Growing popularity creates new policies for transfer students

By Allison Alonzo
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

Officials from the Cal State University system began work this past summer on a new plan aimed at streamlining the transfer process of community college students. The new plan requires community college students to declare a major and choose the CSU campus they wish to attend prior to transferring.

"With this new policy, the CSU is making it possible for transfer students to earn a baccalaureate degree by taking only those courses they need and want to take," said David S. Spence, CSU's executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer.The new plan, which is voluntary to students, has its pros and cons. The positive side is that it will create a tailored pattern for the student in accordance to their major. The student must select a major and choose the CSU campus they want to transfer to by the time they have acquired 45 units. By doing so, the student will earn the highest priority for admission among their peers.

The negative side of the new pattern is that students have to have a minimum of 60 transferable units by the time they transfer, which is more than the previous requirement of 51 units.

Another negative aspect is that the plan is aimed toward students who have declared a major. Many students often change majors early in their college careers and this could be a of waste time and money.

"This new plan is good for students who know what major they want and what they want to do with their lives, but for students like me whose main priority is just to transfer, I feel it will force me to make decisions I'm not ready to make," said Aaron Cordova, a student at Saddleback Community College.

"I feel that this new plan will save money for people planning to transfer because they will know exactly what classes to take and with the rising tuition prices, I feel that it will save time and money," said Nariza Condol, a student at Orange Coast Community College.

While the plan is still in the works, some changes have already been implemented. They are the""Competitive Admission" (Fall 2004) and""New Qualifications for Admission as an Upper-Division Transfer Applicant" (Fall 2005).

Cal State Long Beach experienced a surge in applicants due to the university's increasing popularity. The'"Competitive Admission" plan seeks to alleviate the number of students eligible for transfer into the Cal State system. For the first time, transfer applicants may be required to have a higher GPA than the CSU minimum.

"The New Qualifications for Admission as an Upper-Division Transfer Applicant" plan will begin in fall 2005. In order to be considered as a transfer student 60 transferable units is required.

Eligible students must have selected a major and have a minimum GPA of 2.0 or higher. Non-residents are required to have a minimum GPA of 2.4.

For more information on these new policies log on to: http://www.csulb.edu/depts/enrollment/admissions/index.html or http://www.csumentor.edu/AdmissionApp/.