Admissions

I made sure to lookup my professors on ratemyprofessors.com before deciding to stick with the particular professor I chose. Of course everyone has to take it upon themselves to get a good grade, but you still need to make sure you have a professor who is willing to help you when you ask for it and who genuinely loves teaching.

Good teachers are more important than a good schedule but classes fill up quickly so be fast ! Crashing classes is also very effective way to get in if you did not enroll fast enough.
Also, make sure you check out the clubs ! SMC has a lot of great clubs ! Eco Action is my favorite but we have tons of other clubs (they're even starting a surf club this year ).

Before prospective students go to SMC, I suggest that you make a clear plan to take as many units as you can while at SMC. Also, I suggest enrolling in classes as soon as you can because the classes fill up quickly. Finally, study hard and take in as much information and life experience as you can while you are a student here.

Use all the resources you can to maximize your learning experience.

I say if you are not ready for a 4-year university than you should definitely consider Santa Monica College. Also, it has the highest transfer rate to UC's One thing I would give advice on is that you should definitely speak with a counselor before starting because you don't want to be stuck at SMC forever.

A very good tip for prospective students would be to not give up half way when things are looking bad. That you should not give in to pressure because where there is a will there is a way. Having good grades and maintaining them is not very hard because there is a lot of help available for you. The most important thing that you have to remember is that you should learn how to manage your time. If you do not know how to manage your time, getting things done will be very difficult. Things will get clamped together and you will miss out assignments, tests and important events. You can avoid all of these things if you are able to manage your time and student planners are a vary good way to do so. Also, a very good tip would be to visit a counselor at least twice per semester as this will help you keep in track with your goals.

I would suggest that you go to a counselor in the welcome center and then after you are in enrolled, go to the counselors within the counseling center. If one counselor you see is not the right one for you, don't give up, just make an appointment to see another. Most importantly research this college to see if it is the right one for you.

Stay well-informed on current requirements in the fields you are most interested in. Always keep your eye out for new, diverse opportunities; be willing to explore!

sign up as soon as possible for classes. buy used books to save money.

Classes fill up very soon. Sooner you add, the better

Don't completely depend on the counselors on
1. Completing requirements for a specific university.
Solution - Contact your major's Dept. of the University you are transferring to, to get 'all' the information you need or there's about a 50% chance you could be wasting 1 or 2 more semesters in SMC.

2. Don't expect the counselors to know anything specific about your major except for what is at www.assist.org and www.csumentor.org/com
Partial solution - Contact an appropriate professor. Partial because I got most helpful information off the internet's reliable sources than what I got from a couple of professors. Now don't get the wrong idea. Most of the Professors I've had are top-notch. But they might not be up-to-date.

e.g: I want to be a computer hardware engineer. So I kept looking at monster.com and craigslist.org for job listings. Many of the positions mainly required that i know Verilog. I asked a couple of my professors and they did not know what it was. From internet I learned that it is an HDL (Hardware Descriptive Language) and that SMC does not offer it but many universities in my hit-list do.

Moral of the story- Do your own research about what you want and how to get it!