As a student at Fresno City College, I, along with others, have come to realize that the counselors are not always helpful, or even available for that matter.
Sometimes they can set you back, and sometimes they leave you with more questions than you walked in with before seeing one.
However, once I figured out how to get out of FCC, I was no longer going to leave it in the counselor’s hands to get me out of FCC ina timely manner. I took matters into my own hands.
There are four pieces of paper that you need in order to get yourself out of FCC in two years—the best part is you do not need the counselors help except to check in with them occasionally to make sure you are on the right check track. Especially if you are focusing on a specific major, or school you are planning to transfer to.
Figure out what you want to major in and then either go on to fresnocitycollege.edu and look up the major requirements sheet, or go into the counseling office and find the major requirements sheet that you need. You need to make sure that you take each of the classes in the core requirements AND the correct amount of elective units that are listed in the elective section by taking the classes that are listed.
Find out what exactly what you want to transfer in. Once again, you can go on to fresnocitycollege.edu or go into the counseling office and pick up the transfer requirements sheet. All of the requirements need to be filled before you can transfer, however, you do not have to complete all the requirements on the transfer sheet in order to graduate from FCC with an AA or an AS.
Log on to fresnocitycollege.edu or go into the counseling office and grab a Fresno City College general education requirements sheet.
Finally, you must decide whether you want to go to a CSU or a UC because the general requirements are a little different. The final sheet you need is the CSU or UC general education requirement sheet.
Once you have all of these sheets, you are almost done!
This is going to be the most time consuming part of getting to graduation other than taking all the classes. Sit down lay out all four papers. Look over each section and try to match classes on all four sheets. When you have a single class that is needed on all four sheets write it down. This will be one of the first classes you take.
Once you have gone through each of the sections and found all of the classes that are across all four sections, go on to the next section and see what is covered on three out of the four papers, then two out of four and there might be a couple classes that are required on only one sheet.
Now, you have a plan of what classes you need to take and you avoid taking two classes where you could’ve taken one class to cover two or more sections.
I recommend checking in with the counselors and telling them your plan. Discuss exactly what you plan on doing and it should work perfectly. Be sure to stand behind your decisions and carry an unofficial transcript and the list of classes you are currently taking and what you plan on taking. This will help incase the counselors say you need to take a class not on your list.
Remember not to disregard the counselor’s advice because they are the experts and they can tell you whether you followed the method correctly or not.
