Making the leap to UCLA

Though she was accepted to several universities, Azin Mehdizadeh decided that attending a community college was a necessary stepping-stone from a small private high school to a large four-year university.

“I felt that it would be a great transition for me to start at a community college and it also taught me a lot, going there,” Mehdizadeh said about choosing to attend Santa Monica College first.

“I got into the colleges I applied to out of high school, like UCB, UCSD and UCD. It was a small environment, to a medium environment, and now to a large environment,” said Mehdizadeh, who will be attending UCLA as a junior this fall.

Founded in 1929, Santa Monica College, which is about six miles away from UCLA, is one of 109 community colleges in the state. Today, the college has 30,000 students with more than 80 fields of study, and 2,500 international students from more than 100 countries.

Despite the difficulties of establishing a social network at the community college, students said they benefited from the ability to explore different classes at a lower cost, from classes smaller in size that those at a four-year university and from the opportunity to get to know their professors personally.

Students also factor in a variety of other reasons in choosing to attend Santa Monica College over a four-year university, ranging from a solution to financial concerns ““ tuition is $20 per unit for residents ““ the desire for a smoother transition from high school to college, or the high transfer rate to top universities.

Santa Monica College has one of the highest transfer rates to four-year universities and sends more transfer students to UCLA than any other transfer school. The two campuses also share several faculty members, as well as student groups that coordinate joint events.

According to Dan Nannini, the Transfer Center coordinator at Santa Monica College, students tend to transfer to the closest university to their community college. Last year, the college sent 596 students to UCLA.

“It’s like the chicken-and-egg conundrum. Is it the fact that so many students transfer that it’s popular, or the fact that so many students get accepted to UCLA?” Nannini said.

Many students said they feel Santa Monica College is only a transition to a four-year university, rather than their final destination.

Tina Oh, who moved from Orange County to Westwood and is currently a first-year student at Santa Monica College, said she plans to transfer to UCLA after completing her second year.

“I talked to one of my older friends about what to do for freshman year, because I didn’t get into a lot of schools I wanted to right out of high school,” Oh said. “If you go to SMC, you’ll get the city feel, hang out with UCLA kids and save money. That’s why I went to SMC instead of other universities.”

Oh said she felt she missed out on large events for the cultural clubs she participates in, as well as the variety of people her friends at UCLA met. Still, Oh said she believes Santa Monica College feels like a university, and though she was at first ashamed to tell people she attends a community college, it has exceeded her expectations.

“I had so many regrets in the beginning. I do miss out a lot even though I hang out with my first-year friends in the dorms,” Oh said.

“It’s not the same as living there. … My first year in college wasn’t really ideal for me, but you learn to work with what you have.”

Anna Dieina, a student from Russia in her first year at Santa Monica College, was not concerned with going to school when she came to America, but is satisfied with the college and intends to transfer.

She said that though the tuition at Santa Monica College is less than it would be at a university, it is still very expensive for international students ““ $195 a unit ““ so she has less freedom in exploring classes than residents do.

Dieina added that the counselors at the college were not helpful, and she had to figure out how the American school system works on her own.

“I came to SMC by accident. I’m not American, but I live close. … I thought it was a university-level school, but I’m not disappointed,” she said.

Transitioning to transfer

To help students transfer, Santa Monica College offers the Scholars Program, which guarantees “priority consideration” when students apply to four-year universities, Nannini said. Students are required to maintain a 3.0 grade point average and take five honors courses.

“The Scholars Program is the best way to transfer into any UC or any private university. I definitely wanted to go to UCLA, and I knew it was competitive, which I didn’t want to deal with, so I took two years at Santa Monica and transferred,” said Bridgette Wiener, a third-year English student who transferred to UCLA last fall.

Wiener added that the counselors for the Scholars Program were more helpful than the regular counselors and that they encouraged her to apply to a variety of universities.

The Scholars Program also prepares students for university-level workloads through the honors courses, though several students said they feel the work is not as difficult as the work they would encounter at a four-year university.

“I feel prepared, but I definitely will admit that the workload is much more difficult to handle at UCLA. At SMC, they kind of baby you; it’s kind of like high school. … You’re much more liberated at UCLA and everything does fall onto you,” Wiener said. “SMC prepares you enough to know what to expect at UCLA, but I think UCLA as a whole expects more academically than SMC.”

Weiner said she noticed her class sizes dwindling as the semester wore on, because though there are the motivated students who are determined to transfer, there are also students who are not focused on transferring and have a more relaxed attitude toward their education.

Abigail Bonar, a third-year at Santa Monica College transferring to UCLA this fall, said she heard that not all transfer students can handle the transition to a four-year university.

“I hear that a lot of Santa Monica students transfer, but they drop out because they can’t keep up with the workload,” she said.

Bonar said she is glad she attended Santa Monica College because of the high transfer rate and because a counselor encouraged her to apply to UCLA rather than a California State University campus. Had she gone to El Camino College, she said, she doesn’t think she would have applied and been accepted.

Miguel Aparicio, a French professor who has taught at both UCLA and Santa Monica College said in his experience, students at UCLA are more motivated and mature. His French 2 and 3 students at Santa Monica tend to be the ones who transfer, though they are less focused than the students he had at UCLA.

Though SMC has a variety of good classes and capable professors, Oh said the college is not comparable to the classes, discussion sections and reputable professors within the University of California system.

Social differences

Many students said they noticed distinct social differences between Santa Monica College and four-year universities. Tony Talarico, who transferred from Santa Monica to UCLA in the fall of 2006, said he was eager to get in and out of SMC and felt like he was there because he had to be. He said he also felt he missed out on college social life and that, in comparison to the community at Santa Monica College, the one at UCLA is very tightly knit.

Because it was difficult to get involved at SMC, Oh participated in the Association of Chinese Americans Hip Hop and Korean Campus Mission at UCLA.

“The thing about SMC, or any community college, is that you’re not living with people, so everyone kind of has their own lives. … The friends I make are class friends, and we only call each other for homework. It’s really hard to make friends outside of the classroom,” she said. “There’s a lot of things at UCLA that I got involved with; I love it here.”

She added that because of construction at SMC, there are not many places for students to hang out on campus.

In addition to allowing outside students to join, several student groups at UCLA and Santa Monica College also coordinate events together, allowing students from both campuses to get to know each other.

Mehdizadeh said when she was involved in Chabad and Hillel at Santa Monica College, she had the opportunity to befriend UCLA students at events that students from both campuses attended.

Though she was not involved with student groups at Santa Monica College, Wiener said that she feels she missed out on the typical “college experience” a little, but not enough to regret her decision to attend a community college first.

“There’s so many people who believe you need to go to a four-year school or you’re not living your “˜college experience,’ but I definitely think going through SMC allows me to appreciate UCLA more,” Wiener said. “There’s nothing like stepping onto the UCLA campus. … You’re like, “˜This is the real deal.'”