Pro: A clearer pathway for students Con: Working smarter not harder

When it comes to transferring, community colleges have made it quite simple to transition over to four-year universities.

Most college students know that the first two years of school can make or break you.

Students tend to enroll in difficult classes in the start of their educational path without knowing how to balance a proper schedule. They go in with little to no knowledge as to what classes they’re about to take or need to take. Some don’t even have a clue as to what they plan on majoring in.

The Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC), which was implemented in the fall of 1991, has become a solid foundation as to what needs to be tackled and focused on to make successful transfer completion requirements.

IGETC hopes to be as simple as a check-off list for students to follow. The more things you get to cross off your list (sections or classes taken), the more you know that you are that much closer to moving onto bigger and better things. It gives students less stress knowing that once they are at their chosen university, they don’t have to worry about where they stand, as far as graduation goes.

This plan, if followed correctly, aspires to get students onto the next level in their academic endeavours as quick as possible.

Many students today work or have children and are trying to save as much as possible to keep tuition debt at a minimum.

It keeps our options open for those who don’t know what their majors are.

They can simply stick to IGETC course guidelines until they transfer on.

It is not required for IGETC coursework to be completed at the same college.

According to the University of California website, “Courses taken at more than one California community college may be used to fulfill IGETC. Coursework may only be applied in the area or category it was approved for in the IGETC agreement at the community college where it was completed.”

The website also states, “IGETC courses must be completed with a grade of C or better. A grade of Credit or Pass may be used if the college's policy states it is equivalent to a grade of C or better.”

Completion of the program allows students to not only graduate, but with the inclusion of the UC Tag program, it also allows students a guaranteed admittance to the UC of their choice.

Congruently, counselors can take advantage of the simplicity of IGETC by using the courses guidelines as guidance for them to map out your next step in classes. Most will have it already filled out for you, so that he or she can go over your progress to transfer. IGETC helps cover all aspects of intermediate college education or different areas of curriculum, which prepares the student for what is to come in a higher level institution.

JUSTIN MIRANDA Reporter @RoundupNews

The Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) education plan makes it difficult for a student to transfer to a UC or CSU because students can lose interest in college.

The current IGETC plan either shouldn’t be required for students to follow or needs to be hugely reworked. The IGETC plan has seven areas that contain a whole mess of courses students need to not only take, but pass with a satisfactory letter grade.

Area 5A is the “Physical Science” section in the IGETC plan and it contains Astronomy, Chemistry, Oceanography, and other physical science courses. For instance, if a student is an English major and took a chemistry course, does the student really need to know the elements of the periodic table? This can lead to the student to not be interested in the course and the student is taking the course in order to transfer.

at school is not interesting. It’s a waste of time and money for students who take unnecessary classes they don’t need.

Rather than an English major taking physical science courses, the student should instead take courses that support their major.

Instead of chemistry, a student could take more writing classes such as journalism or philosophy.

Sure, there are areas that contain English and writing classes, but why not just replace all the unnecessary courses with classes that aid the student’s major? This would help boost interest in students.

They would be taking classes they enjoy and need for their major. According to Scholarships.com, the first main tip for passing college classes is to “take classes you’re interested in.” Students take classes in high school and some of the courses are similar to the IGETC plan.

When students are not interested in a class, they lose motivation and the desire to learn. This can lead students to fail the class, then not completing the IGETC plan and finally not even being able to transfer and complete their major.

According to The Brown Daily Herald, a student survey was taken and shows “38 percent of students drop their courses because the course is not relevant long-term.”.

If the current IGETC plan stays active, then more and more students will be taking irrelevant courses. Some students may never be able to transfer just because unnecessary courses exist in the IGETC plan.

The IGETC plan can be reworked by just by removing courses that students don’t need and instead make students take courses that are similar to their college major so students can enjoy the courses they are taking. The required units to transfer should still be 60 units, but those 60 units of classes should be specified courses for the student’s pathway. nherring.roundupnews@gmail.com

According to livescience.com, 75 percent of students reported that they are bored at school because the material being taught

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According to the AP Students website, the high school AP Chemistry course shares identical ideas and science practices to the “Chemistry 101” (General Chemistry I) course at Pierce College.