If you intend on transferring from community college to state school, to be blunt, the golden four are absolutely essential. When transferring in general, you must complete an IGETC, which stands for Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum. Within that sheet, includes four categories of course, which include the golden four. The UC systems requires parts of the golden 4, however the CSU system does.
4 Categories:
- Oral Communication
- Written Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning
1. Oral Communication
These courses will often be offered in whatever department has speech/communications/debate courses. You only need to take 1 class in this category and often it will be a course like
Options:
- Public speaking
- Small Group Communication
- Argumentation and Debate
2. Written Communication
This course essentially is any “Introduction to College English” will suffice. However that doesn’t mean any college level english course will fulfill this requirement. However, if you situation differs you can still take an Intro to English, even given your circumstances. Although the first option is less units, it’s nice to know they have options to address different student needs in completing this core course.
Options:
- First-Year College Composition and Reading
- First-Year College English for Multilingual Students
- First-Year College Comp. & Reading with Add’l Support
3. Critical Thinking
Many students often think they must fulfill their critical thinking requirement by taking yet another class in the english department. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Yes, they do have options in the english department, but you can do critical thinking through many other departments if you choose to do so. If anything, try to complete this requirement through a course in the department which is most relevant to the major you’re applying as. The more good grades you’ve earned in your major, the more evidence the admission team holds to be confident that you will succeed in the program you’re applying to. So if you can get more of those, while still satisfying a category of the golden 4, it’s a win a win situation.
Options:
- Critical Thinking in Psychology
- Critical Thinking in Social and Cultural Issues
- Persuasion and Critical Thinking
- Critical Reasoning in History
- Critical Thinking in Visual Studies
4. Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning
So on the bright side, if you aren’t a math person, you likely aren’t a math major, and most non-math majors only have to take one math course. Again, this statement isn’t implying any math class will do, I’m saying you only have to do 1. Almost every course which suffices for this requirement requires a graphing calculator which can be quite pricy. Here’s a link to mine:
Options:
- Elementary Statistics with Probability
- Business Statistics
- Calculus for Management, Life Science and Social Science
- Mathmatics for Liberal Arts
How should I utilize this information?
I would recommend taking all these courses in your first year of community college because even if you take it in the 1st semester of your 2nd year, the schools will not be able to see your grades in those core courses until after they decide to accept you or not. Therefore, if other applicant have completed those courses with good grades, they likely are going to be the more competitive applicant. I would still see a counselor because every community college is different and just because a course at my community college fulfills these requirements, it doesn’t mean that your automatically will too.
Credits:
All of the course examples, are actual courses at Diablo Valley College.
School Specific Requirements:
Disclaimer: I do receive a small commission from amazon, if you do choose to purchase the calculator using the link above. Thank you!
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