El Paisano

Issue date: 3/13/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Thomas Ramirez/El Paisano The above graphic displays transfer rates of four different community colleges from 2005 to 2008. Rio Hondo transfer rates are on the rise but still not on the same level as transfer-leader Mt. San Antonio College, who also boasts the largest student population.

Rio Hondo's transfer rate is at an all time high since the 1989-1990 school year, but how does the college compare to other local community colleges today?

California is home to the world's largest system of higher learning, the California Community College System. This system is comprised of 110 community colleges, across the state, which are further divided into 72 districts.

Rio Hondo Community College resides in the Los Angeles area and within this area there are 20 other community colleges, among them are East Los Angeles College, Cerritos College and Mt. San Antonio College.

Community colleges are not apart of the Cal state university system, UC system or other four-year universities they are stepping-stones to these institutional systems.

Four-year universities are unlike community colleges in the sense that they cater specifically to students who have one goal, to graduate with a Bachelor's Degree, Master's Degree or Doctorate Degree. Community Colleges on the hand offer four different potential goals to students, classes for on job skills/ professional development, graduation with an AA Degree, vocational certification or transferring to a four-year university.

At Rio Hondo the average number of students who transfer to the Cal state university system or the UC system for the past three years (2007/2008-2005/2006) is 553 students.

Rio Hondo has seen a considerable increase of 51 students who transferred this past year (07/08) making the total of 593. The 2 previous years the number of students was the same, 532.

Rio Hondo's neighboring schools transfer average is significantly higher though.

East Los Angeles Community College average for the past three years has been 924 students. It's most recent year (07/08) ELAC sent a total of 923 students to the Cal state and UC systems. The previous year, the number was 905 students and in the year prior to that the number was 946.

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