Transferring to University with AA - How Important is IGETC?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hi All,</p>

<p>I can't seem to find an answer to this anywhere. It is a bit long-winded.</p>

<p>First a little about me: I am now 24 years old, I started at Community College at 18, took some classes full time, did awesome, and then I tapered off, started working more and more, and my grades started to slip. I eventually ended up taking a break for a few years. Anyway I went back to college last year and have since finished up and am now applying for my AA in General Studies. I am almost but not quite IGETC CSU certified (11 units short). My transcript is fine except for one D, one F, and six W's (over 6 years). My overall GPA is 3.0.</p>

<p>I am moving to OC and interested in applying to CSULB or CSUF. My question is, will an AA be enough with my transcript to transfer? Should I just keep going and finish my IGETC before transferring to a CSU?</p>

<p>Secondly, my move to OC is forced (approx 100 miles from where I live now). So I will have no choice as to when it happens and its coming up fast. Is it possible to apply for my AA from my current school, then move and finish my IGETC at an OC community college? In other words can I complete IGETC with credits from two different schools? Or is that even necessary in the first place?</p>

<p>My grades are all good except for those aforementioned blemishes, but I am scared my application will be rejected without IGETC. Does an AA make it easier to transfer in?</p>

<p>Thank you so very much for reading and thanks in advance for your advice!</p>

<p>*Also I'd love to hear opinions on CSUF v. CSULB. I am an English/Lit/Writing/Social Sciences/Humanities kind of student, have not yet nailed down a major!</p>

<p>Take care :)</p>

<p>Jenn</p>

2

<p>IGETC is a way of fulfilling breadth / general education requirements at community college before transferring to a UC or CSU. Most, but not all, majors at UC and CSU schools accept IGETC in lieu of the school’s breadth / general education requirements. If you do not finish IGETC before transferring, or your school and major does not accept IGETC, then you need to fulfill the UC or CSU school’s breadth / general education requirements (though some of your transferable community college courses may fulfill some or all of them).</p>

<p>More information:</p>

<p>[Intersegmental</a> General Education Transfer Curriculum | Student Transfer | CSU](<a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/transfer/requirements/igetc.shtml]Intersegmental”>http://www.calstate.edu/transfer/requirements/igetc.shtml)
[CSU</a> Transfer Requirements | CSU](<a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/transfer/requirements/csustudents.shtml]CSU”>http://www.calstate.edu/transfer/requirements/csustudents.shtml)
[CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - Transfer Students - Transfer Applicant Overview and Definitions](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU)
[Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org)</p>

3

<p>Thank you for the info!</p>

<p>I am wondering if I even need to finish my IGETC or if my AA is enough to get me accepted?</p>

<p>EDIT: I am just a little worried because I know my transcript is not perfect. My GPA is 3.0 with some flaws. </p>

<p>*Which I felt pretty good about my 3.0 GPA/finally finishing my AA degree until visiting these forums! You guys are amazing, I can’t believe how determined and accomplished you all are! Makes me feel way too old to be a junior still ha-ha</p>

4

<p>If you finish your IGETC you will be eligible for the UCs or the CSUs’ TAG programs. If you have at least 60 transferable units and meet the minimum GPA (which varies from school to school) as well as the rest of the requirements you are pretty much guaranteed to get into the CSU or the UC that you apply to. This is what my sister did to get into UC Davis.</p>

5

<p>cali4life: Not sure what year your sister applied, but things are much tighter these days for getting into the CSUs and UCs than you represent them.</p>

<p>collegekid86: First of all, even if you live in OC, you will be considered a non-local transfer for the CSUs in southern California. Basically the CSUs take transfer students in the following order: in-state and local, instate and non-local, OOS. You qualify as “local” to the CSU not by where you live, but by where you earned the majority of your CCC units.</p>

<p>CSUF has recently wanted a 3.7 for non-local transfer students. CSULB I don’t know offhand but I am guessing a 3.3 would be needed for a non-local transfer. The problem is that after these popular CSU campuses fill up their spots with <em>local</em> transfers, there are not many spots left for non-locals and they get filled with the higher gpa students.</p>

<p>For a CSU, you need to worry more about the “Golden Four” than the IGETC (which is a path for UCs, though if completed, almost always fullfils the requirements for GEs at a CSU.)</p>

<p>From a CCC site: “Students must also complete the ‘Golden Four’ classes - Area A (Oral Communication, Written Communication, and Critical Thinking) and Area B4 (Math) before transfer. These Golden Four classes are so important that they must be completed with a grade ‘C’ or better. In fact, there is an area on the CSU application that asks you to list these classes, where you took them, when, and the grade you received.”</p>

<p>Basically the CSUs look to see if the G4 are completed and your self reported gpa (verified usually later with transcripts) to determine acceptance. So, see if your G4 is done. If not, it is generally an automatic deny at all CSUs.</p>

<p>To answer your other questions – it won’t matter at all if you complete units at an OC CCC. So don’t worry about it. But remember that it is not where you live or where you finished your most recent CCC units that makes you an in-state “local transfer” – it is where you received the majority of your units. </p>

<p>To see where your are considered a local-transfer, check out this chart:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publications/documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf[/url]”>http://www.calstate.edu/sas/publications/documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you dig around on each CSU website, you can often find stats from last year’s transfer class on what was the cut-off gpas for non-local transfer students. </p>

<p>I have no idea right now how competitive a 3.0 is for the UCs, but that info can probably be dredged up. At least with the UCs, they take a letter of recommendation and personal statement. The CSUs are purely category and numbers driven applications.</p>