California Community College Engineering

One of the biggest problems facing Community College engineering Students in California is the course transferability. Many courses required by Universities of California (UC’s) and California State Schools (CSU’s) have no articulation to Community College courses or the courses are denied for transferability. This causes students to feel discouraged as their community colleges lack the opportunities to propel them into the universities they hope to attend in the future. Engineering students have one of the hardest times when completing all required coursework which is outlined in Assist.org’s articulation agreements between the community colleges and the universities.

My main problem is my community college which is El Camino College in Torrance, California. As it stands, El Camino College only has the following engineering courses: Introduction, Statics, Dynamics, Circuits, Graphics, and MatLab. Five courses, compared to other colleges that have courses in the double digits including topics from Materials to Thermodynamics. Leaving out these critical courses creates a problem where if I were to transfer to UC Irvine then I would be unable to complete the rest of my degree in two years. This isn’t even the biggest problem, as the bigger problem facing El Camino College is the fact that the engineering courses rarely transfer to other UC Schools. Many UC schools don’t accept our version of engineering courses leaving our students feeling unprepared to transfer to universities.

It was my ultimate goal to try and push the engineering department in the right direction for the students. I tried my best this year, and I hope to continue this initiative next year even if I serve in another capacity. Until then, I will take engineering Statics and Matlab and hopefully one day take the rest of the engineering courses to learn more in my educational journey.