Yap 1 Justin Yap English 1A Instructor Greger April 5, 2009 Natural Selection & Transferring Process What makes a student a good applicant when applying to their transfer college? Students may ask this question to themselves to determine what they have and do not have. Students who are thinking about transferring have to have certain requirements before transferring. A few of them includes transferrable courses, a written essay (also known as the personal statement), and good grades. However, there are certain limitations for a qualified applicant since colleges vary from one another. Natural selection plays into the role of the transferring process due to the many applicants who have a wide diversity in their cultural backgrounds and viewpoints and only the selective in. Students who are transferring to an undergraduate or graduate school had completed their course requirements, finished their required job experience (if needed), and gained a basic knowledge of the degree they are trying to pursue. Students who are pursuing their bachelor’s degree or master’s degree need to transfer because the school that they are currently attending does not offer the degree and the required coursework to obtain the particular degree. However, those who come from high school that goes straight into an undergraduate school does not need to transfer since the school already offers the degree or a student who applies to a private school since the school already has the degrees they offer for both undergraduate and graduate education. If the student does not transfer from their community college or from their undergraduate school, they will only be able to get the highest degree that the school offers. A
Yap 2 student from community college that does not transfer will only be able to obtain an Associate’s degree, which is a degree that accounts for about two years’ worth of college education. In today’s USA standards, colleges are getting more competitive which leads to a low acceptance rate and can discourage some students when applying. Colleges are requiring a high GPA, extracurricular activities, work related to the major, and a personal statement. These necessities can discourage many students when looking for a college to apply. In order to get a better chance of getting into college, a good GPA is required. GPA, also known as grading point average, is base on an A-F scale having four points the highest and zero points the lowest for a letter grade. It then calculates on how many courses a student takes per semester or quarter. The average GPA shown on the student’s record is to show how the student is doing per semester/quarter. Transfer colleges such as UC Berkeley and UCLA look at the student’s GPA to see if the student is eligible to go to their school. Most colleges want their students to be smart and excel in their major. In order to keep the college’s reputation, they require a high GPA to be qualified. This is when natural selection plays its role as it looks into the student’s progress from their transfer college. Just because a student has a 4.0 GPA, is the president of a club, attends to four volunteer places per week, it does not mean that the student has a guaranteed ticket. Colleges also want their campus to be diverse in the student’s experiences, viewpoints, and background, thus accepting the person who has a 3.5 GPA than the student who has a 4.0 GPA. A person having the college’s application requirements means that the student is applicable to enroll to the college and does not mean that the person is going to get in. Most people think if a student achieves a 4.0 GPA; it is a one-way ticket to the college of their dreams. While in fact, that may be true to some colleges, other factors plays into the role such as extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities are one of the major faults of not getting into a good college.
Yap 3 Colleges want students to be well rounded and to do that, they expect volunteering work, clubs, and teams. It is best for the applicant if the student has a role in clubs and has been volunteering for some time. Most students focus on a good GPA and forget about any extracurricular activities, thus making them a weaker applicant. This also leads much stress as the student tries to time manage their schoolwork, job(s), club events, family, and friends. As students research the colleges for their acceptance rate, they can be intimidated, which can lower the self-esteem of getting in. Universities acceptance rate varies from one school to another as they have a different standard. One school’s standard can be a minimum of a 3.0 GPA while another school, such as Harvard, requires a good GPA, extracurricular activities, interview, standardized test scores, and letter of recommendations. One school can heavily enforce all aforementioned aspects or just one particular aspect such as GPA. That is why it is best for students to be well rounded. Natural selection plays in the role of all colleges since each application is examine, measure, and determine by the staff of the school. Harvard’s staff picks the best and well-rounded students of their class and it is best to have a compelling essay application. Survival of the fittest is one of the keys in school. If the student can be class president, a member of the football team, yet have compelling grades and be using their free time wisely like volunteering, then they will have one of the best applications that stand out from the others. In comparison, the student who makes a C average and who is well round in their schooling can have a less successful application. Then again, there are factors of each application that determine the student’s acceptance. A student might think that applying for colleges and hoping to get in could be hard and is probably one of the hardest things to do in life; this is not always true since applying for a job that is out of state or in state is just as hard. Working at a job and gaining experience from each
Yap 4 of them can result into a very good resume as the person starts to apply for another job. Depending on the type of job, what position they were in from the previous company, degree, and recommendations, these factors determine the person’s acceptability. The same techniques for working hard at school to working at a job can apply when turning in an application; you have to work hard for the things you want. Natural selection again plays a role in the real world. It can determine the person’s job or the person being lay off due to company’s financial situation. For example, a person who is working for Google for about fifteen years will have a higher acceptance rate of getting into Apple than for a person who is working at Microsoft for two years. Although these two things may seem very different from a standing viewpoint, they are actually quite similar since they both share the same techniques of learning how to time manage, to adapt to the surroundings and people, and how to overcome certain obstacles. From the school to the real world, time managing is a major part of life where one has to learn how to master. In school, the student has to learn how to manage their time when doing homework, going to club meetings, family time, and resting. In the real world, the person has to learn how to time manage their work, family, house, and personal activities. It all follows the basic rule and guideline for time management: knowing when to start and stop. That is what makes it so hard for the student to do when school is in session since there is a lot of work coming from professors, going to class, spending time with the family, and having a social life. Time management can be especially difficult if they are fresh out of high school or students who are in their late twenties who just started to practice managing their time. Students who are coming from a high school and going to an undergraduate school would say that the transferring process is a little bit easier and a bit less hectic. In high school, classes are much easier and the student will be able to do more activities – teams, clubs, and volunteer
Yap 5 work, thus making it less hectic to become an outstanding applicant for college. Compared to students who go to a community college from high school, they will experience about twice as much stress or maybe even more depending on the major. However, students from a high school and going to an undergraduate school rather than a community college have little to no knowledge of deciding which major to pick. Students who also go to an undergraduate school that come straight from high school have to take the SAT’s (scholastic assessment test) in order to apply to a UC or CSU. In addition, there is a price to pay if the student decides to go straight from high school and into a UC/CSU: those students pay more money for tuition, books, and transportation. The students who go to a community college before going to a UC/CSU pays less tuition and possibly less for books and transportation depending on the location of where the student lives. Natural selection plays a role when it comes to students who are entering a UC/CSU as well by determining which applicant has the most diverse experience and viewpoints. Students dealing with the same transfer process than a student who is in a community college or to a student, who is in their undergraduate school and looking for their graduate’s degree, have just a slightly different application process. To conclude this, Natural Selection plays in the role of the transferring process by determining which applicant is the best for their college. It is the survival of the fittest and only a few are randomly select when the competition is high. Applicants who are going through the transfer process face great obstacles; one of these obstacles will be learning how to better time manage their schoolwork. The techniques the student learns from the transfer process are also use in the real world when applying for a job. Working hard for the things that the person wants is sometimes a downfall, but it is eventually rewarding at the end.
Yap 6 Works Cited “A Diverse Definition of Diversity in College Admissions.” eCampusTours. TRUSTe, NACAC. 5 May. 2009 <http://www.ecampustours.com/collegeplanning/applyingforcollege/definitionofdiversity .htm>.