Decision time at community colleges

Community colleges throughout the county are seeing one of the busiest times of year this month as dozens of university recruiters visit campuses to help students make a decision that likely will shape their futures.

The colleges are expecting to host more representatives from four-year schools between now and Nov. 30 than in recent years, in part because of a state and national push for community college success. On Monday, Mesa hosted recruiters from 72 schools and university departments — including 13 from UC San Diego alone — prompting staff on campuses to bring out additional tables to meet the demand.

Student Vann Chhum, 23, visited several booths and said they were helpful as he considered which college he will attend. He plans to apply to at least five, with San Diego State University his first choice.

“I’m getting a different perspective and different insights,” he said.

The annual priority application period kicked off Oct. 1 for California State University schools and will begin Nov. 1 for the University of California. The period ends Nov. 30 at both systems.

The application process can be confusing, especially for students who earn associate degrees for transfer to get into a CSU school. Commonly known as ADTs, the degrees were created by the state about five years ago as a way to guarantee student admission in certain fields.

“It is really confusing,” said Olivia Picolla, 19, a Mesa students who works in the school’s transfer center. “I talk to students about it every day. It’s a lot to process.”

Students who earn an ADT with 60 units in certain subjects are guaranteed admission to a CSU school that offers their major, which they can earn a degree in with 60 more units.

Picolla said the ADT program works well, but not necessarily for local students. SDSU is one of five CSU schools where every major is impacted, meaning the schools receive more qualified applications than they can accept.

In response, those schools raise the bar for applicants by increasing the required grade-point average, which in some majors is 4.0. Students who are turned down are referred to other CSU schools with lower requirements.

Chhum said he plans to earn an ADT and use it at SDSU, and he has a good feeling about getting in because the requirements aren’t as high in his field as in other programs.

Picolla said ADTs are useful, but she recommends local community college students not use them to get into SDSU because they won’t help get into impacted programs. Instead, she recommends they take advantage of the Transfer Admission Guarantee that applies to students from the San Diego, Southwestern, Grossmont/Cuyamaca and Imperial Valley community college districts.

The university’s GPA requirements for many programs are lowered to give priority to students from local districts. All CSU have similar guarantees with community colleges in their areas and six UC schools — Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz — have similar Transfer Admission Guarantees with all California community colleges.

MiraCosta College student Danielle Fry, 20, originally hoped to get into SDSU while attending Butte College in Oroville, but she couldn’t get in. She plans to apply to five colleges for 2016 but is set on attending CSU Chico as a local priority student because of her time at Butte.

“San Diego State’s requirements are really high,” she said. “It’s really hard to get into.”

As a North County resident, she said almost everyone she knows is applying to CSU San Marcos. She said it’s not everybody’s first choice, but it’s the safer bet because of the Transfer Admission Guarantee with MiraCosta.

Jack Beresford, director of communications for the San Diego Community College District, said it is frustrating that local students aren’t able to use ADTs for the schools of their first choice, especially since more students are graduating with the degrees.

Leroy Johnson, transfer center coordinator at Mesa, and other counselors say they encourage students to keep their options open despite that frustration.

“People who have blinders on think they have to go to San Diego State, but it’s a big world out there,” Johnson said. “It’s a wild thought for a lot of people, but there’s thousands of schools, and San Diego State is just one.”

Johnson said he encourages students who can’t leave the area to consider other options, including local private schools.