The Transfer Journey

*Illustration by Sonia Hiew | The Corsair*

I’ve been a student at Santa Monica College (SMC) since Fall 2016, exceeding the typical 2-year plan that's expected of most students. On this journey, I’ve picked up a collection of useful tips for both incoming and returning students.

Meeting with an SMC counselor can be the difference between completing your units or adding on an extra semester to your schedule. They eliminate the guesswork of which classes you’d need for a specific major by filling out an edplan with you. Then they can offer recommendations for general education classes based on your interests.

Counseling hours fill up much faster as the enrollment date approaches. Booking an appointment in advance allows more options to fit in your schedule.

Finding a counselor who you connect with improves the planning process. SMC allows you to reserve a specific counselor instead of just whoever’s available for when you want to meet with a counselor again.

I found a counselor I clicked with in my second-year name Rosaura, who I’ve been seeing ever since. It was nice because I didn't have to share my entire life story and academic history with a new person every time. Also changing majors and updating edplans is much easier with the same counselor.

Finding classes that are exciting but also fit within the framework of IGETC or CSU GE has always been a fun puzzle for me. IGETC stands for Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum which makes sure after transferring, no other lower division classes are necessary at a UC or CSU campus. The CSU GE stands for California State University General Education and fulfills a similar purpose but specifically for CSU’s. Also not all out of state schools or private schools accept IGETC.

It's also best to email the counselors of your target schools to double-check that the transfer agreements are accurate. For example, the requirements for a major in journalism can look different within Private Schools compared to Public States Schools. Even within the same system, like the Universities of California, different schools might have varying classes required to transfer.

Creating a mock schedule using Schedule Planner made life so much easier. When it comes to scheduling classes, I find that anchoring a schedule around one or two classes specific to your major is key. This allows a handful of general education classes to be moved around to fit into the remaining spots.

Timing classes with jobs, family duties, and other commitments are important, but so is the actual professor. There can be a certain teaching style or personality you don’t get along with. I think using classmate stories and rate my professor is one option. Also I recommend emailing the professor to set up a time to talk about how their class is structured and learn a bit more about them. This way you can get a fuller story about them when signing up for classes.

You can never be too prepared. Once you know your enrollment date please add it to your calendar with an alert. It's a frightening feeling when you realize the enrollment date wasn't 7 p.m. but 7 a.m.

The night before my enrollment date I write down the section numbers of all my classes on a piece of paper or my phone, so I can enter them as fast as possible the next day.

Don’t panic if you find there are no open sections for a class you need for major prep or part of a sequence.

Add yourself to the open seat notification list for that class.This will alert you and other students on the list via email if a spot opens up. The first student to add the class will get the seat so it's important to constantly check your email during this phase. It's easy to miss these openings, but don't worry, patience is key!

Two weeks before the semester the waitlist option for a class becomes available. So if you still need that class, put yourself on the waitlist. It will notify you when a spot becomes available. When professors give out add codes for those trying to crash their class, you will automatically get priority for being on the waitlist. Do note that the amount of available spots is dependent on who drops the class the first week. This works on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Finding a major can be stressful, but know that it’s a different process for everyone. I am currently on my fourth, and hopefully, final one. I think starting with a major that aligns with your current passions and skills is a great first step.

Sometimes when your major is undecided, it helps to take a class within a subject you've never experienced. It can awaken a deep fascination that can alter your trajectory. If you're undecided, but know of the general industry you want to join, sometimes five different majors can lead there. So choosing the one that would be the most enjoyable would be the best way to go. Even doctors and lawyers nowadays didn't all study biology or political science in their undergrad.

At SMC all classes are available for selection regardless of your major. Of course as long as you meet the prerequisites .While I was in my second major of Environmental Studies I tried out a fashion trends and industry class. It was an exciting class different from anything I’ve taken before. That class made me realize I could see myself working within some part of the fashion/entertainment industry. Yet I only reached that insight because I browsed through the Course Catalog and stumbled upon it.

Changing majors can be thought of as a setback, but it can come with silver linings. I started as an earth science major, but changed my major a few times until I landed on journalism. Those classes I took while working towards an earth science degree ended up satisfying general education requirements I'd have to do anyway.

At the junior college level switching majors costs less compared to a university when extra class fees are factored in. So, I'm glad I could refocus at this point rather than down the road.

I put a ridiculous amount of stress on myself to map out the next 4 years of my life during my first semester at SMC. I agonized over changing direction for weeks because it meant adding an extra year to my timeline. But once I did it, I learned that a longer timeline isn’t inherently worse. Because if I stayed in my old major I might have made it to a 4-year university sooner, but burned out there.