Are you a community college student planning to transfer to a state college soon? Well if you are this article is for you. Many transfer students transfer to a state college without knowing an important piece of information. Don't let this happen to you. It happened to me, it happened to my sister, and it happened to friends.

Most people applying to a state college is not informed by either the community college or the state college that they are allowed to use their current catalog year. To explain it more clearly let me give you an example. I went to a community college my freshman and sophmore year. When I transfered to the state college I used the catalog of my transfer year. This is the same thing everyone else I know did as well. We did not know any better. We did not know that we could potentially be adding extra time onto our quest to graduate. The catalog year of transfer is your JUNIOR YEAR of collge not your FRESHMAN YEAR. So if you are transfering over to a state college you may be allowed to use the same catalog year you used at the community college. Still confused? I will break it down even more for you.The following is the break down for myself.

1997-2000- my catalog year at my community college. I completed my freshman and sophmore years there

2000- I filled out an application to transfer to a state college. It asks you what is your catalog year. Myself along with many others who didn't know better put the year we transfered , the year 2000. That is incorrect. Even though we were new to the school we were not freshmens. We were juniors which means our catalog year started the year we started our community college.

I never knew that community college students were allowed to do this. I just assumed that my catalog year was the year I started at the State school.

So why does this matter? It matters because each year the catalogs get updated. So lets say that after 1997 they added 10 classes to graduate for example. well those using the 1997 catalog would not have to take those 10 classes to graduate, but those who picked the 2000 catalog would have to. this of course would cause you to take longer to graduate and cost more money as well.

On a different side of the coin is the potential to a plus side to this. Lets say that in 1997 I was required to take 10 classes that in the year 2000 I didn't. If I picked the 2000 catalog I could graduate sooner.

So how does a student know what to do? Research, research, research. Find out if the state college you plan on transfering to will allow you to use the catalog year from your community college. Then compare the two catalog years and determine which one is best for you to use. Then after doing this fill out your application selecting your catalog year. Do not select your catalog year without first doing the research. I could have saved myself time and graduated sooner had I known this.

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