Four-year transfers prove to be difficult

   The state budget cuts to higher education not only affect the cost of tuition and the number and variety of classes, it also influences how many transfer students four-year public universities accept.
   Staff at the University Transfer Center at Santa Ana College is seeing grim trends.
   Martha Vargas, University Transfer Center counselor coordinator, said hundreds of Santa Ana College students will not have a place to go in the fall, and at the state level thousands of community college students won’t be able to transfer.
   This year, 19 of the 182 Santa Ana College students who applied to Cal Poly Pomona for the fall 2010 semester have been accepted.  Last year, 69 of the 92 SAC students who applied were accepted. That is 10.4 percent compared to the 75 percent the Admissions Office accepted the previous year.
   Last school year, 49 SAC students applied to UC Berkley and 24 were admitted. This year, 52 students applied to UC Berkley and only seven are being admitted in the fall semester, and one in the spring. In one year, the acceptance rate dropped from 49 percent to 13.5 percent.
   In fall of 2009, 65 students applied to UCLA and 34 were accepted. Eighty-four students applied for fall 2010, and 19 were admitted. The acceptance rate dropped from 52 percent to 22.6 percent.
   Vargas suggests that students apply to multiple universities. Although it’s harder to get in than before, Vargas pointed out that students with a higher GPA are more likely to get accepted. For example, while Cal Poly Pomona accepted students with GPAs ranging from 4.0 to 2.06, it stopped admitting at the 3.3 level. Submission cutoffs are also more stringent; many universities are now setting earlier deadlines because admissions offices need extra time to process all of the applications.
   Other rules and regulations are also taking effect. Vargas recommends that students use transfer center resources to ensure that they are aware of changing requirements and deadlines.
   Similarly, students who have their core general education classes completed when transferring will improve their chance of being admitted to a public four-year university, Vargas said.
   Carmela Ocampo, CSUF University Outreach counselor, said the local area is based on the geographical location where the student is attending a community college. If a student has taken classes at multiple schools, it is based on where the majority of the courses were taken, Ocampo said. For this reason, he suggests that SAC students apply to their local Cal State campus. The UCs do not have this local transfer emphasis, Vargas said.
   Jennifer Benites, who graduated from SAC in 2008, applied to Cal Poly Pomona for fall 2009 and was accepted. All students who apply to Cal Poly Pomona are required to fill out and return a Student Intent to Register checklist. She did not receive the checklist because she did not send in her transcripts from Cypress College, which she also previously attended.
   However, by the time she found out, it was one day too late. She was not able to enroll in classes that semester.
   “It’s frustrating, it really is. You have people who have the will and commitment and determination to do something and they just can’t, they’re stuck. I feel like I am completely stuck, I feel like I can’t do anything,” Benites said.
   A Cal Poly Pomona official recommended that she apply for fall of 2010. When it came time, she was placed on the wait list and then was denied admission. She has applied at other universities but not been accepted.
   “I’m not going to quit until I get to where I want to be,” Benites said.
   Vargas suggests that when applying to transfer, students should keep an open mind about their choice of university.
   She recommends applying to Chapman, Vanguard, Biola and other private universities if a student cannot get into a state university. Also, some out-of-state institutions are accepting more transfer students because they do not have the same budget crisis that California is experiencing, Vargas said.