Maybe it was just my major (it required a great deal of specialized coursework), but what I saw in college was that if you were in a four-year institution you could (and often had to if your major was a STEM field, the kind of field they seem to love to push these days) take some of the higher-level (junior and senior level) courses during your sophomore year. Most community colleges don't offer those courses and even if they did, they generally wouldn't transfer them.
I took a couple of community college courses in high school (I was a somewhat advanced student, far from best in my class but good enough to qualify) that transferred without a problem.