Transfer workshop on campus informs students about options

Palomar College had a transfer workshop April 14 to help guide students around the ins and outs of transferring to a 4-year college.

Elvia Nunez is the Transfer Center director and she talked about the basics of transferring to a 4-year university to a University of California (UC), California State University (CSU), and out of state schools.

Claudia Nunez is a sophomore at Palomar College and said she is looking to transfer to a four-year university but isn’t sure where.

“The workshop really helped me out what I need to do so I can go to a 4-year university,” Claudia said. “The transfer counselors taught me to keep my options open and figure out what path is easiest to get me into a four-year university.”

Transferring to any of these schools can be difficult, which is why there is a sheet called Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC). What this form does is guide community college student on how to attend a four-year university by taking General Education (GE) and prep classes to take.

The workshop counselors informed students that one way you can find out if any of your college credits are transferable is to check out assists.org. This site can help you find out what classes you have to take to be able to go to a four-year university.

To transfer to a UC school, you’ll need to have 60-transfer credits that go hand-in-hand with your degree, with a minimum 2.4 GPA. If you were to follow the (IGETC), you would have a pattern tag, which means you are guaranteed to get into six of the nine UC schools. Those six UC’s are Davis, Irvine (who requires a minimum of a 3.4 GPA), Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz.

CSU schools require you to have 60 transferable credits, a minimum 2.0 GPA, complete the golden four classes, and 30 GE units. The golden four classes are oral communication, critical thinking, math, and English. The form that guides you to CSU schools is called California State University General Education Guide and helps you take the classes you need to go to a state school. These is a total of 23 CSU schools to choose from.

Out-of-state schools and private schools don’t have a form to guide you. They require a minimum of transfer level units, English and math requirements and SAT scores. Some out of state schools have a Western Exchange (WUE) scholarship. With this scholarship, some out of state schools can be a lot cheaper than California universities.

For more information, visit http://www.palomar.edu/counseling/transfercenter/.