<p>@ shabushabu9: listen to Dainese (: he really knows his stuff! </p>
<p>Even though I’m pretty much repeating everything he said, it’s only because I really want to emphasize & elaborate a bit on these points: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>take placement tests: don’t feel too bad if you end up in a lower class than expected n_n;; bumping up a few levels and even completing the read/math/english/chem courses don’t take too long if you work hard! You can probably go up at least 2~3 levels per year if you work hard 
(ex: start at engl68 in the fall, take engl1ah in the spring OR if you’re lucky, take engl1a in the winter and then engl1c in the spring= ta da! you’re finished with english (: ) </p></li>
<li><p>realise that it may take 2+ years to transfer, esp with pre-med path: I think engineering takes a while too, depending on your placement of math when beginning. Also, don’t rush into a major just because you want to get out! I made this mistake my freshman year and although I’m not affected by it too much, still, the time and energy wasted going full-force into a study I forced myself to take for the sake of reaching that 2 year goal are losses that could have been easily avoided ): Because of this, for nearly a year, I didn’t stop to ask myself if this major was what I really wanted to do and whether I could see a bright future in it >__<;; Also, I neglected exploring my options (thankfully, I realised what I really wanted to pursue before it was too late). I believe Mt Sac is a really great place to explore your interests and options (: just don’t get too cozy and end up staying 5+ years alongside being undecided… but yes, as Dainese said, keep your mind open for options! </p></li>
<li><p>get into honors: YUP this is a definite must! First off, if you graduate from HS with a gpa below the 3.5 requirement in order to be part of the Honors Program at the start of your freshman year, not to worry! You get a fresh, clean slate your first semester here so take advantage of this by trying your best to earn at least a 3.5! Secondly, I cannot emphasize enough how awesome the Honors professors are (at least, from my experience, I’ve always had wonderful honors professors (: ). They’re incredibly dedicated and because of the small size of an honors class (around 20), students can get individual attention easily = a better learning experience I believe (: This is also really neat because usually the ratio between students and instructor is a pretty wide difference and you’d have to go to some private school to receive the kind of attention and help honor students get for a mere fraction of a private’s price. Thirdly, see Linda Diaz, the honors counselor. She is probably the most helpful and knowledgable counselor Mt Sac has and I’m not saying this for biased reasons; trust, everyone I know who has seen her at least once feels the same way too. </p></li>
<li><p>getting classes is a BUMMER ): Hopefully you are from a HS that qualifies to be part of the Connect 4 program (it depends on the location of your HS…) that allows freshman to have priority registration. If you can be part of this, GREAT. Take advantage of this; research which classes you’re interested in taking/ need to take, see counselors ahead of time (as in the summer after you graduate HS) to discuss your academic/transfer plans, heck, make back-up plans in case the classes you want are filled up!
Oooh and speaking of priority registration, if you’re an athlete or in choir, you get it automatically I think… and when I mean athlete I do not mean yoga or PE…
Don’t count on registration woes letting up even as a sophomore ): I’m in my last semester here and I still got waitlisted for humanities courses ): with a third day registration date… BEST of luck to you & those who need science/math classes more.
In addition, being persistant can really pay off! Even if you’re barely clinging on to the waitlist or if you couldn’t even get into your class of choice, I recommend that you still show up the first few days and talk to the professors You’d be surprised by how many people do not show up = open spots! Sometimes it doesn’t work out but still, you won’t regret that you didn’t at least try. And yeah, it’s getting harder and harder to get classes so FIGHT HARD ): <em>aja aja!!</em> </p></li>
<li><p>DO take advantage of the resources mt sac has to offer!
If you’re looking for a full/part time job or internship, sign up for the Mountie Career source or go to the Career Center on the 2nd floor of the Student Services center. On-campus jobs are posted there as well.
The T-Marc on the 1st floor of the Math & Science building is where you can go for free math-tutoring services, calculator & textbook borrowing, and computer lab stuff (that is strictly for math or CS related work from what I know). I’m sure your math professors will relay this info to you when you’re actually there
The Writing Center on the 1st floor of Bld 26B offers free tutoring services, computer labs, and a whole bunch of free writing resources & information.
Even though the library says “NO FOOD OR DRINKS”, you can do so secretly in one of their study rooms with friend(s) <em>kahaha</em>. But during finals week, there will be moments when you’d love to punch someone in the face just to have a precious cubicle to yourself.
There’s a massive tutoring center below the library and language lab that you can go to for probably all of your tutoring-needs!
The Language Lab is great too but I think it’s only for those who are actually taking a language course. They have a huge collection of foreign films your professors may recommend you watching for extra credit or something (:
If you’re an athlete, you’ll probably be referred to the WIN center that is way off in that desert of a parking lot at the back of the school. Here, there’s tutoring services + a computer lab as well, although I’ve heard from my friends who go there that it’s not the best place to study as everyone is pretty chatty over there. </p></li>
<li><p>If you’re stuck on which professor to take for a certain subject, use rate my professor (haha obviously…) It’s been my bible for that purpose since I started at Mt Sac. And I’m sorry to say that the kind of professor you have matters quite a lot. One lousy professor may screw you over a subject that is not worth getting a C or below on (although getting Cs and below isn’t very good anyways…). I’ve heard way too many horror stories with scary professors & how they destoryed their victimsImean students academic lives or perfect gpas, etc… You shouldn’t trust everything RMP says but it’s better than having no reference at all. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Oh… I wrote an entire essay D: well I hope anyone who reads this (including you shabushabu) finds at least a little help from it even though you still have a couple of years to go before you even know which college you may be attending o__o;;;</p>
You would apply to Mt Sac first and then around the summer time, giving around two weeks or less before the start of the first registration date, you’d log into your Mt Sac portal (that I believe you can & must create during your application process… although my memory is really fuzzy on this one; you should ask someone who works at the school to be sure) where you’ll be able to see which registration date you’ve been assigned. You can tell whether you’ve been granted priority registration by Connect 4 if you see that you got a pretty early date; there’s nothing that will specifically say that you have “freshman priority registration”.