CSULB
admissions standards for transfer students
unfair
Devon
Jones
A
friend of mine planned to transfer from
a community college to our lovely university
in Spring 2006. However, during his attempt
he was informed he needed his 60 transferable
units completed by summer 2005. He was
not going to have his 60 units completed
until later, which in my mind makes sense
considering a normal college schedule.
A student should be able to finish his
or her lower division requirements one
semester, earning his upper-division
status, and the following semester transfer
to a university to complete his upper-division
requirements.
Such common sense does not seem to be the name of the game at Cal State Long
Beach. There is clarification for all of this on the admissions Web site.
It says, “You are considered an upper-division transfer student if you
will have completed 60 or more transferable semester units or 90 transferable
quarter units by the end of the prior spring term for fall entrance or the
prior summer term for spring entrance.”
After reading this, I wondered why it is that if a student plans to transfer
during fall semester he or she can finish the 60 units by the end of spring.
But if you want to start during spring, however, you must have completed your
60 units an entire semester in advance?
What is the difference between fall and spring anyway? Maybe I am just naive
to admissions on a California State University campus, but I am certainly not
naive that this makes it difficult for transfer students to attend our university.
The friend I mentioned is planning to attend Cal State Northridge. He meets
the requirements to attend our campus, which was his first choice. Unfortunately,
because of this unfair limitation on transfer students, which pertains exclusively
to some CSU campuses, many transfers are forced to either take a semester off
from school or attend their second — or even third choice — university.
Our school should not be so overly willing to include the freshmen at the expense
of transfer students.
According to Education Statistics Quarterly, 51 percent of high school graduates
in 2000 who chose to attend a community college before attending a university
did so in order to save money before attending a university. This is more than
half of all community college students.
If schools are making it difficult for these students to continue their education
at the university level, maybe they will not be able to continue their education
anywhere. Who are the universities to punish and discourage these students
for making a financially sound decision?
Transfer students did their time at a community college with the promise of
higher education. They proved they are dedicated to earning a degree. To be
denied the opportunity of choosing a university is wrong. Maybe admissions
should not be so restrictive towards transfer students but rather to incoming
freshmen.
Devon Jones is a first-year broadcast journalism major.
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