The City College Transfer Fair was held Oct. 25 at Gorton Quad, serving as a host to both technical schools and traditional universities for students interested in opportunities beyond community college.
Some of the universities were well-known, such as San Diego State, UC San Diego, and UC Berkeley. With Proposition 30 on the ballot, they have held off application until after the election.
“It’s a wait-and-see right now,” Matthew Hebert, director of prospective student services at San Diego State, said. He also stated that the transfer guarantee admission was still in effect.
Among the representatives were out-of-state universities such as the University of Utah, and Arizona State University. Ana Reynoso, a University of Utah admissions counselor, explained how the university has a variety of majors.
“We offer about 83 majors and over 70 minors. We have about 50 teaching majors where students can take as far as majoring in something and then getting a teaching certificate to go along with that,” Reynosos explained.
The requirements for Arizona State University are similar. “For students with an associate’s degree they need to have a GPA of a 2.6 and if you have 30 credits or less we would need you high school transcripts as well as your ACT or SAT test scores,” Reynoso said. If students are interested in attending, both schools accept all federal financial aid and offer scholarships for transfer students.
For students who may be interested in a career in the clergy, Southern California Seminary is one choice. Heather Davenport, an admissions representative, spoke of the biblical major that students pursue work in the monastery with.
“Under the undergraduate level the only major we offer is the biblical studies. So we offer an associate’s degree and bachelors degree and with either of those you can either do it on campus or totally online,” Davenport explained.
Several other trade schools were also available, ranging between massage therapy, film, and architecture.
“The campus located here in San Diego is just for architecture,” said Janet Asuncion, recruiter/admissions counselor. “For transfer students the university offers two scholarships, transfer scholarship and counselor scholarship and for the whole school year a student can either total to about $8,500 or $10,000 discounted from tuition.”
Both of these are renewable every school year as long as students can maintain over a 3.0 GPA and attend classes full-time.
The New York Film Academy offers bachelor’s degrees in scriptwriting, film-making, acting for film, animation, and game design. The school has several locations including New York and Los Angeles.
“It is very intense, very hands-on. You are given a camera the first day of school and your project is due the next week,” Leanna Cervantes, NYFA representative, said.
Universities were not all based on campus site learning. Other universities offered popular bachelor’s degrees as well as flexibility in coursework. Brandman University, a part of Chapman University System, offers 52 degrees. Steve Ashton, community and corp. relations representative for Brandman University, spoke of a range of different schools from education up to health and sciences.
“We have degrees in bachelors, masters, and even doctorates program. The financial aid offered is just like any other university accepting Federal loans and FASFA. We have a full financial aid office on campus,” Ashton said.
Brandman University has its roots in the military. “The military is actually how we got our satellite school started,” Ashton explained. The college supports military benefits and has an outreach program for military personnel. The university is a nonprofit so all money made goes directly back into the school. Applications for Brandman University are accepted year round and they have eight week sessions.
National University, University of Phoenix, Alliant University and Western International University fall into the same category, though they’re based on online focus and flexibility for the non-traditional student.
“One of the things that we strive to do is give our students more than just a degree,” Kevin McMackin, Alliant University representative, said. Although these universities take a different approach than other schools, they still offer bachelor’s degrees in common areas. National University alone has a school of education, business and management, health and human services, and college of letters and science.
“It’s an option for students who are looking to transfer, to take classes and still work at the same time. Classes are one day a week and eight weeks long and we have online live sessions,” Western International University representative Mike Turner said.
