Transfer Dilemma From the desk of the Roundup

hile the majority of students enter community college with a plan to transfer after two years, this is the case for less than 10% of students within the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), and the solution could be having more counselors specializing in transferring.

According to the most recent accountability report released by California Community College system, only 40% of California based community college students who intend on fulfilling a bachelor’s degree successfully transfer to a fouryear school.

The junior college to fouryear transfer system is not as simple as it sounds. While community college advocates praise a “wiser financial decision,” the discrepancies involving differing private school articulation agreements,

Letters to the Editor

Policy: Letters and guest columns for or against any position are invited. Letters should be kept as brief as possible (300 words or less) and are subject to editing. Letters must be signed and include a valid mailing address and telephone number. Pseudonyms or initials will not be used, but names may be withheld upon request and approval of the Editorial Board. The Roundup publishes “Letters to the Editor” that are not obscene or libelous and do not contain racial denigration. Writers are given the opportunity to revise unacceptable letters. The Pierce College Roundup will not publish, as letters, literary endeavors, publicity releases, poetry or other such materials as the Editorial Board deems not to be a letter. The deadline is 11:59 p.m. the Sunday prior to the issue date.

Editorial Policy: The Pierce College Roundup position is presented only in the editorials. Cartoons and photos, unless run under the editorial masthead, and columns are the opinions of the creators and not necessarily that of the Roundup. The college newspaper is published as a learning experience under the college journalism instructional program. The editorial and advertising materials published herein, including any opinions expressed, are the responsibility of the student newspaper staff. Under appropriate state and federal court decisions, these materials are free from prior restraint by the virtue of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Accordingly, materials published herein, including any opinions expressed, should not be interpreted as the position of the L.A. Community College District, the college or any officer or employee thereof.

WCal State requirements, and those of the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) are often hidden barriers between a student and transferring.

Also, a student has to fulfill General Education courses (GE) under these specific requirements listed, alongside those of required courses for a major in acquiring an Associate of Arts degree for transfer.

Adequate guidance from counselors in the Transfer Center would lessen this issue.

If Pierce counselors take the time to equip students with the knowledge and most efficient timeline, students could create the most productive schedule.

“It was honestly really hard for me to find out what classes I had to take because of the counselors,” Pierce Student Lauren Ziyaaein said. “They’re all really nice but not helpful and honestly don’t seem like they know what they’re saying most of the time. I had to get a counselor outside of Pierce for help and don’t think I could’ve been ready to transfer at the two-year mark without them.” newsroom.roundupnews@gmail.com

Without this guidance from the beginning of an academic career, it is common that many students will waste their time by taking classes that don’t fulfill one of these categories to apply to schools in a timely fashion.

Also, counselors could be assigned a selection of majors. This way, depending on a student’s major, the student would visit a counselor who is knowledgeable in the necessary requirements rather than a counselor who has to rely on Google searches to answer crucial questions.

This way, students will have an efficient course plan for the next two years. With more counselors who specialize in specific majors, more students will be prepared to transfer after two years.

Midnight school woes

International students are essential to the Brahma family’s diverse learning environment.

While many international students strive for success, the challenge of adjusting to different time zones limits their potential to succeed.

Due to COVID-19, many of these students live in their native countries, so they attend classes at unreasonably odd hours to match their mandatory class schedules. This negatively affects their well-being because students are suffering from sleep deprivation or general exhaustion.

The Daily Californian reported that Rensselaer Polytechnic University international student Kaijie Zhang was attending online classes from his home in China, and died “following bouts of irregular sleep.”

Wuxi is 13 hours ahead of Rensselaer, New York, so a typical 2 p.m. EST would have been 3 a.m. for Zhang.