Hello,
The major I am pursuing is Mechanical Engineering and I am planning to transfer to Cal Poly Pomona and Csun as a backup.
I made a previous thread asking about transfering, but I mainly focused on about the Community College I am attending, LACC. Now I have more questions as I finish my Fall Semester and classes to take to transfer.
So I have vaguely made my educational plan with the counselor here. I found out that I would be able to transfer in 2-years if I am able to take the Golden Four classes and get 60units and pass them. But, they told me that since I will not finish the CSU General Education Plan in LACC, I would need to take the General Education plan in the 4-year college I transfer too.
Now my question is it wiser to transfer as soon as possible or stay and finish all the CSU General Education Plan in CC before transferring? I just do not want to take any more english or history classes in the 4-year college. I just want to focus on my major.
And if I do end up transfering right away, will I have to retake some of the classes I took in cc or will they be used to fill in the GED plan that they will have in the 4-year college.
If you complete IGETC or CSU-GE before transfer, then you will not need any more GE courses after transfer.
If not, then any courses you complete before transfer will be applied to GE categories at the CSU that they match up to, but then you will have to take additional GE courses in the categories that you have not fulfilled.
Looks like you would be missing 25 quarter units (= 16+2/3 semester units) of major courses at CPP, and 8 semester units of major courses at CSUN. You would have to take them as “catch up” courses after transfer. It may be best to have IGETC or CSU-GE done before transfer, so that you can be ahead of schedule on the GE courses, leaving more room in your schedule to take the “catch up” courses while minimizing the number of extra quarters or semesters needed at the more expensive (than CC) CSU.
May I ask how you were able to calculate the semester units that I would be missing? I can’t seem to total any of the units to 8 in the csun transfer. This would be helpful if I can calculate the units I would be missing when transferring.
As of now my plan is to take most of my units, in LACC, as the major courses, which includes the Calculus levels and higher math, Physics 101+102, and Chem 101. The rest of my units are either the prerequisites for LACC to get into those levels or one of the CSU General Education plan, as well as the Golden Four. After taking all those I would get around 60 units. I won’t be close to finishing the CSU-GE plan here before I hit the unit cap for transfer which is, correct me if I am wrong, 60 units. Which is also one of my worries if I do not transfer soon. My counselor told me that I would fall behind in units if I take all these classes after maxing the units for transfer.
So my other questions are…
Does the number of units matter in any way in the 4-year college?
Would I be behind in anything in the 4-year college if I take everything, CSU-GE and major prerequisites, in LACC? (I would be saving money through this, unless I will fall behind in something once I am in the 4-year college resulting in more quarters or semesters.)
As a STEM major, I know that I will be having semesters or quarters that will only include STEM classes, which I hear is a killer. Would I be able to take my GE+Major courses in the 4-year college, hopefully balancing the difficult classes with some easier classes, or would they force me to take all the GED courses first? Are STEM classes a lot harder than the GE courses in a 4-year?
For the "catch up" courses, is that just regular GE courses being taken? I was thinking of minimizing the number of extra quarters or semester by taking parts of the major courses+parts of CSU-GE in LACC instead of all the CSU-GE courses because they are easier courses, unless they are not then...I would need to rethink things.
From the ASSIST report, the missing courses you could have for CSUN and their units are:
1 ME 101
1 ME 101L
1 ME 186
1 ME 186L
1 ME 209
2 ME 286
1 ME 227L
Total of 8 semester units, since CSUN is on the semester system. These would be the “catch up” courses that you need to take at CSUN after transfer if you transfer there having completed all other courses listed in the ASSIST report.
You can take as many units as your want at CCs without issue. You will receive transfer credit for up to 70 semester units (105 quarter units) toward the 120 semester units (180 quarter units) needed to graduate, but all courses taken count for subject credit. See http://www.csumentor.edu/faq/transfer.asp#19 . So if you complete all available courses for your major, and all courses needed for either IGETC or CSU-GE before transfer, your transfer units may be capped at 70, but you will still be counted as having fulfilled all course requirements covered by your courses, including the “excess” courses over 70 units.
To determine how much space for non-technical electives you have after transfer, you can check the course plans.
For example, CSUN ME is listed at http://www.ecs.csun.edu/me/degreereqs.html . In junior and senior years, you would need 8 units of “catch up” courses (listed above), 40 units of required upper division courses, and 12 units of engineering electives, for a total of 60 units. This leaves no room for other courses unless you take overloads (more than 15 units per semester).
For CPP, the curriculum is shown at http://www.cpp.edu/~engineering/current/currsheets/me-13-14.pdf . it looks like there are 20 quarter units of GE courses shown in junior and senior years, but you would need 25 quarter units of “catch up” courses. So if you have CSU-GE or IGETC done before transfer, you would still need to overload by 5 units compared to the schedule (which already includes overload quarters up to 19 units) to graduate in 6 quarters. This would not leave room for other courses. If you do take an extra quarter or two, you could have space for other electives.