More San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) students are transferring to a four-year institution, including prestigious destinations such as UC Berkeley and UCLA among the top choices, according to a new report prepared by the SDCCD’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning.
San Diego State University continues to be the number one destination, with 30 percent of the district’s transfer students ending up there in 2017-18, the latest year for which data is available. UC San Diego was next with more than 9 percent of SDCCD transfers, followed by National University at 4.5 percent, Cal State San Marcos at 3.7 percent, and Arizona State University and the University of San Diego at 2.5 percent each. Rounding out the top 10 were UC Berkeley, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Francisco State, and UCLA.
In all, 4,212 students at San Diego City, Mesa, and Miramar colleges transferred to a four-year institution in 2017-18. That’s 319 more students than who transferred the previous year, and 854 more than 2013-14.
Among the highlights from the report:
· The number of students who transferred from an SDCCD college to a university has increased each year from 2013-14 to 2017-18.
· Mesa College is the top transfer institution in the district with 2,284 students transferring to a four-year college or university, followed by City College with 971 and Miramar College at 957. The number of transfers at City College was up 29 percent from four years earlier, the number of transfers at Miramar College was up 27 percent, and the number of transfers at Mesa College was up 23 percent.
· The number of Latinx students transferring to a four-year institution was up 60 percent from 2013-14 to 2017-18, the number of Asian/Pacific Islander students who transferred was up more than 26 percent, and the number of African-American students who transferred was up more than 11 percent.
District officials say even more students would have transferred during 2017-18 if space was made available for them at highly impacted public universities such as SDSU and UC San Diego.
As one of the largest of California’s 73 community college districts, the San Diego Community College District serves approximately 100,000 students annually through three two-year colleges and San Diego Continuing Education. The three colleges, San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, and San Diego Miramar College, offer associate degrees and certificates in occupational programs that prepare students for transfer to four-year colleges and entry-level jobs. Mesa College also offers a bachelor’s degree in Health Information Management. Continuing Education offers noncredit adult education at seven campuses throughout San Diego.
