The two months of stress for San Diego City College students who are planning on transferring to a four-year university kicked off on Oct. 1, when California State University opened its new application form for Fall 2018 transfer.

Community college students are eligible to apply for transfer if they are upper-division students who have completed at least 60 semester units of transferable coursework.

The University of California opened its Transfer Admission Guarantee application agreement in September, which will remain open for submission from Nov. 1 to Nov. 30.

City College has its own counseling and transfer centers to help its students reach success. The first one is located at E-2, right across the street from McDonald’s on Park Boulevard. Students can visit the counseling center to create an Ed-Plan that matches with their career plan.

The transfer center is also available specifically for those students who come to City with the plan of transferring to a four-year-university. Students can visit it on the M building in front of the library. Workshops, transfer fairs and appointments with counselors for help with transfer applications are available in this building.

Ricky Flahide, a City student who transferred in 2014 to UCSD and currently works at the City College transfer center, said that one of the most common misconceptions when planning to transfer is not knowing which classes are transferable.

He recommends to “make sure before you start your application to come by to the transfer center and have an Ed Plan”, as well as to research what schools and programs work for you. Also when applying to a four year institution, have at least three other backup schools.

Since the opening of the Cal State applications and during the “Transfer Awareness Month”, the City College transfer center has had multiple “Transfer Tuesdays” workshops for students to work with a counselor on their applications to resolve any doubts.

University representatives such as Grand Canyon University, SDSU, UCSD and Azusa Pacific University will visit the transfer center starting on Oct. 25.

The next step after applying to UC and CalState universities, is to complete the UC Academic Update and submit the SDSU Supplement Application through January 2018. If you are planning to transfer with an Associate Degree for Transfer to CSU, you must be submit the petition to graduate to the school district by February 2018.

Each university has its own deadline to announce which students were accepted, but according to the transfer center students are usually notified between March and April of 2018.

For more information transfer applicants can visit the transfer and counseling center, as well as visiting UC and Cal-State websites.