Portland Community College Chemistry: Fill & Download for Free

I would not worry about “cheapest”. I would look for good programs in fields you’re interested in, that charge you based on what zip code you’re zoned to. Some states will have in-state/out of state tuition, but not necessarily all of them.Community colleges as a whole are less expensive, focus on a good school with good facilities, good reputation for teaching, good ratio of students to teacher, good support structures (tutoring centers, advisors, and an international student office).I read about your history with UCR and issues you had, and how you do plan, ultimately, to go back to get a bachelor's degree. I am updating my answer here in case it helps someone else.Considering this, the quality of the community college *does* matter for you.I'm also concerned about your comment about learning on your own. Great skill for life, but if you go it alone you miss out on the best part of being at the CC level. Had you considered that you'll need references to transfer into an undergraduate program? Where do you expect to build those relationships? The benefit of community colleges is the smaller class sizes, better scaffolding for learning new subjects, and especially, more faculty focused on teaching (rather than just research). All these things can lead to a better mentoring relationship with faculty, and that can give you a leg up.My husband had a hard science BS but no experience in econ, business, etc, so he took some CC classes. Now he has a MBA from one of the best (Top 20) programs in the country, in part because his econ professor provided a wonderful reference letter.Most community colleges are not going to break the bank, which is why I would argue quality, opportunities, and relationships count here for much more. It's probably cheaper to attend a community college in Yuba City than San Diego, but are the facilities and relationships as helpful, and what kind of resources are available? (San Diego has much more research and part-time job opportunities than Yuba City, which is one of the poorest cities in California. The cost of living is less in Yuba City, but you have to balance it against many factors.) As for opportunities, some of my former Texas colleagues run an active Webb Society club (Texas history) and have encouraged students to present at state and regional conferences; some community colleges simply do not have these options.If you have some target schools, you'll benefit if you attend a CC that has an understanding, or at least a track record, of accepting some of the courses you want to take. It's more complicated than you might suspect; if you're lucky, some community colleges are very straightforward about schools they have existing partnerships with, which helps.Accreditation plays a much more crucial part, and unfortunately, most students have no clue how this can impact their transfer plans. The most reputable schools in the US are all regionally, not nationally, accredited. (National accreditation is usually for schools such as University of Phoenix and Bob Jones, which do not have the best reputations.) Let's say you pick an inexpensive college in Washington state, such as Lower Columbia College in Longview, WA, about an hour from Portland. Your target is University of Arizona. Guess what? University of Arizona is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA). Lower Columbia is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). These two entities have completely different standards for courses, degrees, and programs. The English comp class, chemistry I, and college algebra class you take at a school accredited by one commission potentially isn't recognized by the other. You just wasted your money and have to repeat the credit at the institution you transferred to. On the other hand, if you attended a school like Pima Community College, it's going to be subject to the same accreditation standards. It's probably not unusual for UofA to take a transfer from Pima, and Pima academic advisors might be able to answer an email or phone call to resolve some questions even before you enroll in a class.Some states have much better track records for transfers. Go to page 18 of this document - http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/docs/pubs/CCRCAspenNSC_Tracking%20Transfer.pdf - showing that the completion rate of transfers to the bachelor's is much lower in South Dakota, than Washington, which is better than the national average. The next page shows the outcomes for students in another fashion. This tells you a lot about the expectations different states have for making transfers easier.To sum up, pick a good school - not just any school based on its low cost - say, a school that has made it as an Aspen Prize nominee or finalist. Make sure it offers a transfer path to the schools you plan to apply to (e.g. your courses will be accepted). Use the resources, get to know your professors, volunteer for clubs, organizations, research opportunities -- as a commuter school, most students don't do this at the community college level, but those who do get proportionally more face time with leaders and faculty, and lots of opportunities (eg speaking at conferences).I would also suggest that you consider NOT attending a university, but instead a small liberal arts college with a top, respected science program. If they offer you a full ride you might even consider transferring in after one successful year at a community college. As an international student you may offer them a level of diversity that they're excited to have, and as someone who had a tough time at a previous university, the advising and support they'll offer you may be very valuable.Look at Harvey Mudd - a fantastic school I wish I had applied to (I worked at a sister school and was friendly with some of the student affairs folks). I think it would be right up your alley.I'd also shoot for UCSD (look at the library shape, that gives you a clue why). Culturally, though, it's very much a grind school. When I worked there I got the impression that the students were very serious and smart, very motivated, which I liked, but didn't have the social outlets available to say, Mudd students. Mudd students seemed a little more, ah, "well-rounded". Relaxed (other than during finals). You might meet a spouse at college, and certainly will meet friends, so having that outlet is important.These schools have good science programs and are strong in bio:GrinnellCarletonKalamazooSwathmoreReedWilliamsPomonaHaverfordWashington University in St. Louis might bear looking at.And read this: Why Small Colleges Are Great For Science Students

I'll start by saying that I've worked in chemistry labs my entire adult life, so while I have a pretty good idea of how to carry out a caffeine extraction given easy access to solvents and labware, there are probably lots of other people on Quora who could give you better advice on how to do the measurement without access to a lab.The traditional way of extracting caffeine is using chloroform or methylene chloride. They do a pretty good job of selective extraction. For brewed tea, you'd basically mix the solvent with your tea, shake, and then separate the solvent from the tea. That process is pretty easy with methylene chloride, since it has very little solubility in water and so the phases will separate easily once you stop shaking (as long as you don't shake too vigorously and form an emulsion). You'd then evaporate away the solvent and be left with a crude preparation of caffeine (along with other co-extractables). Knowing the mass of tea before extraction and the mass of the crude caffeine, you'd be able to calculate the concentration of caffeine in the tea originally. Here's a procedure from Portland Community College that outlines what you'd need to do: http://spot.pcc.edu/~chandy/241/CaffeineExtractionCH2CCl2.pdfIn practical terms, I don't really know where you might get methylene chloride. It's a major component of some old-school paint strippers, but you'd need to separate it from the other components of the stripper, probably by distillation. Chloroform is considerably more toxic that methylene chloride, so unless you know how to handle it safely you probably want to avoid it even if you have a sourceEthyl acetate was also used commercially for caffeine extraction from beans, but I'm not sure that it would be an especially good choice for brewed tea, since it has a pretty high solubility in water. I believe the current technology is extraction with supercritical CO2, which might be possible for you but is probably too complicated in a practical sense.

I flunked out of MIT at the end of the first semester of my sophomore year and went back home, to Oregon. That fall, I began full-time studies at Lewis & Clark College, in Portland, and also began taking night school classes at Portland State College. The following summer, I took a full load of classes in summer school at Portland State. At the end of those twelve months, I had accumulated almost two years of college credits.That fall, I returned to MIT and was readmitted on probation (ie, if I received any grade lower than a C in any class taken, I would be dismissed). I was able to have virtually all of the two years of college credits received in Oregon accepted for credit at MIT. Among other things, this allowed me to avoid having to take at MIT organic chemistry for chemistry & biology students, whose mere passage there was indeed considered a remarkable accomplishment.Richard Wills, SB MIT ‘65, PhD Caltech ‘70, JD UCLA ‘79