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Course Selection

Your selection of classes will depend on your academic goal: a certificate, an associate's degree, or transfer to a four-year college. Some tips for proper class selection follow.

Advice for students seeking a certificate of achievement

1. Read the information in the college catalog pertaining to your desired certificate. Pay careful attention to the list of required courses.
   
   
2. Read the descriptions of all the required courses, paying close attention to pre-requisite information.
   
   
3. Use the class schedule to plan your classes, starting with the required introductory courses and working your way to the more advanced courses.
   
   
4. See a counselor for additional assistance in planning your classes.
   

Advice for all students seeking college degrees

1. Fulfill your English and math requirements early.
   
   
• Strong writing skills will help you get better grades in your college-level classes.


• The longer you wait to take mathematics, the more you forget of what you knew before.


• Finishing English and math early makes you a better candidate for transfer to many four-year schools.
  
  
2. If you are undecided on your major, start with GE classes and consider taking Counseling 5: College Success, or Counseling 12: Careers and Lifestyles. These courses cover career decision-making and can help you begin the process of choosing a major and/or career.
   

Advice for students seeking an associate's degree

1. To earn an associate's degree, you need to fulfill two sets of requirements: WVC graduation requirements and the specific requirements for your major.
   
   
2. If you are undecided on your major, you can begin by selecting E courses from the general education pattern ( PDF 204 KB ). (get adobe accessible plugin »)
   
3. If you know your major, take classes from both your major and the GE requirements.
   
   
4. Pay careful attention to the list of required courses for your major, as detailed in the catalog.
   
   
5. Carefully read the descriptions of all the courses for your major, paying close attention to pre-requisite information.
   
   
6. Use the schedule of classes to plan both your GE and major courses.
   
   
7. In your major, start with the required introductory courses and work your way to the more advanced courses.
   
   
8. See a counselor for additional assistance in planning your classes.
   

Advice for students seeking transfer to a four year college

1. All universities require general education course work as part of their graduation requirements. It is recommended that you fulfill your lower-division general education requirements before transfer unless you are in a high-unit major, such as engineering or science. In these majors it generally acceptable not to finish all of your GE prior to transfer (see a counselor for details). Private universities have their own unique GE patterns. If you'd like to transfer to a private college, please see a counselor for help with selecting appropriate classes. If you are considering a CSU or UC campus, you will want to pick your GE classes from the following two patterns.
   
   
• CSU GE: This pattern meets lower-division GE requirements for all 23 state universities in California.
  
  
• IGETC: This pattern meets lower-division GE requirements for all 10 UC campuses, the 23 state universities, and many private colleges.
  
  
If you know you want to transfer to a CSU campus, follow the CSU GE pattern. If you want to transfer to a UC or are not sure where you want to go, the IGETC pattern is for you.


2. If you know your major, start early by taking required preparation courses. A counselor can assist you in determining the courses that particular four-year colleges require for your intended major. You can also visit the ASSIST web site, which lists the courses students should take at West Valley to prepare for specific majors at public schools.
   
   
3. A well-balanced first-semester course load should include GE courses from different areas and, if you know your major, introductory courses for that major.

Transfer Tips

Tip #1 Overlapping major courses with GE requirements will enable you to meet your transfer requirements more quickly.

Tip #2 To determine if a course is transferable, review the description in the back of the college catalog. It will list whether a course is transferable to the CSU and/or UC systems.

Tip #3 Both UC and CSU give priority consideration to junior-level (upper-division) transfers. You will need a minimum of 60 transferable units for CSU and 60 transferable units for UC to be considered a junior-level transfer.

Tip #4 You can transfer a maximum of 70 units from West Valley to a CSU or UC campus.

Quiz

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