The UCLA representatives hosting Transfer Day have updates regarding the personal questions transfer students must answer that are part of the enrollment process.

Transfer Day was held Friday, April 1, for 20 students, not all Cerritos College students. Some attendees study at Rio Hondo College or El Camino College, among others.

Paitzar Giourdjian, Transfer Admission Officer at UCLA, said in her presentation, “The more information you share[in your application], the more we get to know about you, and the stronger your application becomes[…]Just keep [in] mind that we really do take into consideration everything you put on your application when we review [it].”

Giourdjian advises that it is better to take the required courses (like both English and 1 Math course) before the end of the fall semester before the time you submit your application because the Transfer Admissions Officers will not be able to see an overall application if they have to wait until they receive confirmation on recent grades.

The personal questions for the UC system students must answer have been renamed “Personal Insight Questions” and have criteria that need to be met.

According to the handout included in the portfolio provided, a few of the basic criteria are as follows:

• You will need to answer three of seven questions provided, but there is one required question you must answer.
• Each response is limited to 350 words. More information is provided at ucal.us/personalquestions.

Giourdjian stated, “Highly selective majors at UCLA become highly selective because we have so many applicants that apply to these majors alone, and we don’t have enough room to accommodate all the students that apply.”

Alternate majors are majors that are often similar to the highly selective, but not as popular, because a lot of students don’t know about them.

For a detailed list of UCLA’s majors, (both highly selective and alternate) visit http://www.admission.ucla.edu/prospect/coll_sch.htm.

Diego Madero is a Peer Mentor for CCCP Scholars Program. He mentioned that students don’t know of the program, but is beneficial for those who fall into the criteria.

The brochure handed out at the event pointed out that “students in the program have access to our summer and year-long academic preparatory transfer programs which guides students through the community college experience, the application and admissions process, research and pre-graduate opportunities and career exploration.”

He stated, “It’s a bit unfamiliar to most students at any college really, just because we center ourselves in the Transfer Center, and a lot of students don’t attend the Transfer Center to begin with. We do classroom presentations as well, but students don’t get the word out about our program. “

Madero also advises students to, “Take advantage of any resources offered. It is a great opportunity to get a feel for the university if you are interested in going to UCLA.

“This gives you a chance to get you introduced to the school. Also, our statistics show that we have a high success rate of students that participate in the program end up transferring to UCLA specifically and also any university.

“We have over 85 percent acceptance to any four year university whether it is a Cal State, UC, or even private,” he expressed.