Colleges and universities from all over California and out-of-state were present at SRJC’s Bertolini quad on Sept. 14 for the annual Transfer Day. This day gave students the opportunity to talk with college and university representatives about transferring and discuss what the colleges and universities have to offer.

Students flocked around the 44 UC, CSU, private, and out of state colleges represented. According to representatives, the most frequently asked questions were about transfer requirements.

“They’re asking about the requirements for the transfer admission guarantee and the minimum GPA requirements for their major,” said Sheryl Blackshire, the representative for UC Davis. She said that despite being a highly-ranked public university, the primary reason UC Davis is a popular transfer school among SRJC students is the relative accessibility of its admissions requirements.

Doris Fendt, community college outreach coordinator for San Francisco State, acknowledges the recent difficulties students have with transferring.

“SRJC used to have admission guarantee with us, but because of the budget crisis it has been a little bit more competitive for Santa Rosa students to get into San Francisco State,” she said. “You guys are now held to higher GPA requirements.”

Sonoma State’s Marguerite St. Germain expresses concern for students wanting to transfer to Sonoma State, the most common choice for transferring SRJC students.

“There’s a lot of anxiety for being able to transfer; many students in this school depend on Sonoma State to further their education and we want to be very sensitive to that, and we understand what their anxieties are and let them know we’re here for them in the fall,” she said.

Still, St. Germain said Sonoma State is happy to be the number one transfer choice among SRJC students.

“SRJC is ranked number one in the state as far as community colleges go, so we have always been aware of how fortunate we are to be their main pipeline as far as transfers go,” she said.

Yet despite the recent challenges, SRJC students were still eager to get more information about the colleges they are interested in applying to.

Jason Robertson, 21, a history major, said he is looking for a school that has a good history program. Even though he is unsure of where he wants to transfer, he said that the college representatives were very helpful.

“When you’re starting out as a freshman, I think you really need the help of transfer classes and the counseling office to get you started, but there comes a certain point where you have to man up and be the person that applies to certain schools,” Robertson said.

Representatives said the educational field that students asked about the most was nursing. “Nursing programs throughout the state of California are in extremely high demand and they have very limited spaces available so it’s very competitive to get in,” St. Germain said.

Out-of-state colleges that were present at Transfer Day included: Arizona State, Sierra Nevada College, University of Montana and University of Idaho. Roberta Delgado from SRJC’s counseling department said out-of-state colleges are very interested in SRJC’s students because of the student’s reputation for being well-prepared.

Arizona State was particularly popular for SRJC students. College representative Terry Richardson, a former SRJC student, said students were very interested in what Arizona State had to offer in terms of its medical science program and financial aid.

“Students who come in from California are used to higher tuition rates,” he said. “Students are just a little worried about how expensive it’s going to be to transfer, especially out of state.”

Still, students like Jesarela Hernandez are interested in transferring to an out-of-state college. As a nursing major, she was one of the students who visited the Arizona State booth inquiring about the entrance rate for nursing or pre-med program, and wants to know how well they can prepare her for her future career.

“I want to transfer to an out-of-state college just to get a different environment,” Hernandez said. “I want to expand my knowledge on how other people live.”

“Santa Rosa Junior College students go everywhere,” Delgado said. “They go to all of the UC’s, they go to every single one of the CSU’s, they go to all the private schools, they go out-of-state, and they go to other countries to study. Because our students are so well-prepared, they are able to go to so many different places.”