Meeting With College Counselor

For some reason I woke up earlier than usual. I got up around 6:30 AM probably because it was my brothers first day of school. Honestly I wish it was first day of school. My excitement and anxiousness is high for the semester to begin, but I know it will be a tough one (more on this later). The counseling department set my appointment for 1PM, so I had the entire morning to do some chores, drink two cups of coffee, and browse the web. I left for school at around 12pm and arrived 30 minutes early. I waited at the counseling office and saw the counselor promptly on the scheduled time. She printed out my unofficial transcript and other documents from Assist.org so she could aid me with my transfer plan. She asked me what I wanted to specifically be helped with, and I told her that I wanted her to look over my transcript to see if I am on the right path to have the 60 units needed to transfer. I mentioned to her that I had gone through the CSU degree planner that is available on the Mission catalog, which basically gives one the courses that are necessary to transfer. Based on that, I figured I was on the right path to transfer, but I wanted to get an experts opinion for when I might have missed something. She spent 10 minutes browsing through my transcript and making note of the courses that I have fulfilled from each category.

Mission College directory. Small campus, not easy to get lost. (November 22, 2010).

When she finished, she told me that everything looks good and that I am on track. She asked me if I had any other questions and I had a couple that I had in mind. The first was that I needed to take History Rock Music to fulfil the art requirement, but I was already at 16 units and if I enrolled in one more class, I would be in a unit overload of 19. If a student reaches over 18 units he or she has to get it petitioned by a counselor. I asked her if she could petition it for me and she did. She filled out the form with her signature that would allow me to take 19 units. After the meeting I met my buddy and we headed to admissions to get enrolled in History Rock Music.

My second question was about tuition. I had tried to figure this out over for a while now, but I could never get the correct answer, not even from my friends that are now in CSU’s. The question I wanted to ask her was whether CSU’s charge per unit or if the two categories of ‘up to 6 units’ and ‘above 6 units’ are flat rate prices. For example, if I decided to take 16 units, would I still pay the same as if I were to take 12 units. She said that she remembered she had to pay per unit as a graduate student, but she had a little trouble remembering the undergraduate situation. Eventually she said that it was a flat rate. So it didn’t mater cost wise whether one took 18, 16, or 12 units. The cost is the same. If this is the way it is, then I think I should take as many reasonable amount of units as possible. If anyone can give me a confirmation if this is how it works, I would GREATLY appreciate it. The meeting with the counselor ended and that pretty much summarizes how it went.

When I got home, I checked the mail and I had a letter from CSU East Bay. Inside was a paper that basically gave me thanks for applying and it included my NetID and activation code. What is this exactly? It is basically the school database login. It allows the applicant to monitor his or her application status. There is also a “To do list” that basically informs me when I have a task to complete. So far I don’t have anything but I will update when there is something for me to do. I wont be able to send CSUEB my transcripts until after the Fall semester. Which means I will have to make a trip to the campus sometime after late December/early January.

Letter sent by CSU East Bay giving me access to MyCSUEB login (August 15, 2011).

One last thing. I am not registered for 19 units. This is a lot of units, but I have heard of students taking over 20. The most I have taken was 16 I believe. This is definitely going to be a challenge, and I am not saying it will be easy, but I know my motivation and desire to move on to the next level will give me the extra push to succeed. I am going to take it very serious, and I know now what my priorities are. Just 2 more weeks for school to starts and you can begin to follow what could be my last semester at Mission. I will miss the place, but I sure hope it is the last time I have to take a class there.

Once again, if anyone stumbles across my blog that can confirm the way CSU tuition works, I would be very happy! Thanks again for reading guys. One step closer.