Various colleges, ranging from traditional campuses to colleges focusing on “e-learning”, gathered in Skyline’s cafeteria on Oct.21 to take part in a college transfer event for interested students.

Representatives from 39 different campuses were available to Skyline students on Monday morning until the early afternoon with the goal of answering any and all questions prospective transfer students might want or need to know.

University Of California, Davis, the represented UC campus with the largest footprint, was represented by Sara Sweeney,
an academic advisor for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Dean’s Office. Mayra Escobar, a program coordinator for Davises Transfer Opportunity Program, also made herself available to answer questions regarding the campus.

“Davis has something for everyone,” Sweeney said. “We are the most varied UC in the state regarding available disciplines.” UC Davis is home to four undergraduate colleges: Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science, with a total of six professional schools: Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Veterinary Medicine. All disciplines are vailable to students.

Class sizes for general education and undergrad courses can exceed 500 students, but those numbers drop drastically in regards to higher level courses with an average of eight to ten students per course.

Dominican University of California, a private college located in San Rafael, received a fair amount of attention from passing students.

Brooke Thornberry, an undergrad admissions counselor from Dominican University, cited the college’s unique “ideas” system of study as one reason contributing to the attention from curious students. Students are required to complete three of the five “ideas”: service learning, study abroad, leadership, research and internship. Rather than charge additional tuition for students to travel abroad to fulfill their study abroad requirement, the cost of the study is included in the overall tuition for enrollment.

“[Our] faculty genuinely cares about you,” Thornberry said., “and, with our small class sizes, it’s easier for professors to interact with students.”

With encouragement towards real-world experiences as opposed to class work and traditional learning, Dominican
University allows for the establishment of connections and relationships that students will utilize upon receiving their degrees. 97 percent of students conducted at least two internships while enrolled at Dominican, internships which helped make connections that would make searching for a career after graduation much simpler.

Charity Walden, a former Skyline student, returned Monday morning to act as a representative for Mills College, an all-women’s college in Oakland, to encourage interested women to look into the small college.

“If you transfer to Mills, you don’t lose the Skyline experience,” Walden said. “The community, the personal experience is all there.”

Mills is a small women’s liberal arts college with a co-ed graduate school, specializing in social justice, music, child development and pre-med programs. Walden mentioned that many women were transferring from local CSU campuses to Mills due to the difficulty of enrolling in impacted classes.

“Transfers are treated just as well as incoming freshmen,” said Walden.

John F. Kennedy University, a private non-profit college, has three campuses in the Bay Area. While the campuses in Berkeley and Pleasant Hill offer degrees in numerous fields, their San Jose site specializes in Psychology.

The average class size, regardless of campus location, is between 10-12 students with no more than 15 per class. JFK University allows students to “link” Bachelors and Masters courses rather than requiring numerous elective units to reach the required unit amount for receiving a degree.

“By linking Bachelor courses to MasterS programs,” academic advisor Andrew Le said, “Students are able to save six months of time and $7,000-$8,000 in tuition costs.”

Michele Haggar, the program services coordinator at Skyline’s transfer center, organized the transfer day event. Haggar declined a request for an in-person interview, citing the need for all information to pass through her dean. Questions emailed to Haggar were not answered by this issue’s deadline.