1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,440 Before we begin today, I need to go ahead and add one thing that I missed in my last 2 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:09,600 episode on community college part one. 3 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:14,800 I was talking about the different people that should be considering, if not actually straight 4 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:16,940 up attending community college. 5 00:00:16,940 --> 00:00:21,760 And there's one group of people that I think is going to be important for us to highlight. 6 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:25,720 There's some people who are looking to go to a vocational school. 7 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:30,200 Career colleges are not there to train you for a particular job, but vocational school 8 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:31,200 is, right? 9 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:35,780 And these are the kind of professions where at college you're learning the specific skill 10 00:00:35,780 --> 00:00:41,120 sets and oftentimes there's a specific certificate that goes along with it that indicates that 11 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:47,120 you're capable of doing certain types of jobs, whether it's mechanic or woodwork or metalwork 12 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:52,160 or electronics or nursing. 13 00:00:52,160 --> 00:00:56,880 There's certain programs where it's not merely like a head heavy course. 14 00:00:56,880 --> 00:00:59,760 There's a lot of hands on things that you need to learn. 15 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:05,760 And so those programs are available at community colleges and I rarely find them to be available 16 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:09,320 at least extensively at any four year college. 17 00:01:09,320 --> 00:01:11,200 But community college is a place you'll find it. 18 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:16,360 Now the reason I want to stress this is that there are going to be places that advertise 19 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:20,500 these vocational programs and they're for profit colleges. 20 00:01:20,500 --> 00:01:23,920 You might have seen commercials for them, often in the daytime. 21 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:25,880 I've seen them anyways. 22 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:32,200 And honestly those programs piss me off in part because they're going to take your money, 23 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:34,960 they're going to get you to sign up for a bunch of student loans, promise you a bunch 24 00:01:34,960 --> 00:01:38,160 of stuff that they can't promise. 25 00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:44,760 A lot of these programs are not accredited, at least in the for profit colleges, not necessarily 26 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:48,400 accredited by respectable accreditation. 27 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:52,640 So the places that people should be going if they are wanting to get those opportunities 28 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:58,440 where they just live their life, they had a high school degree, and they don't want 29 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:01,720 to go to a full blown college, four year college and get a degree. 30 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:05,720 They're just wanting to learn how to develop a certain skill so that they could work in 31 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:07,760 that industry. 32 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:11,520 Vocational school is the way to go and the place to go for it that you could really trust 33 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:13,840 is actually going to be community colleges. 34 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:20,920 Now I say this knowing full well that community colleges are unfortunately very much under 35 00:02:20,920 --> 00:02:23,120 funded in this area. 36 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:28,440 And this might be something that we could collectively call on our government to invest 37 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:30,360 a little bit more in. 38 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:36,940 But I think if people, if the community colleges were better funded, I think it would be clear 39 00:02:36,940 --> 00:02:40,120 that this is a much better choice than going to any of the for profit ones. 40 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:41,760 But the for profit ones are there. 41 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:46,000 I personally think of many of them, if not all of them, as straight up scam artists. 42 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:47,920 I don't trust them. 43 00:02:47,920 --> 00:02:51,880 They're trying to make money and they make money off of offering up loans and then getting 44 00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:58,600 you to pay ridiculous tuition and promising things that they can't really follow through 45 00:02:58,600 --> 00:02:59,600 on. 46 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:05,160 So those of you who are interested in vocational programs, I encourage you to look around. 47 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:09,480 As I mentioned last time, each community college will vary in what they could offer. 48 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:15,480 And some of the larger, better funded community colleges are going to be able to offer more 49 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:16,480 programs. 50 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:20,040 So you might have to do a little bit of digging as to which particular community college would 51 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:22,760 be best fit for you. 52 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:29,680 But those of you who are interested in these sorts of certificates, these sorts of programs, 53 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:32,840 I want to make sure that you go to the right place, to a place you could trust. 54 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:35,160 And that'll definitely be community colleges. 55 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:36,160 Okay? 56 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:37,160 Now on to our show. 57 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:59,720 Hello, everyone, and welcome to Community College Part 2 at the Pop Out. 58 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:01,400 My name is Albert Shin. 59 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:08,440 And today, last time we focused on who might be a good candidate for community colleges 60 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:13,480 and why we should take community colleges, I think, seriously in terms of the role that 61 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:15,800 they play in the overall education system. 62 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:23,000 Today, I want to speak directly to my students and those of you that are looking to transfer 63 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:28,320 and the kinds of things that you need to be mindful of as you prepare for your transition 64 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:31,640 from community college to a four-year institution. 65 00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:32,640 Okay? 66 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:33,640 All right. 67 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:37,640 So there's several things that we need to kind of go down, a list of things that we 68 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:39,560 need to go over. 69 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:46,680 First off, the transfer process is extremely different in terms of what colleges look for 70 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:48,720 than when you're going straight from high school. 71 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:49,720 Okay? 72 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:52,920 As I mentioned last time, high school students, it's understandable that many of them don't 73 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:54,840 know exactly what they want to do. 74 00:04:54,840 --> 00:05:00,280 And this is partly because in high school, you're offered a certain subset of courses, 75 00:05:00,280 --> 00:05:01,280 right? 76 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:05,680 You have your basic history classes, and it could be world history, it could be, you know, 77 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:06,680 US history. 78 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:08,160 You might be offered economics. 79 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:09,480 You might be offered psychology. 80 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:13,680 I mean, your mileage will vary depending on the school you went to. 81 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:18,040 Most of them will offer all the basic sciences, biology, chemistry, and so on, and English, 82 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:19,040 right? 83 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:22,000 And then maybe foreign languages and arts and et cetera, et cetera. 84 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:23,000 Okay? 85 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:26,120 One of the things you realize once you get to college is that there's actually a range 86 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:28,040 of specializations, right? 87 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:29,760 These are the different majors that are offered. 88 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:33,720 And in most colleges, you're going to have hundreds of different majors, right? 89 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:37,840 Which means that there's a whole lot of different things that you could specialize in, and many 90 00:05:37,840 --> 00:05:40,360 of them are topics that you've never, ever heard of. 91 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:41,360 Never ever heard of. 92 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:42,360 Okay? 93 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:45,500 And so it's not necessarily expected that you know exactly what you want to do. 94 00:05:45,500 --> 00:05:50,000 You might have some general sense of the direction you want to go into, but you know, you might 95 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:54,880 not know exactly what you want to specialize in or how much of a specialization you really 96 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:56,920 want to have within that area. 97 00:05:56,920 --> 00:05:57,920 Okay? 98 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:03,240 So, you know, if you are thinking about it from a high school, like somebody expecting 99 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:07,920 something from high school, it makes sense that you don't really care too much whether 100 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:09,840 or not they have everything figured out. 101 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:10,840 Okay? 102 00:06:10,840 --> 00:06:13,640 But the story is very different when you're transferring, right? 103 00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:18,160 You got to think of community college, those two years of work, worth of work in community 104 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:19,160 college. 105 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:23,200 You might see it as the first two years of a four-year college, right? 106 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:27,080 And this is the period where students are doing the discovering of what they want to, 107 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:28,240 you know, focus in on. 108 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:32,100 What kind of direction they want to go during their time in college. 109 00:06:32,100 --> 00:06:36,000 This is the time where they take the general education classes where they explore the different 110 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,880 topics that sound interesting to them. 111 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:39,880 Okay? 112 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:43,960 And by the time, in the four-year college, by the time you hit your, you know, third 113 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:46,960 year, the expectation is that you have everything together. 114 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:48,080 You know what you want to specialize in. 115 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:52,000 You take those major classes and then you graduate, right? 116 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:56,200 So if you're thinking of it in those lines, right, then what is it that a college will 117 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:59,800 be looking for from specifically a transfer student? 118 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:02,800 They're going to be looking for somebody who has their shit together. 119 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:06,000 Somebody who knows what they want to accomplish, right? 120 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:09,560 Have taken the prerequisite courses they need to accomplish that goal. 121 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:10,560 Okay? 122 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:13,600 They're not looking for somebody who's going to dilly-dally and not know exactly where 123 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:14,800 they want to go. 124 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:21,480 The ideal situation would be to have transfer over and in two years finish up your major 125 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:24,080 courses and then get out, right? 126 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:27,800 They don't want a transfer student to stick around for three, four, five years. 127 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:29,020 That is not their hope. 128 00:07:29,020 --> 00:07:32,260 They want you to get in, get out in two years, right? 129 00:07:32,260 --> 00:07:38,560 So what's most important for a transfer student is that you have all the things that need 130 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:47,160 to get done, done specifically your general education requirements and your major requirements, 131 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:53,600 okay, along with having a clear sense of direction of where you want to go, right? 132 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:57,600 You should have spent that time in community colleges, a community college figuring that 133 00:07:57,600 --> 00:07:58,600 out, right? 134 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:01,580 By the time you transfer, it's too late, right? 135 00:08:01,580 --> 00:08:05,960 You should have figured it out before you submitted that transfer application, okay? 136 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:10,240 And that's going to be reflected in what it is that they're actually looking for when 137 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:14,360 they're selecting candidates out of the transfer pool, okay? 138 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:20,080 So the transfer pool, they're actually reviewing these applications in a way that is very different, 139 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:25,000 right, in many ways than they would somebody straight out of high school, okay? 140 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:26,280 What are they going to care about? 141 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:29,600 They're going to care about whether you got everything together that you need to so that 142 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:32,680 you could just take off and then finish in two years, right? 143 00:08:32,680 --> 00:08:38,760 So ideally, what they're going to be looking for is did you complete all the requirements 144 00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:43,360 that you needed to so that you only need to complete your major and upper division course 145 00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:45,120 requirements, okay? 146 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:48,580 And they're going to be looking that you have a clear sense of direction. 147 00:08:48,580 --> 00:08:50,000 And how do you demonstrate that? 148 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:54,840 You demonstrate that primarily with the classes you've taken, right, making sure you've covered 149 00:08:54,840 --> 00:08:58,160 all your bases and completed all the GE requirements. 150 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:05,000 And then you also demonstrated by having, sorry, what is it, having a clear sense of 151 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:09,900 your major, your specialization, what you want to specialize in, and that you're capable 152 00:09:09,900 --> 00:09:12,020 of doing the work in those areas. 153 00:09:12,020 --> 00:09:15,060 And you demonstrate that specifically through your grades, right? 154 00:09:15,060 --> 00:09:20,880 You show that you can actually handle the course load in this particular field, right? 155 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:24,580 Another way you demonstrate it is actually in your personal statement, where you set 156 00:09:24,580 --> 00:09:31,600 out a clear, right, you clearly communicate clearly that you know exactly what you want 157 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:36,000 to accomplish, how you're planning on accomplishing it while you're at, you know, the four-year 158 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:41,000 college and what you plan on doing it out with it afterwards, right? 159 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:46,400 In other words, they're expecting students who are a lot more intentional about why they're 160 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:50,360 transferring over to the particular college, okay? 161 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:56,920 You need to have more stuff figured out than somebody going at it from a high school, directly 162 00:09:56,920 --> 00:09:59,240 from high school, okay? 163 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:00,400 All right. 164 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:01,860 What does this mean? 165 00:10:01,860 --> 00:10:07,480 This means that during your time at a community college, there are some things that you definitely 166 00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:10,320 need to prepare, right? 167 00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:11,620 What exactly do you need to prepare? 168 00:10:11,620 --> 00:10:18,560 You need to prepare a body of work that indicates that you are not planning on dilly-dallying 169 00:10:18,560 --> 00:10:22,920 and that you have that clear sense of direction, okay? 170 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:27,280 Everything you present in your application should reflect that, okay? 171 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:33,000 There should be some sort of consistency in terms of the classes you take, in terms of 172 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:38,440 the extracurricular activities you do, in terms of, I mean, work, you might just need 173 00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:40,640 a work just to make ends meet, right? 174 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:46,320 But if work also aligns with the overall goals in your life, great. 175 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:48,560 That'll be even better, right? 176 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:53,040 The last thing a college wants is for a transfer student to come in and then change their mind 177 00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:55,680 and then say they want to do something else, okay? 178 00:10:55,680 --> 00:10:57,320 That is the last thing they want. 179 00:10:57,320 --> 00:10:58,320 They don't want you to do that. 180 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:03,760 In fact, there are some impacted majors where if you don't apply as that particular major, 181 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:06,720 they're not going to let you into that major, okay? 182 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:08,080 All right. 183 00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:12,000 So while you're at community college, then what should you try to do, okay? 184 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:15,200 Last time I talked about special agreements between colleges, right? 185 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:23,080 In California, the agreements between community colleges and UCs and Cal states are such that 186 00:11:23,080 --> 00:11:28,600 if you take specific set of classes, general education classes, then whether or not those 187 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:35,360 classes necessarily line up with the four-year college's general education requirement, they 188 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:40,960 will agree to have your community college work fulfill all of the general education 189 00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:43,040 requirement, okay? 190 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:45,880 There's the, for CSU, there's a special agreement. 191 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:50,320 For UCs, I believe it's called IGETC, or it's like an acronym for something. 192 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:53,120 I'm not even going to say exactly what it is because I don't remember. 193 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:55,440 It's been a while since I did the counseling stuff. 194 00:11:55,440 --> 00:12:01,760 But you know, the idea here is if you complete your general education before you transfer 195 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:08,640 over to that four-year college, okay, if it's the right set of courses, if you finish IGETC 196 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:16,280 or the CSU agreement, then they will not hold you to additional general education requirements, 197 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:17,280 okay? 198 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:20,280 I don't know if other states have this, but I hope they do because this is actually really 199 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:24,120 helpful because each college has a different set of requirements. 200 00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:27,940 It's really hard to try to fulfill the requirements for all of them, okay? 201 00:12:27,940 --> 00:12:34,400 But these general education requirements will fulfill basic writing requirements, will fulfill 202 00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:37,480 those general education where you have to take a variety of different courses in different 203 00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:38,480 areas. 204 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:41,920 They will not hold you to taking a specific class as long as it's under the prearranged 205 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:45,240 agreement between these colleges, okay? 206 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:46,240 All right. 207 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:48,280 It's a little bit harder with private colleges. 208 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:54,680 Now in regional areas, so like in California, for instance, right, I know that some of the 209 00:12:54,680 --> 00:12:59,480 private colleges like USC has certain agreements with community colleges, okay, because they 210 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:05,560 get a lot of the transfer applications from community college students within California, 211 00:13:05,560 --> 00:13:06,640 okay? 212 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:08,120 But not all private colleges do. 213 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:11,040 And so it gets a little bit complicated and you're going to have to really look into it 214 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:17,880 if you're trying to transfer over to a private college as opposed to one of the public universities, 215 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:18,880 okay? 216 00:13:18,880 --> 00:13:19,880 All right. 217 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:21,120 But ideally you have that done. 218 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:22,120 So that's the first thing. 219 00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:25,760 That's a bare minimum that you should aim to try to finish, which means you need to 220 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:29,280 be really on top of your plan while you're at community college, okay? 221 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:34,200 You need to be talking to an academic counselor, know what kind of requirements, what the requirements 222 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:38,400 are, how to fulfill those requirements, what combination of classes are going to ensure 223 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:40,160 that you have it completed. 224 00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:44,280 You should also double check to make sure once you do complete it that you have been, 225 00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:47,060 you know, officially given credit for it, right? 226 00:13:47,060 --> 00:13:50,040 These are all going to be important, okay? 227 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:55,080 Second, you should have a clear major decided by the time you're done with your, before 228 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:59,160 you actually start applying for, to transfer, okay? 229 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:03,120 You should have, so don't try to decide at the moment of applying. 230 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:07,520 You should already know because you need to have made sure, you need to make sure that 231 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:10,140 you take all the prerequisite major courses. 232 00:14:10,140 --> 00:14:12,800 This is different from the general education requirements, right? 233 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:17,240 So what you want to make sure you do is that you complete, right? 234 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:21,600 For instance, if you're doing, you know, going with a philosophy major, you've taken all 235 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:28,040 the requisite philosophy, lower division introductory courses so that you don't have to take them 236 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:30,360 when you're at the four-year college, right? 237 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:34,080 At the four-year college, the expectation is that you take the more advanced specialized 238 00:14:34,080 --> 00:14:37,680 classes as opposed to those introductory ones, okay? 239 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:40,920 So the introductory courses that are offered at the community college, you should have 240 00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:45,920 those done, the ones that are required for a particular major, okay? 241 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:48,400 Now the agreement between these schools are going to be different. 242 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:51,460 So again, you need to talk, you need to be in constant communication with an academic 243 00:14:51,460 --> 00:14:57,000 counselor at your community college to make sure that you have all the requirements for 244 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:02,160 the particular major you're interested in, that you have it completed by the time you're 245 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:07,400 applying for these transfer, applying to transfer, okay? 246 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:12,680 So these are just basic requirements of things you need to get done, okay? 247 00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:19,280 The next thing I do want to know, okay, because these are college classes, right, and before 248 00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:23,300 in high school, they were looking at your high school grades and then trying to decipher 249 00:15:23,300 --> 00:15:27,880 from your high school grades and your SAT scores how you would perform at the college 250 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:29,120 level, right? 251 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:34,040 But once you start taking actual college classes like you would be at a community college, 252 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:38,740 right, the grades themselves are an indicator of what you're capable of doing, right? 253 00:15:38,740 --> 00:15:42,680 So this is the next thing you need to be extremely mindful of, okay, which is that for transfer 254 00:15:42,680 --> 00:15:47,340 protocol, grades matter a whole lot more. 255 00:15:47,340 --> 00:15:49,800 Grades matter a whole lot more, okay? 256 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:52,720 And that's partly because there's not as much guesswork. 257 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:57,100 There's more of a one-to-one correspondence with the grades, okay? 258 00:15:57,100 --> 00:16:02,680 If you get straight A's at the community college level, they can trust that. 259 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:07,920 If you get straight A's in high school, it depends on the high school you went to, right? 260 00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:09,200 That's why they look... 261 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:13,920 This is part of the reason that they do holistic evaluations in a lot of places and why a lot 262 00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:18,600 of colleges, a lot of competitive ones especially, have started requiring, when they decided 263 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:25,080 not to require during the pandemic period, they started requiring SAT and ACT scores 264 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:26,080 again. 265 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:30,520 And the reason for it is that grades are only one metric and they don't know how much of 266 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:32,280 it they could trust. 267 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:37,360 They give it some weight, right, but they're not sure how good of an indicator that is 268 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:41,040 that you're going to perform well at the college level. 269 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:46,000 But at a community college, right, the expectation is that all these courses are introductory 270 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:47,360 college courses, right? 271 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:51,600 So if you get an A in one of these classes, then they could expect that you can do just 272 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:58,000 fine, that you are prepared to be able to fulfill your duties as a student in terms 273 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:01,840 of passing classes at a four-year college, right? 274 00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:06,560 They can expect it because it's not meant to be any different than a first or second 275 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:11,240 year class at one of these four-year colleges, okay? 276 00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:13,520 So grades are extremely important. 277 00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:15,800 Grades are extremely important. 278 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:20,600 And with the selective schools, grades are going to be very, very important. 279 00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:25,040 You're going to want to go ahead and get the highest grades possible. 280 00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:27,160 Now does that mean you have to get straight As? 281 00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:30,040 No, that's not what it means, okay? 282 00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:36,520 But ideally, ideally, you're going to have an extremely high GPA, okay? 283 00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:40,200 The other thing that you want to make note of is if you're able to, if your community 284 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:46,800 college offers it, take the honors classes and get into the honors program, okay? 285 00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:48,640 If you're able to handle it, that is the case. 286 00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:50,120 It is more work. 287 00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:51,120 It is more work. 288 00:17:51,120 --> 00:17:52,120 It's more time-consuming. 289 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:55,920 Some community college students don't have that time, and that's perfectly fine, right? 290 00:17:55,920 --> 00:17:58,920 But it does give you an advantage, right? 291 00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:05,800 And there are special programs that specific UCs, for instance, have to take my school, 292 00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:07,240 for example, Pasadena City College. 293 00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:10,480 There's agreements, it's the TAG program, where they say, look, if you meet a certain 294 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:16,760 GPA, you are enrolled in the honors program, you accomplish, right, you do all the GE requirements 295 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:21,320 and all this, then you'll definitely get into one of the UCs, right? 296 00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:24,200 Whether it's going to be one of the ones that you want to get into, that you'll have to 297 00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:25,240 see, right? 298 00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:26,800 But you're at least guaranteed a spot, right? 299 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:31,920 So there are certain agreements that exist with community colleges here in California 300 00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:36,320 that tells you, hey, these are going to definitely be advantageous. 301 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:38,240 And honors program is one of them. 302 00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:39,480 Honors program is going to be one of them. 303 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:41,460 You definitely want to take advantage of that. 304 00:18:41,460 --> 00:18:43,760 It gives you, again, an advantage. 305 00:18:43,760 --> 00:18:48,800 It gives you one additional thing you could put on your application that makes you look 306 00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:53,120 like a better candidate, a better fit, right? 307 00:18:53,120 --> 00:18:57,980 And it's not to say that those who don't do it should not, you know, or is not deserving 308 00:18:57,980 --> 00:18:58,980 of a spot. 309 00:18:58,980 --> 00:19:00,400 That's not the case, right? 310 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:04,600 Like I said, with all of these applications, there's some degree of luck involved, right? 311 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,060 Who reads your personal statement? 312 00:19:07,060 --> 00:19:11,240 What the specific college needs in terms of the student body because of the balance of 313 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:13,160 the students with their different interests, right? 314 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:14,920 Like it'll vary from year to year, right? 315 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:20,520 So you never know for sure, but if you want to give yourself the best shot possible, this 316 00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:22,160 is one way to do it, right? 317 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:23,400 Get the highest grades possible. 318 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:26,580 Make sure you complete all the requirements that you need to both for your major and the 319 00:19:26,580 --> 00:19:34,320 general education and do it with also completing the honors program, okay? 320 00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:41,040 Beyond that, beyond that, you want to make sure that if there's any extracurriculars 321 00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:45,040 or jobs or internships that you did, because you could still do these at the community 322 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:46,040 college level, right? 323 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:51,280 If there's anything that you did, you want to make sure that there is a clear picture 324 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:55,440 of how these things are connected to your overall goals, okay? 325 00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,380 You want to make sure there's a clear picture of how these are all connected. 326 00:19:58,380 --> 00:20:03,040 Does that mean that if you want to go into pre-med that, you know, you have to do some 327 00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:04,800 medical internship? 328 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:06,760 That's not what it means, okay? 329 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:10,520 It just needs to, you just need to be able to create a cohesive story. 330 00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:12,840 Let me give you an example, right? 331 00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:18,440 I had a student who was interested in going into law, but a lot of the extracurriculars 332 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:22,960 that were done was, you know, environmental science programs, right? 333 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:26,080 And so you're like, well, that doesn't make any sense. 334 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:28,480 If you want to go into law, why are you doing all these things? 335 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:37,120 Well, he wants to be a lawyer specifically protecting environmental entities, right? 336 00:20:37,120 --> 00:20:41,280 You know, fighting for climate change through the legal system, okay? 337 00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:42,600 That makes a lot of sense. 338 00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:45,840 Then your extracurriculars kind of make some sense, right? 339 00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:49,640 Now does this mean that you can't also include things like your personal hobbies and things 340 00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:50,640 that you enjoy? 341 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:52,720 No, that's not what it means, right? 342 00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:54,960 You could have those too, right? 343 00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:59,320 But you want to be mindful about what you invest your time in because your time is a 344 00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:00,720 precious limited resource. 345 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:02,640 You don't have time for everything. 346 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,400 You want to demonstrate that you have a kind of clear focus in the direction you want to 347 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:07,400 go. 348 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:11,280 And you're not demonstrating that if you're doing a bunch of different things that interest 349 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:15,760 you but have nothing to do with your overall goal for what you're trying to get out of 350 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:17,980 college, right? 351 00:21:17,980 --> 00:21:23,780 If you're spending like all of your extra time on random hobbies that are in no way 352 00:21:23,780 --> 00:21:28,840 connected to your academic pursuit, right? 353 00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:34,920 Then it does, it's not that it's a red flag, but it is going to raise at least some questions, 354 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:39,400 some need for explanation as to why you're spending your time doing these things when 355 00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:43,600 you claim that your primary interest is something else altogether, right? 356 00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:49,960 So the idea behind it is that as you spend that time at a community college, right, you're 357 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:54,840 building up a resume and you're building up that resume not just with your grades, not 358 00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:59,160 just with the classes you took, not just with the honors program showing that you're taking 359 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:06,160 this seriously and you're really pursuing it as far as you can or that, you know, and 360 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:09,800 then you're also wanting to demonstrate it specifically with the things you do outside 361 00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:11,280 of the classroom, right? 362 00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:13,520 You want to demonstrate it with those things, right? 363 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:18,840 That you want to say, hey, I definitely am telling you when I say I want to pursue, for 364 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,080 instance, a degree in sociology, I mean it. 365 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:23,680 I'm actually passionate about this. 366 00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:24,960 I'm actually wanting to do something with it. 367 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:28,280 I'm not going to go into university and change my mind. 368 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:30,000 I know what I want to do. 369 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:31,600 I have a clear set of goals. 370 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:32,960 My classes demonstrate it. 371 00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:34,640 My grades demonstrate it. 372 00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:38,800 And my extracurriculars all demonstrate the exact same thing, right? 373 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:41,400 That's the ideal application, right? 374 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:44,680 That's the ideal application, okay? 375 00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:51,040 That said, how does this translate then over to what you put in your personal statement? 376 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:57,240 Here it's actually going to be more or less the same as the strategy that I have already 377 00:22:57,240 --> 00:23:03,480 suggested for those going straight from high school to a four-year college, which is, again, 378 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:05,880 don't lose focus of the purpose of the personal statement. 379 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:12,000 The purpose is for you to be informative, to explain things that are not in other parts 380 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,040 of your application, right? 381 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:17,200 And then secondly, to provide a cohesive story. 382 00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:22,880 The only thing that's different is that the cohesive story that you need to present is 383 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:28,420 going to be a little bit more detailed and directed and narrow than it would be for somebody 384 00:23:28,420 --> 00:23:32,840 going straight from high school to a four-year college, right? 385 00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:37,720 Given everything I've said, it should kind of start making some sense here, right? 386 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:42,280 Your personal statement, right, though you're adding information that's not in other parts 387 00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:47,800 of your application, should contextualize the rest of your application and make it clear 388 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:52,840 that there is a very specific direction and that you are aware of the direction that you're 389 00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:57,560 wanting to go into and you're clear about how the university that you're applying to 390 00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:01,000 fits in with those overall goals, okay? 391 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:06,360 So let's take the example, again, of the environmental lawyer, the student pursuing environmental 392 00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:09,580 law, right? 393 00:24:09,580 --> 00:24:13,280 What would be an application that kind of completes this picture? 394 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:14,760 Well, what would it look like? 395 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:19,200 It would look like, as we stated before, why is it that you're pursuing it? 396 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:24,580 How can I know that this is not just some passing interest that you have that you might 397 00:24:24,580 --> 00:24:31,120 lose interest in later on, but rather something that is much more deeply personal to you, 398 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:32,120 right? 399 00:24:32,120 --> 00:24:35,160 So there might be a story here about why the environment matters. 400 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:41,960 It could be just a simple set of stories about childhood experiences, engaging with nature. 401 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:46,680 It could be about family memories of going on these trips. 402 00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:47,680 I don't know. 403 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:50,960 I don't know why you might have pursued it, right? 404 00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:55,460 It could be some heartbreaking documentary or doing some volunteer activity and seeing 405 00:24:55,460 --> 00:24:56,460 something in person. 406 00:24:56,460 --> 00:24:57,460 I don't know. 407 00:24:57,460 --> 00:24:58,460 I don't know. 408 00:24:58,460 --> 00:25:00,760 And I don't know why specifically through law. 409 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:03,680 Why law instead of something else, right? 410 00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:09,340 Why are you doing it in this particular way rather than something like activism or going 411 00:25:09,340 --> 00:25:10,960 into politics, right? 412 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:13,900 Or doing some community organizing, right? 413 00:25:13,900 --> 00:25:18,960 Why in this specific way, right, do you want to accomplish these goals? 414 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:20,360 And there's probably a story there. 415 00:25:20,360 --> 00:25:25,860 It could be that you, after your studies or through other things, you realize that this 416 00:25:25,860 --> 00:25:28,160 is the way to make the most impact. 417 00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:34,200 Or it could be that you've realized that you have a passion for the law as well and that 418 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,920 this is one place where these passions align, right? 419 00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:43,760 Some sort of story that kind of creates this holistic picture of everything that you've 420 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:50,960 been doing and why it makes sense that they can trust that you are who you say you are, 421 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:56,880 that you're a person who has a singular focus on what it is you want to accomplish and that 422 00:25:56,880 --> 00:26:02,800 everything else that we're seeing in the application is pieces of the bigger picture, which is 423 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:04,920 the story of you, right? 424 00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:11,000 Something about you having a set of passions and goals and interests shaped by your personal 425 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:12,500 experiences, right? 426 00:26:12,500 --> 00:26:14,520 That's what you're wanting to present, right? 427 00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:20,440 So again, this is not very different from what you would write if you were writing straight 428 00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:23,400 from high school going into a four-year college. 429 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:27,680 But the content is going to look a little different because you should have something 430 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:33,360 more substantial to say, given that you've already had some college experience, okay? 431 00:26:33,360 --> 00:26:36,640 You are a few years older, right? 432 00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:37,640 Because you are transferring. 433 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:39,180 You're not going straight from high school. 434 00:26:39,180 --> 00:26:42,660 So you had a couple years, at least a couple years under your belt, okay? 435 00:26:42,660 --> 00:26:47,120 And you should have, through the range of different classes you've taken, have a clear 436 00:26:47,120 --> 00:26:48,440 picture, right? 437 00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:53,320 A much more detailed sense of the direction you want to go into, right? 438 00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:58,000 And that is what needs to all come out in those personal statements, okay? 439 00:26:58,000 --> 00:26:59,720 You could bring in other things too, right? 440 00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:03,920 Just as everything I've said about personal statements to students who are going straight 441 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,560 from high school, it's the same thing, right? 442 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:11,360 You should be thinking about exactly the same kinds of questions and doing that sort of 443 00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:15,960 self-reflection to go ahead and figure out who you are. 444 00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:18,160 All of those same things apply. 445 00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:22,400 But the expectation is a little bit different because you are, you should be a little bit 446 00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:26,760 more older, you should have a little more experience, and especially more experience 447 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:28,560 taking college classes. 448 00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:33,360 You should have learned something during your time in these classes such that it informs 449 00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:37,080 you a bit better about the direction you want to get into. 450 00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:42,800 So the best transfer applications are going to be ones that have this sort of narrative 451 00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:48,180 built into the personal statement, okay? 452 00:27:48,180 --> 00:27:52,360 The reader should have zero questions about the kind of person that you are, right? 453 00:27:52,360 --> 00:27:57,360 They should have a good sense of here's what we can expect and we could trust it. 454 00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:01,240 And in fact, we could trust it more than we would words coming out of a high school student 455 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:07,800 because this person has been through something, at least some college, to inform their decision, 456 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:08,800 okay? 457 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:10,180 They at least know, right? 458 00:28:10,180 --> 00:28:13,240 For instance, they might have tried out through their general education requirements, they 459 00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:15,960 might have tried out other classes and found out that that's not for them. 460 00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:20,520 You should have learned something during your classes that you've explored, okay? 461 00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:24,120 You should have learned something by yourself, your interests and your goals, okay? 462 00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:26,560 That needs to come out, all right? 463 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:27,920 Everything else, same thing applies, right? 464 00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:32,800 So figuring out whether it's a good fit or not for the college, explaining why it's a 465 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:33,800 good fit, right? 466 00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:36,020 You'll want to make sure that's in there. 467 00:28:36,020 --> 00:28:39,260 You don't want to repeat any of the things that are found elsewhere in the application. 468 00:28:39,260 --> 00:28:41,840 You merely want to contextualize it, okay? 469 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:46,060 You want to fill in the dots, create a more vivid picture. 470 00:28:46,060 --> 00:28:51,800 You don't want to just list all your accomplishments, they see it already in your other parts of 471 00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:53,800 your application, there's no need for that, okay? 472 00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:56,320 Does this make sense? 473 00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:57,920 All right. 474 00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:03,040 That said, there's one other thing that also applies that I've also mentioned from students 475 00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:04,600 who are applying straight from high school, right? 476 00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:08,840 Which is part of these personal statements and what needs to be included in there are 477 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:13,120 any issues with the other parts of your application, right? 478 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:15,620 For instance, dips in grades, right? 479 00:29:15,620 --> 00:29:21,220 Just because it happened in high school or maybe it didn't happen in high school doesn't 480 00:29:21,220 --> 00:29:23,920 mean it is or isn't going to happen at the college level, right? 481 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:25,280 The college students face the same thing. 482 00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:26,280 They're people, right? 483 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:27,280 College students are people. 484 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:31,000 So they're going to face the same life issues and it's going to impact them in the classroom, 485 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:32,000 right? 486 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,640 So if there are things in your transcript, and it's going to be important for you again 487 00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:36,120 to reflect, right? 488 00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:39,360 You're not going to necessarily have to submit your high school transcript, but at least 489 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:42,020 during your time at a community college, right? 490 00:29:42,020 --> 00:29:44,840 You'll want to explain things that might need some explaining. 491 00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:46,660 Let me give you some examples, okay? 492 00:29:46,660 --> 00:29:51,280 It is actually not uncommon for students at community college level to stay at a community 493 00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:55,600 college for a good four, five, six years before they transfer. 494 00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:58,400 And there's a lot of reasons for this, right? 495 00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:01,020 It could be because of financial difficulty. 496 00:30:01,020 --> 00:30:05,600 It could be because of time constraints, because of financial struggles or they have to, they 497 00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:11,120 have a full-time job that they're, you know, that they want to maintain while they go to 498 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,300 school so the schools, they can't take as many classes. 499 00:30:14,300 --> 00:30:16,440 It could be because of some tragedy. 500 00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:21,160 They might have had to take some time off of school for other reasons, family, children, 501 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:22,640 all kinds of things, right? 502 00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:24,260 I have no idea, okay? 503 00:30:24,260 --> 00:30:29,500 But if there is a gap in your application, that needs to be explained. 504 00:30:29,500 --> 00:30:32,720 Just as it needed to be explained if a high school student had a sudden drop in their 505 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:36,600 GPA or suddenly took time off of school, right? 506 00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:38,180 These things need to be explained. 507 00:30:38,180 --> 00:30:40,280 And again, it's not a knock on you. 508 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:43,300 It's not a negative on you at all, right? 509 00:30:43,300 --> 00:30:49,000 It just needs a good explanation so that we get a complete picture of how to understand 510 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:52,000 the things that you accomplished during this time, right? 511 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:56,840 So if you went to a community college but then you moved to a different community college, 512 00:30:56,840 --> 00:31:00,680 right, and you move from one to another and they're not anywhere close to one another, 513 00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:02,000 you might want to explain that, right? 514 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,280 If it took you four or five years to finish up the requirements to transfer, you might 515 00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:11,040 want to explain, at least mention why that might be, right? 516 00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:15,980 You don't have to make a whole essay going into detail about exactly what it is, right? 517 00:31:15,980 --> 00:31:19,880 But you do want to at least provide some context for understanding the other parts of your 518 00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:21,080 application, okay? 519 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:25,000 If you struggled with certain types of classes and then something clicked and all of a sudden 520 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,880 your grades improved, you want to explain that shift, right? 521 00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:29,880 Why is it that you struggle? 522 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:35,720 Like, why should we downplay the poor grades you got early on and really focus in rather 523 00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:37,600 on your more recent grades? 524 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:38,720 Something might have happened, right? 525 00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:43,680 There might have been something that was going on in your personal life that somehow shifted. 526 00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:46,840 Maybe you were struggling with mental health and you were finally able to address it really 527 00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:47,840 well. 528 00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:51,040 I've had students in those positions and, you know, people don't like sharing these 529 00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:55,160 things because they feel like, ah, it feels like I'm making excuses for myself or they 530 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:56,800 feel ashamed about it. 531 00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:00,960 And the one thing I'm stressing to you is no, that's not what this is about. 532 00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:02,560 Fuck your feelings, right? 533 00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:07,960 This is about providing information that the admission committee can use to make an informed 534 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:08,960 decision. 535 00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:09,960 That's all it is. 536 00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:10,960 They need the information. 537 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:15,920 They need to know how to understand the letters and the letter grades. 538 00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:19,960 They need something to understand the actual data points that you're sending them, right? 539 00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:22,640 And they're not going to understand it if you don't give them the information. 540 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,100 So you need to give them the information, right? 541 00:32:25,100 --> 00:32:30,720 So what was going on that explains why it is that there was all these sudden changes 542 00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:35,480 in the pattern of classes or number of classes you took or, you know, poor grades or whatever 543 00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:37,280 else it might be, right? 544 00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:40,160 People want to make sure to explain those things, okay? 545 00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:44,240 I think another one that happened quite often was immigration issues of all things, right? 546 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:49,680 I've had students who had immigration issues, has to do with paperwork, has to do with some 547 00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:53,160 financial stuff associated with it. 548 00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,600 Family issues is a fairly common one, right? 549 00:32:56,600 --> 00:33:01,240 Because it's not uncommon for students transferring to have children, for instance, or to be caretakers 550 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:07,440 of their parents or their grandparents to be primary caretakers of them, right? 551 00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:11,400 There's another one that actually came up at some point, oh, undocumented students having 552 00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:20,200 to deal with immigration issues as a pretty, it's not an uncommon one anyways. 553 00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:25,120 And especially depending on how the government was going about with enforcing some of these 554 00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:30,560 laws and the way they targeted specific groups, it might have impacted some students more 555 00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:31,560 than others, right? 556 00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:35,360 So these are legitimate reasons for why it is that you might have taken some time off 557 00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:41,320 of community colleges or you might have seen a dip in your grades, right? 558 00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:45,520 But then you want to make sure to focus their attention on the fact that, hey, that was 559 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:49,440 a situational thing that is not reflective of me. 560 00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:51,760 That is because of the situation I was in. 561 00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,760 And I've worked to find ways to get myself out of these situations. 562 00:33:54,760 --> 00:34:00,760 And now that I'm in a stable place, my record then shows what I'm actually capable of, right? 563 00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:04,740 That's really what you want to try to get through to the admissions committee, okay? 564 00:34:04,740 --> 00:34:08,480 So I hope this makes sense, right? 565 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:13,840 The good news about transferring, I think, is that there's a lot more clarity about your 566 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:18,120 chances of getting in, at least to the public universities, okay? 567 00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:20,880 The numbers and the metrics are a little bit clear. 568 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:25,720 And that's in part because the grades play such a significant role. 569 00:34:25,720 --> 00:34:30,400 The types of classes you took, whether or not you finished up or are close to finishing 570 00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:34,760 up your general education requirement so that they could expect that you completed, right? 571 00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:37,760 The fact that you finished up your major requirements, right? 572 00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,560 The fact that you have a clear sense of direction, right? 573 00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:45,040 The metrics for measuring transfer students are a lot clearer. 574 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:50,640 So you should be able to make a better educated guess as to your chances of getting in. 575 00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:54,520 In ways where it feels a little bit more like the Wild Wild West when we're talking about 576 00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:56,640 coming straight out of high school, okay? 577 00:34:56,640 --> 00:35:00,680 The metrics are one of multiple factors, but because the metrics, it's not quite clear 578 00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:05,800 how much to trust specific GPAs from a specific school, right? 579 00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:10,440 These things kind of, right, holistic evaluation is kind of fluctuates in terms of whether 580 00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:14,320 you should expect to get into a particular college or not. 581 00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:18,140 The expectation should at least be a lot clearer with community college, okay? 582 00:35:18,140 --> 00:35:22,960 So with that said, that means that you have the information, you should know who to turn 583 00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:23,960 to. 584 00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:26,960 Like I said, constantly be in communication with your academic counselor. 585 00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:31,000 Make sure you go at least once every semester to make sure you're taking the right classes 586 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:33,480 and that you're on track, okay? 587 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,880 And here's going to be my suggestion, okay? 588 00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:42,240 It'll be a trap if you do not prioritize your education at the community college level. 589 00:35:42,240 --> 00:35:46,080 Like I said, it's not uncommon for a lot of students to stick around at the community 590 00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:50,240 college for four, five, six years, okay? 591 00:35:50,240 --> 00:35:53,680 A lot of the times it's because you're trying to juggle too many things. 592 00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:56,840 Now, sometimes it's inevitable you have no other option. 593 00:35:56,840 --> 00:36:01,360 I understand that and I will support you in any way I can, especially if you're in those 594 00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,040 circumstances, okay? 595 00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:09,280 But if you have the option of setting other things aside, right, whether it's social activities 596 00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:14,980 or family obligations, if there's a way to kind of share the burden with others so that 597 00:36:14,980 --> 00:36:19,840 you can focus more on your education, I would highly recommend you do that because there's 598 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:25,600 a certain kind of trap that happens at the community college level that does not happen 599 00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:27,520 as often at the four-year college. 600 00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:32,480 At four-year colleges, the financial aid package is such that the expectation is that you do 601 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:35,900 nothing else except focus on your time at the college. 602 00:36:35,900 --> 00:36:41,080 But that's not the case at a community college, which means that a lot of times students are 603 00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:46,600 trying to handle their finances and trying to work in order to make money, in order to 604 00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:50,680 pay for an apartment so that they could attend college, right? 605 00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:51,680 They're doing all kinds of stuff. 606 00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:57,120 If there's a way to just find a way, right, whether it's through good loans, not just 607 00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:02,540 any loan, but good loans, right, with good rates, through support from friends and family, 608 00:37:02,540 --> 00:37:08,280 so that you are unburdened of a lot of additional responsibilities that take you away from your 609 00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:13,480 academics, right, I would recommend that before you start at a community college, you take 610 00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:18,000 a moment to see how much you can do, to do the best you can to unburden yourself with 611 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,640 as many things as possible. 612 00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:27,360 That way, you're more likely to, A, do well in your classes, but B, actually complete 613 00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:32,040 all of your requirements in a timely manner so that you don't stick around for four, five, 614 00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:33,480 six years, okay? 615 00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:38,480 The goal of community colleges have always been get you in and out in two to three years, 616 00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:43,040 but that has not been the case in reality, understandably so. 617 00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:49,840 But I do find that the students who make a conscious effort to try to unburden themselves, 618 00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:55,560 to delete several things in their life that take up time, energy, and resources, and instead 619 00:37:55,560 --> 00:38:02,400 focus on their academics, they're just more likely to finish and also finish in a timely 620 00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:06,800 manner, which in the long run will save you a lot of resources. 621 00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:09,400 You've got to think of it like a long-term investment, right? 622 00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:15,320 You might be taking on a little bit more in terms of financial debt or other things, right, 623 00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:20,720 in your time at a community college, but it also saves you a lot of time and money because 624 00:38:20,720 --> 00:38:25,520 you don't have to be going to community college for five, six years, but instead you could 625 00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:28,880 finish in two to three years, okay? 626 00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:33,900 If you do need some assistance in finding that help, okay, one of the great things about 627 00:38:33,900 --> 00:38:38,240 community college is that because it's so commonplace, there's a lot of resources there 628 00:38:38,240 --> 00:38:46,320 at the financial aid office, in the administration to try to find all the little resources collectively 629 00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:49,240 to make sure that you have all your needs met. 630 00:38:49,240 --> 00:38:56,840 And it might not be ideal, but if it's enough to get you through, then that's the hope because 631 00:38:56,840 --> 00:39:00,760 the hope is to get you in, get you out, so that you could be on your way and pursue the 632 00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:03,080 things that really matter to you in life, right? 633 00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:08,940 That this doesn't become like a stopping point where you just get stuck for years on end, 634 00:39:08,940 --> 00:39:14,680 but rather a jumping off point where we could catapult you to the next stage of your life, 635 00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:15,680 okay? 636 00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:17,760 I hope that information was helpful. 637 00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:21,920 And again, I invite anybody who knows more about community colleges in other states to 638 00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:23,060 chime in. 639 00:39:23,060 --> 00:39:26,320 Leave comments, especially on YouTube. 640 00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:31,440 I will definitely be looking through those and then engaging with whoever is able to 641 00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:32,960 contribute to this discussion. 642 00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:34,440 So I'm really excited for that. 643 00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:35,440 All right. 644 00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:57,160 See you again next time.