By Russell Navarrette
The East Los Angeles College Transfer Center provides counseling, workshops and university trips to help prepare students for the transition into universities.
University trips typically happen in the fall and spring semesters.
There are five to seven trips that are planned throughout the semester on Fridays and Saturdays.
It’s first come first serve.
They ask students to leave a $5 deposit two weeks before the date, which they get back the day of the trip.
Trips are posted on the Transfer Center’s Instagram page @elactransfercenter and printed flyers that are posted around the campus.
There is also a new workshop called “transfer shock,” which helps students deal with stress or feelings of being an outsider in a new school.
Dulce Garcia, career guidance counselor assistant, said that a lot of students feel the overwhelming change coming from a community college and into a four-year university.
She said that one tip they offer the students is to visit and explore the campus a week before school starts to familiarize themselves with the campus.
This way they are not late on the first day or confused and stressed trying to figure out where everything is.
This can also help in finding and being part of a community in the campus.
They also recommend little exercises like going for a walk or going to the gym, something to get their mind off the stresses of school.
Karla Garcia, a sophomore at ELAC, visited and applied mid-October and came back to update her application in early November.
Students who completed the application have one more application date in January to update recent classes, credits and grades.
“I didn’t know how to start…they (the staff) were very friendly, very helpful towards all my questions,” said Garcia about the Transfer Center.
She had to spend four hours to complete everything to apply.
For students, that amount of time might not be typical. However, Garcia had to gather her transcripts from all the schools she went to.
There is a fee waiver students can apply for that allows them to apply to multiple schools without having to pay $75 per application, depending on the household income.
The next time period for new applicants to apply is in spring.