Long Beach State Blocks Mid-Year Transfers

More bad news for community college students: The California State University system is putting the brakes on mid-year transfers to most of its campuses, according to news reports.

Only 10 of the 23 Cal State schools will accept mid-year transfers in 2013, but even they will require, for the first time, that incoming juniors have an associate degree, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported.

Schools like Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge and San Diego State will not accept incoming community college transfer students of any type this spring, the newspaper reported.

"What we tell students is, after we pick them up and give them a [tissue], is what the other options are or what else you can do," said one college transfer counselor, Jenny Dannelly, in an interview with the Inland Daily Bulletin.

The enrollment limit puts an end to the traditional route used by hundreds of thousands of Californians who were unable for financial or academic reasons to enroll as freshmen in the 427,000-student university system. Those students were told good grades at a community college could earn them a transfer to a Cal State University for completion of a four-year degree.

"They're really surprised because they finished their course work and they're looking to apply, which is now," the Chaffey College counselor told the Inland Valley Bulletin. "And they're walking in and we're telling them, sorry, unless you happen to meet this criterion."

Schools that will accept midyear transfer students with associate degrees are the Cal State universities at Fullerton, Channel Islands, Chico, East Bay, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Francisco and Sonoma.

-- City News Service