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Want MORE information about how to choose courses? Well, if you know you plan to earn a Bachelors degree, the safest transfer courses to complete are those included in an Associate of Arts or an Associate of Science Degree as listed in your Triton College Catalog under General Education Requirements AND the prerequisites listed under your specific individual major. Included in the General Education core are three Communication courses - everyone takes RHT 101, 102 and SPE 101; three Social and Behavioral Science courses - lots to choose from; three Humanities/Fine Arts courses; one or two math courses, depending on your major; one Physical Science and one Life Science. All of those courses are designed to transfer. For the rest of the 60 or more credit hours you can transfer (depends on your transfer school), choose pre-requisites for the major you intend to take. If you are considering a Liberal Arts and Science major, please be aware that many LAS majors have foreign language requirements you should complete prior to transfer. Additionally, courses in the Triton College Catalog marked with a <> are also designed to transfer.
That sounds almost too easy. What else should I know?
Answer: You should also be aware that some majors have absolutely NO room for elective hours (Engineering, for example) while others, such as many of the majors in Liberal Arts and Sciences, allow you to choose several to many electives. It is best to choose your pre-requisite courses (and sometimes your General Education courses as well) with your transfer school and major in mind. Sometimes, specific courses under the General Education Requirements need to be completed in a major (i.e. ECO 102 and 103 under Behavior and Social Sciences is you are a Business Major; HIS 151 and/or 152 for Education Majors; BIS 110 and CHM 140 under Life and Physical Sciences for Biology Majors).
Completing transfer courses is, however, often not enough! You want to be sure to take transfer courses that are required for your major at the University you intend to transfer to. That is why the ideal Program Plan is based on major and transfer school.
Transfer to a senior college or university requires planning and earning good grades increases your chances for getting admitted to the school of your choice. Don't be fooled when you read in the admission requirements for a certain major that the minimum GPA is, for example, 2.0. You can be certain that when the time comes for you to be accepted into a program, students with the highest GPA's will be chosen over those with minimum ones. Check with your intended school what last semesters minimum GPA was for students accepted into your major. That will give you a good idea of what is required of you.
Also, colleges and universities often have a minimum credit hour requirement (usually about 30 hours) prior to transfer and majors have certain prerequisites classes that must be completed prior to acceptance into that major. Be sure to make plans to have all of these requirements met prior to transfer. Just remember: the most inexpensive school is your community college. Besides that, the small classes and support services such as the learning Assistance Center and the Math Lab make success here more likely than if you end up in a class with 500 (and often more) students, with no where to turn for help when you need it, and the only instructor you know is someone on a video screen in a lecture hall designed to hold up to 2,500 people that disappears the minute the class is over.
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