Long Beach City College has now decided to change their policy regarding the transcript evaluation process of out of state students. Even though it is a step in the right direction to remove this policy, the school should have never made it a policy in the first place.
Until currently, LBCC had a policy set in place where school counselors didn’t evaluate transcripts until a student from out of state completed 12 academic units at the school.
Now, for most students who transfer within the county or state, the process does not have too much of an affect on them as the curriculum is similar state wide.
But for those who have come from schools outside the state, this policy is another contributing factor to student’s stay longer than originally anticipated at LBCC.
According to Admissions & Records, the policy is in place due to a history of out-of-state students transferred into LBCC and got their transcript evaluated, yet did not graduate.
The same department also mentioned that the process of evaluating transcripts is time consuming and they don’t want to commit that time to someone who does not complete two years at the school.
However, students transferring into a school, especially at the community college level, show more promise and dedication than the typical stigma of a first year student at a community college attempting to collect a financial aid refund.
Because of this policy, students will have to blindly select a whole years worth of classes, possibly not knowing if they were the right classes to take, and hope they haven’t wasted money and time.
Facing to possibility of having to retake classes similar, if not the same to those previously taken in a different state in order to fit the California state curriculum.
If they do not evaluate your transcript until you hit 12 credit units at the school, there is no sure way of knowing if the student indeed graduated from high school, which according to California Community College Apply website is a requirement to attend a community college.
Not only will an out of state student be held back, but other students face wasting time and money as well from a secondary effect.
For example, a student who hasn’t had their transcript evaluated could be blindly selecting classes they might not need, taking up space for a student that could needs that same class and in result multiple students at LBCC would take longer to graduate.
That means that a person, who is in this situation, is using up resources that can be used for other students who know what classes they need to take.
College is not mandatory and people have a lot of issues to deal within school and outside of it, no matter what school a student decides to enroll into or what major they decide to declare, students not finishing is inevitable.
LBCC needs to provide due diligence for all students and erase this policy so more students can possibly transfer out faster and continue their educational paths with a clear understanding of how to advance within the college.