you can probably graduate in 2-3 years. But that’s not typical either. BTW, you can start taking classes at JC when you turn 16.