Hi friends. I am a 19 year old community college student in California. I will be applying to universities for the Fall of 2014 and am preparing applications now (as a TAG student). I have decided to apply to mostly UC campuses, as well as a few CSU campuses. After researching the different options available to me last year, I feel that the UC system would be the best avenue for me to take. Their ties to the California Community College system as well as their affordability make them an extremely tempting option. Furthermore, many of these schools are well respected academically and many friends and counselors I have spoken to recommend these universities as an excellent place to continue my education. To prepare for this journey I have followed a few steps I would recommend to any student looking to transfer successfully.
Step 1 is simple: Work hard in your classes. Community college is different from high school in a lot of ways, but for me personally I noticed immediately that there is no hand holding. At my college we have roughly 21,000 students or so all looking to use college to further their lives in one way or another. There are no parent teacher meetings or back to school nights or phone calls if you arrive tardy. Nobody cares if you miss class and nobody cares if you fail. To me this was both frightening but also liberating. However, there are ways to stand out from the crowd and quite a lot of resources available to students that many don’t even realize which leads me to my second point.
Step 2: Be proactive. When I started my first year I spent a great deal of my free time in the Transfer/Career center reading literature about different schools, majors, and attending workshops to learn about what I had to do to get where I wanted to be. I found out about this great resource when I attended orientation and met one of the counselors who works there. Professors’ office hours are also a great way to brush over material that didn’t stick the first time in class.
The point is this: you are in charge of your success and the amount of time and effort you put in will determine how successful or not you will be.
Also, I ran out of steps.
By Cali Boy