OCC first in county transfers

OCC ranks second in the state when it comes to students transferring to four-year colleges and universities. For the 2006-07 school year, 1,676 OCC students transferred to other institutions of higher education.

That puts OCC first among Orange County community colleges and second only to Santa Monica Community College in the state. Santa Monica had 2,095 students transfer.

“We are very pleased with these results,” said Transfer Center Coordinator Cheryl Jupiter.

Despite the school’s rankings, the number of students was actually a drop from the previous year, 2005-06, when 1,815 students transferred. That year OCC ranked third in the state, but even with the decline in student transfers the college was able to actually move up in rankings, demonstrating a drop-off in transfers among some of the top community colleges.

Jupiter said the decreased number can be attributed to colleges and universities putting limits on the number of transfer students that are admissible to their institutions.

OCC still has just as many qualified applicants as years past, but due to budget constraints some colleges are closing their admittance doors early and the trend will continue, Jupiter said.

The race between OCC and Santa Monica to send students to California State Universities was close; Santa Monica edged OCC by 11 students with 1,185 students going to state schools while OCC sent 1,174.

OCC had 1,313 students move on to California State Universities in 2005-06.

OCC made up ground in the amount of students moving on to University of California schools with 502 transfers in both years.

That put OCC in second place among other California community colleges, jumping up one place in the standings this year.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at [email protected].