TRANSFER PLANNING TIMELINE
Become An Edmonds College Triton While Earning Your AA Degree: Receive Academic Planning and Support
Assigned Academic Advisors and or Faculty Advisors can support you in many ways. Check in with your advisor at any time for your degree progress, discuss areas of study, and receive an academic plan that maps out your program requirements and provide you with an estimated graduation date.
Transfer 101 What is Transferring, Anyway?
Most two-year college students want to transfer to a four-year university to obtain a Bachelor's degree but wondering what transfer really means and what steps are needed to prepare for transfer. Wonder no more! We're here to simplify the process, prepare you for major ready, and seamingless transfer your future.
The amount of time you spend at Edmonds College depends on many factors, including:
- When you start the transfer proccess (your first quarter or your last quarter)
- What classes to take: precollege, prerequisites
- Major-ready courses (science/engineer majors have more requirements)
- Full or part time enrollment
- Work schedule
- Family responsibilities
- Life-unforseen circumstances may come up
- Dropping/failing/repeating classes
Each student is on their own timeline. We encourage students to meet with an assigned or faculty advisor early to plan your educational plan.
To obtain a Bachelor's degree, students need to complete a total of 180 credits. As a student at Edmonds College, depending on the pathway: associate in arts, associate in biology, associate in business, associate in sciences, etc., your first 90 or 93, or 100+ transferrable credits are taken here. These 90-100+ credits are mostly your lower division general education courses, major-ready courses (prerequisites), and electives courses.
Once you transfer to four-year university, you will finish the remaining 90 credits which will focus on upper division major courses and any graduation requirement left to complete.
The four-year universities want you to be prepared for your major-ready; therefore, the majority of your courses that you will be taking at Edmonds College will consist of general education courses and major preparation courses. The remaining courses you will need to take to meet pathway graduation requirements.
Have you ever heard...?
If you are undecided or undeclared, you cannot transfer. You must select a major to
apply to transfer because you may not be able to change once you're admitted.
ADD TRANSFER CHECKLIST HERE
Major Ready What is "Major-Ready" Anyway?
Plan to be major-ready: What does that mean? It means the prerequisites for your major. Example: for Business degree: ACCT& 201, ACCT& 202, ACCT& 203, BUS& 201, ECON& 201, ECON& 202, MATH 140, MATH& 146, MATH& 148.
Check out major guidelines, program websites, equivalency guides, university website or department website.
Graduation requirements: foreign language, general education.
Make an Academic/Educational Plan: General Education-->Prerequisites--> Transfer Major-Ready
Meet with your assigned and or faculty advisor to make an academic plan by the end
of your 2nd quarter at Edmonds College.
It will help you to avoid taking unneeded classes that do not transfer.
It will help you to know your anticipated graduation date.
Prepare to be a competitive applicant because universities prefer students who are major ready.
Your First Quarter: 0-18 Credits Dare to Declare: Explore Four-Year-Institutions and Choose Majors
- Complete an Academic/Educational Plan with an assigned advisor or faculty advisor
- Identify your Educational Goal and Degree (DTA, AS-T) with an assigned advisor or
faculty advisor
Prioritize English and Math classes - Connect with the Career Action Center for assistance with choosing a major and attend career exploration events and workshops
- Explore Student Services and Special Programs MESA, TRIO, ...
- Check in with the University Transfer Center and get on the Transfer E-Mailing list
- Attend university tours, workshops, outreach activities, transfer fairs
Continue Your Success: 19-44 Credits Investigate Career Interests and Plan for Your Future with Your Assigned and or Faculty Advisor
Investigate Career Interests
Find an internship, shadowing, or volunteer in your field of interests.
Plan for Your Future with Your Assigned and or Faculty Advisor
Start thinking about what classes you will take each quarter with a goal of being
major-ready to enter your major as soon as you step foot on the four-year-campus.
Plan to be major-ready: What does that mean? It means the prerequisites for your major. Example: for Business degree: ACCT& 201, ACCT& 202, ACCT& 203, BUS& 201, ECON& 201, ECON& 202, MATH 140, MATH& 146, MATH& 148.
Check out major guidelines, program websites, equivalency guides, university website or department website.
Graduation requirements: foreign language, general education.
Make an Academic/Educational Plan: General Education-->Prerequisites--> Transfer Major-Ready
Meet with your assigned and or faculty advisor to make an academic plan by the end
of your 2nd quarter at Edmonds College.
It will help you to avoid taking unneeded classes that do not transfer.
It will help you to know your anticipated graduation date.
Prepare to be a competitive applicant because universities prefer students who are major ready.
Your Future Unfolds: 45-74 Credits Apply to Your Chosen Universities and Major
Select at least 3 universities to apply.
The application deadlines come up starting in January, February for transfer students
for the fall entry. The Running Start students have a different deadline.
Apply To More Than One Schools
It is encouraged students to apply to more than one schools with the following reasons:
REACH--> You have a school you really want to go to but you're not sure you'll meet their
admissions requirements.
TARGET--> A school where you're confident you'll meet all admissions requirements.
SAFETY--> Exceed admissions requirements: always have a contingency plan because you never know
what's going to happen in the admissions process.
Identify Requirements for Admissions - What Are Universities Looking for in a Competitive Application? A holistic review
GPA for university and major admissions.
High Grades in Prerequisites: did you do well in classes related to your major but maybe have some trouble in others that aren't related?
Upward Grade Trend: it is most important when a student has struggled but are they able to recover from that? Are they able to go forwards and get better grades, be more successful?
Connection or Passion for Major: you can address this in your personal statement.
Leadership/Extra-Curriculars: Who are you outside of school? Are you involved in anything outside of the class that is relevant to the major, relevant to the career path that you;re choosing? Are you involved in any campus or community organizations? What family or employment responsibilities do you balance with school? etc. All those factors are important in an admissions decision.
Other requirements: an example for a Nursing degree - a minimum of 100 hours of hands-on healthcare experience in a 3-month period within 12-months of applying to the program for nursing applicants.
Graduation and Transfer: 75-90 Credits Are You Ready to Transfer? PREPARE YOUR APPLICATIONS
Check Deadlines and Application Requirements for Your Major
Compile Official Transcripts and Letters of Recommendation
Give faculty or employers up to 2 months of notice to complete the letters of recommendation.
Finish Your Personal Statement
You've made your plan. You figured out where you want to apply. You've connected with
universities (transfer fairs, transfer workshops/webinars) and hopefully along the
way you've been checking for deadlines. You've maybe made a list of kept some kind
of record of when do I need to meet deadlines? What things do I need to have together
for that deadline? Recheck those things. Make sure that you're doing everything and
you need to do then start to pull together documents that you'll need: there will
most likely all be electronics ordering official transcripts, asking for letters of
recommendation; in some cases, getting a copy of your high school transcript and checking
if that needs to be official. Wrapping up your personal statement. For a deadline
coming up in February, you're putting finishing touches on that now and have already
started to work with our tutoring center. The goal is to get somebody to review or
multiple reviews: it can be the tutoring center, or admissions counselor at a university.
Graduate from Edmonds College
Check-in with your assigned advisor and or faculty advisor prior to your last quarter
at Edmonds College to make sure that you complete all the necessary steps to meet
graduation requirements.
The most important step is to Apply for Graduation.
Figure Out Finances How to fund your education
Financial Aid-->Renew FAFSA or WASFA before you transfer or at least make sure that you're eligible for all the aid possible. You can list up to 10 schools.
Scholarships--> Start your search 6-12 months ahead of your transferring.
Priority deadlines can often help you to be eligible for scholarships at universities.
There are also other scholarships outside of that may be particular to your universities:
start looking there. Then, widen your search.
A website called theWashBoard.org is helpful because that is a WA State database.
It is run by the State so it will not spam you. It's not going to charge you money.
Never pay for a scholarship or to apply for a scholarship.
Many scholarships have an application deadline in the spring for funding in the fall.
Apply To More Than One Schools It is encouraged students to apply to more than one schools with the following reasons
REACH--> You have a school you really want to go to but you're not sure you'll meet
their admissions requirements.
TARGET--> A school where you're confident you'll meet all admissions requirements.
SAFETY--> Exceed admissions requirements: always have a contingency plan because you
never know what's going to happen in the admissions process.