Majority of students head to San Jose State University after
Gavilan College
Majority of students head to San Jose State University after Gavilan College
n By Heather Bremner Staff Writer
Gilroy – Although Gavilan College President Steve Kinsella urged the nearly 300 students who graduated last week to not consider an associate’s degree the culmination of their education, if the majority follow trends most will not immediately transfer to a four-year university or other institution.
Instead, many will use certificates they obtained at the local community college in areas such as nursing, cosmetology or construction, to catapult themselves into lucrative careers.
“Some people are there to get a career certificate, some aren’t sure what their goal is going to be,” said Gavilan College Spokeswoman Jan Bernstein Chargin. “As we keep following that cohort more and more of them will transfer.”
That’s one of the reasons annual transfer rates are quite difficult to dissect and comprehend. Gavilan College’s most recent transfer rate for 2002 first-time freshman, released in April, is 23 percent or 95 students and the completion rate is 29 percent.
All institutions receiving federal funding must abide by the Student Right to Know act, requiring public disclosure of the college’s completion and transfer rates. The intent of the policy “is to provide to the consumer a statistic of comparable effectiveness that they can use in the determination of college choice,” according to the California Community College Chancellor’s office.
To comply, the community college system must first identify a cohort or group of first-time freshman at every site enrolled full-time during the fall term. After three-years, the completion and transfer rates of the cohort are reported.
Students who earn a certificate, degree or successfully finish a two-year transfer program (56 units and a grade-point-average of 2.0 or better), are considered “completers.” Anyone who enrolls in another institution is added to the transfer pool.
For example, statistics on first-time freshman who enrolled in 2005 won’t be available until 2008.
“The transfer rate is computed by first identifying those students who indicate at the time they are applying to Gavilan a desire to transfer to a four-year college after finishing Gavilan, and secondly, by tracking them after three years to see where and if they went,” Joy Parker, Gavilan College director of admissions and records wrote in an e-mail.
Those who choose to attend to another community college or trade school, such as Heald College or ITT Technical Institute, are also considered transfer students. But not all community college students have laid out their goals.
If students in the cohort didn’t identify themselves as college-bound but they begin “taking degree-applicable classes we assume they’re degree seeking,” said Tonia Lu, Management Information System specialist at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s office.
Not surprisingly, the majority of the 95 students included in the 2002 group chose to head to San Jose State University. A total of 23 selected the nearby university. California State University, Fresno and California State University, Monterey Bay, tied for second, with six students heading to each one of the schools.
The University of California, Santa Cruz, where five students were accepted, landed a close third. Eighty two students chose to remain in state, while 13 were accepted to schools outside of California.
Most, 79 of the 95, selected public institutions and 16 headed to private establishments. Gavilan College students can now take advantage of the school’s Transfer Center, where staff assist students with everything from filling out college applications and scheduling meetings with university representatives to providing specific transfer information.
