Succeeding At Santa Monica College (And Other California Community Colleges): Picking Your Classes And Beyond

If you're a student at Santa Monica College (or about to start) looking for advice on how to transfer, you've come to the right place! This guide is written primarily by the creator of this website, Sam Gerstmann, who transferred to UCLA and who you can read more about here. However, it has also been reviewed and edited by transfers to Northwestern University, UC Berkeley, USC, and other top schools. While this website is primarily focused on helping students pick their classes, this guide is intended to go beyond that and serve as a comprehensive guide on succeeding at a California Community College (CCC).

First: Free Tuition at CCCs

If you don't already know, you may qualify for free tuition for your first two years of community college through The California College Promise Program. More information on SMC's version of this program can be found here. Qualification conditions are not need-based; you only need to have recently graduated from a California high school and be a first-time college student.

Transfer Universities: Your Options

This section will cover what schools transfer students can apply to and includes a broad overview of each. There are 4 categories of schools I'm going to address in this section: CSUs, UCs, private in-state schools, and out-of-state schools.

CSUs

CSUs (California State Universities) are the most popular option by far for transfer students, enrolling 70,000 CCC transfers compared to the UC's 20,000 and a negligible number to private/out of state colleges. CSU's are (in general) easier to get into and cheaper than than UCs. CSU's have partnered up with CCCs to create Associate's Degrees for Transfer which, if completed, guarantee your admission into at least one CSU and will make it easier for you to graduate on time. If you're set on transferring to a CSU, participating in this program is one of the best things you can do for yourself. You will also likely take different general education requirements if you pursue this route - read more about this in the section on coursework later in this article. Most CSUs are unfortunately not transparent about their acceptance rates by major.

UCs

UCs (University of California) are the second most popular option. They are usually more selective and more expensive than CSUs.

In general, it is easier to get into UCs as a transfer student than as a high school student; however, transfer acceptance rates are much more dependent on major. Make sure to a look at UC admit data by major, especially if you are planning on pursuing a highly competitive major.

UC's offer a variety of programs that make transferring easier:

TAG: This stands for Transfer Admission Guarantee. 6 out of the 9 UCs participate in TAG; 3 UCs do not (San Diego, Los Angeles, and Berkeley). There are also some private and out of state schools that have TAG options (which I will touch more on later), and a small TAG program for CSUs (only for international students) found here. TAG is not binding (although you can only TAG to one school), meaning you can apply to one of the 6 UCs with TAG and still apply to other schools. If you meet the conditions of a TAG agreement with a UC, you are guaranteed to be admitted. Each school sets it own rules for TAG, often constituting completing 60+ units, completing certain major preparatory coursework for your chosen major, and achieving a certain GPA ranging from 2.4 for guaranteed admission to UC Merced's Pschology program to 3.5 for guaranteed admission to the UC Davis College of Engineering. More information on TAG can be found here.

TAP: TAP is a program that many CCCs (including SMC) have in order to facilitate transferring to UCLA. If you are applying to UCLA, TAP is your best friend (although you are only eligible to participate if your major is in the College of Letters and Sciences, i.e. not engineering, music, nursing, or in another specialty school). According to Foothill College, "Traditionally, Foothill students experience a 70-98% acceptance rate through this program (versus 14-20%) for all other transfer applicants." Other CCCs, including SMC, report similar success. To participate, you must become TAP certified by completing the Scholar's Program at your CCC. More information on getting TAP certified at SMC can be found here, as well as in the section later in this article on the Scholar's Program.

TAP (Berkeley): UC Berkeley has a small, unrelated program also called TAP (not confusing at all!), and according to its website, "TAP has served over 18,000 students and around 80% of TAP participants who applied to UC Berkeley were admitted to Cal." This program is intended for African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander students who are pursuing biomedical sciences (not including nursing or allied health).

Honors to Honors (UC Irvine): UC Irvine has a program where if a student completes a community college honors program and receives at least a 3.7 GPA, they are guaranteed admission to UC Irvine's honors program among other benefits.

Private In-State Schools

Most people who attend community colleges transfer to CSUs or UCs; however, you may apply to private schools as well. USC, LMU, and Pepperdine are all quite transfer friendly, with some private schools even offering a TAG program!

Every private school has its own recommendations and requirements for transferring. Some prefer sophomore transfers, some prefer junior transfers. Some care about your high school grades and others do not. Many will want you to take specific classes. If you are interested in following this route, you should research the individual schools you are interested in or reach out to their admissions department for more information.

Out-Of-State (OOS) Schools

This is the least common transfer path for CCC students, but is absolutely an option! Many of these schools receive little to no applicantions from Out-of-State community college applicants and you will have to look into or reach out to the individual school for more information about what they will expect from you and look for in an applicant.

Coursework

If you want to transfer, the most important thing to get right is picking your classes. In this section, I will provide an overview of the types of classes you will want in your schedule.

Major Requirements: When selecting your classes, you should almost always prioritize picking your major preparation classes (and doing very well in them). Your performance in these classes will play a large role in your transfer application. Take all of the required ones and as many of the ones that aren't required as possible for the best shot at having a successful application. A list of these courses by major can be found on assist.org. Type in your community college under "Institution", a school you are interested in transferring to under "Agreements With Other Institutions" (most schools will have similar major preperation requirements, but check in case there are discrepancies!) Click "View Agreements", enter your major, and you will see a list of your major preparatory coursework. Although it will say "Lower Division Major Requirements", this does not always mean these courses are required in order to transfer. This confuses a lot of people, because, well, it's confusing. In this context, "requirement" means that these courses have to be taken by the time you graduate from the institution you transfer to (not the institution you are currently at!) Sometimes, they are actually required in order to be eligible to transfer, but that isn't always the case. You can check this by looking at the top section of the document, which will be called something along the lines of "Important Major Details" (depending on the school). It will explain which courses are required to transfer and which are recommended. If you do not take these classes and are still accepted, you will have to take their equivalents at the school you transfer to.

General Education Requirements: While not as important as your major requirements, completing your General Education (GE) classes, also known as your core classes, is important because 1) it looks good for transfer admissions and 2) it will significantly reduce the coursework necessary for you to take when you transfer. Completing GEs is also necessary in order to attain an Associate's degree. There are several ways to fulfill your GE's:

After your major requirements, GE's should be your second biggest priority in terms of picking classes. A well balanced semester will have you taking both GE's and major classes (bonus points if you find classes that overlap!)

Electives and everything else: Once you've taken your major classes and your GE's, if you have room in your schedule, electives are great. These serve 3 purposes:

  1. Electives are credits that will count towards your associates degree (if you want one). You need 60 credits to graduate. Many schools that you want to transfer to will require that you have a certain number of credits (often also 60).
  2. Electives can boost your GPA, especially if you take professors that grade generously (which you can use this website to verify).
  3. Electives can be fun!
These are your lowest priority classes for transferring, but definitely try to take some fun electives! :)

Advice When Picking Classes

In college admissions, GPA is extremely important. This is doubly true for transfer students, who, unlike freshman, do not have SATs or ACTs. 4/8 UC's don't even read transfer essays! The transfer process is much less holistic, and so your GPA is king.

Some professors teach extremely well, and some, well, don't. Some professors give 75% of the class an A, and others give out 1 A. There are professors in the SMC math department who have gone years without giving out a single A (!!) You, of course, want the professors that teach well and give out a lot of A's. Sometimes you'll have to pick between a harsh grader that's a good teacher and a bad teacher that's an easy grader; this is a hard choice to make, and you'll want to have all the information possible to make it.

To find out about the quality of your professors, you can use Rate My Professors (or this website, which pulls data directly from Rate My Professors). Rate My Professors data comes from anonymous student reviews, and it isn't always accurate or fair. However, all else being equal, if you have the choice between a professor with a 1.0/5.0 and a 4.5/5.0, pick the latter! 9 times out of 10, you will have a much better experience. Grade distributions, which SMC and some other community colleges publish, are equally important. They are incredibly valuable pieces of information that break down how many A's, B's, C's, etc each professor gave out by term and by class. You can get this data directly from SMC or by searching for a professor on our website.

Many transfers underestimate the importance of picking good professors that are reasonable graders. This may be the most important thing you do; even if it takes hours of comparing professors and creating schedules, that is well worth it. Do not take for granted that the professors you choose will be reasonable graders or effective teachers. There are plenty of gems at SMC and other community colleges; some professors are truly incredible. Find them. Few other investments of your time in community college will have as high of an ROI. Choose your professors wisely!

Meeting With Counselors

Counselors are great for planning your coursework; make sure to meet with them regularly. If you are in the Scholar's Program, the Scholar's Program counselors you have access to are especially fantastic (access to these counselors is a huge selling point of the program). However, do not let this be an excuse to not do your own transfer planning! Counselors can and do make mistakes; nobody is capable of crafting a better transfer plan for you than yourself.

Conclusion

Community college is awesome. However, the transfer process is very complicated, and successfully transferring requires years of deliberate planning. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us (contact info on the About page). Thank you for reading this guide and best of luck!