Goal #2: Choose Your First Year Classes!

A Message from Trevor Brackett

Choose Your First-Year Classes

Congrats, you have completed the first goal of our New Student-Athlete Counseling workshop.  We hope that you are feeling more confident about the steps you have taken and your next steps. In this section of the workshop, we will...

• • • • • • Think about your academic, athletic, and career goals
          • Identify classes you’ll need to help you reach your goals
          • Prepare to meet with an Athletic Counselor virtually!

            

What Do You Need to Transfer and/or Graduate with an Associate’s Degree? 

Many student-athletes who attend PCC, come to the campus because they are looking to participate in the sport that they love in hopes of receiving an athletic scholarship at the next level. They have goals of also graduating with a college degree (Called an Associate’s Degree) or are looking to start at PCC and use their credits to “Transfer” to another college or university. For all of these goals, student-athletes will take courses at PCC to accumulate college units, similar to the “credits” system they are familiar with in high school. The goal for most students who are looking to graduate and/or transfer to a UC or CSU school is to reach 60 units at PCC. Units vary for private and out-of-state universities/colleges, if you are considering transferring to one of these institutions, please inform your counselor.

While working towards 60 units, most courses that students take will fall into one of three categories. The three types of courses include:

1. General Education – (Also called General Eds., G.E, and Gen. Eds.):
General education classes are core requirements outside of your major preparation that are needed to earn an associate degree and/or transfer to a university/college. Your academic goals will affect whether you will need general education courses and which courses are required. Examples of general education classes include: 

• • • • • English 
        • Math 
        • Science 
        • Arts and Humanities 
        • Social and Behavioral Science

2. Major Preparation (Also called Major Prep):
These types of classes are specific to your personal educational goal. For example, if a student is pursuing a career in Nursing, major preparation classes would include Anatomy, Chemistry, and Physiology. 

3. Electives:
In college, when students have completed their Major Preparation and General Education, but still need more units to get to 60, Elective courses can be used! Depending on your major, you may or may not need elective units, so this category of classes usually is not the biggest priority during your first year.

Math and English

English and Math are fundamental classes that are very important for college students.  It is recommended that all students complete their English and Math requirements in the first year at PCC.

English
In order to earn a college degree or transfer to a university/college, all students are required to complete PCC’s “English 1A: Reading and Composition”.

ESL

If English is your second language, it is recommended that you take an ESL Placement exam. This will help determine whether other English classes are necessary prior to enrolling in English 1A.  For more information about the ESL placement test, please visit the ESL Assessment Website.

Math
To earn a degree or transfer to a university/college students are often required to take at least one math class. The type and number of math classes you will take is dependent on your major. Your counselor will ask you questions about your career and academic goals to help you pick the most appropriate math for you.

Choosing a General Education Class

As a reminder, General Education includes classes outside of your major that you take to work towards your 60 units! While working with your counselor, General Education classes may be put in your first-year educational plan. For your first plan, the counselor will be working off a General Education list that we call “IGETC”.  

IGETC (Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum) is a list of General Education requirements that prepare students for many goals including obtaining an Associate’s Degree and transferring to both UC and CSU universities. Because you can achieve many goals following this General Education list, it is a great one to use during your first year!

As you can see above, while the full list of IGETC requirements include subjects like Sciences and Foreign Languages, two areas that we like to highlight while creating first-year plans are the Arts/Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences requirements.

You can see that each area has many options for classes you can choose from to complete the requirement. Each subject and course number represents a different option for a course you can eventually choose to take! The purpose of this workshop and counseling appointment will be to give you an Educational Plan that will allow you to have options when it is time to register for your classes.  Therefore, your plan may have placeholders like “IGETC Area 3A Arts Course” or IGETC Area 4 Social and Behavioral Science Course”. Once it's time to register, you can use tools to look at the specifics of each class that fits your schedule and makes your decision about what class you want to take!

The Academic Year at PCC

PCC uses a “semester” system academic calendar.  This means that students take the majority of their classes during the 16 week Fall and Spring Semesters. Because classes during longer semesters are spread out over the 16 weeks, students often choose to take multiple classes at once to help get them towards their goal. 

In addition to the large semesters, PCC also offers two “Intersessions'': Summer and Winter.  These intercessions are very similar to summer school in high school! They are a great way to get ahead or to make up any units that you were not able to complete in a fall or spring semester.  While these intersessions are optional, they are a great strategy for helping you reach your 60 units!

Important Note: Intersessions are 6 weeks instead of 16 weeks! During these sessions, the curriculum moves much faster during Winter and Summer. Student-Athletes usually practice during this time period so it is suggested that you only take 1, no more than 2, academic classes during these intersessions. Always consult with your Athletic Counselor before adding/dropping classes.

First Year Plan 

An educational plan is your guide for which classes you will eventually take. It is not yet your registration, but it will be useful when it is time to register for your classes! After this online workshop, you will be meeting with a counselor to design an educational plan that works for you! Below is an example of what a first-year educational plan for a student-athlete

 In this example, the student decided to take their sport class(KATH)  as well as attend the Pathways Summer JAM. 

As you can see, this student plans to enroll in English 1A, Math (Stats 50), College 1, a General Education course, and their sport class (KATH)in the first Fall Semester for a total of 17 units. As a reminder, the Winter intersession is only 6 weeks, so the student will take one course and their sport class (if required), instead of multiple academic classes. Finally, in the Spring, the student will continue taking more classes to work towards their goal!

This student has included Math, English, College 1, and Summer Jam, which would result in them earning the PRIORITY Registration date from the Athletic Pathway Program.

Information about Transfer 

Are you interested in starting your education at a community college before transferring to another college or university to complete your Bachelor’s Degree? If so, you came to the right place! 

PCC is #1 in so for sending transfer students to the UC and CSU Systems! If you are interested in transferring to a specific university, please be sure to talk to your counselor about this!

For more information, please visit our Transfer Center Website.

Are you being recruited? 

As we mentioned before, transferring to a 4-year institution to play competitively may also be a goal of yours. If you are being recruited, College recruits will reach out to the Athletic Department and The Zone to gain academic entail on you. Before we can disclose any academic information to the “school of your dreams”, you have to sign an “Academic Release Form”. The Academic Release Form gives the Zone’s Advisement Staff permission to release academic information (transcripts, progress reports, grade updates) to recruiters, PCC Coaches, and Instructors. If you have not completed the form yet, please stop what you are doing and complete the form now: 

COMPLETE FORM HERE Links to an external site.

Athletic Eligibility

In a traditional athletic season: (PRECOVID)

Student-athletes must be continually and actively enrolled in 12 units during the semester of their sport.  9 of those 12 units must be academic (non-KATH/KINA).  If you drop below 12 units, you are immediately ineligible and are not allowed to participate in competition. Participating while under 12 units will lead to team forfeits.

Late start course units will not count towards eligibility until the course starts. However, any units completed from a first 8 week class will be retained.

PLEASE come see a counselor before you drop a class.

Prepare for your Meeting with a Counselor

Use the draft below to begin to draft your first-year plan. You can present your plan to your counselor during your virtual meeting. 

FirstYearPlan.pdf Download FirstYearPlan.pdf