Community college students are guaranteed admissions to at least one California State University campus under The Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act (SB 1440).

SB 1440 mandates the California Community Colleges and CSUs work together to develop an Associate Degree for Transfer, or ADT, per associate degree offered at a community college.

Although an ADT guarantees admission to a CSU campus, it may not be the students preferred choice, said Colleen Moore, Assistant Director for the Institute of Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Sacramento State.

According to Moore, the program allows students to get preference when applying to a CSU campus by giving them a GPA bump of .1 or .2.

“This allows students that may need a slight GPA boost to qualify or may not help them at all if their GPA is too low,” Moore said. “If you offer an associate for particular major, you need to offer an ADT degree as well.”

The mandate has had a slow start with some colleges, but in time community colleges have felt more positive about it, Moore said.

American River College currently offers 19 ADT options, according to Rick Ramirez, Transfer Center Director and Counselor at American River College.

“As a counselor I give students the option to do an ADT degree,” Ramirez said.

The degrees are good for students that are applying to multiple CSU campuses and are not as beneficial to students who are only planning to apply to their local CSU, he said.

The degrees do not encompass all the lower division classes for a specific degree curriculum and only meet the necessary coursework to transfer.

According to Ramirez, if a student transfers to their local CSU campus through an ADT, they may need to take additional lower division coursework.

Christopher Drew, 25, philosophy major at Sac State, transferred from San Joaquin Delta College in 2012 without knowing ADTs were an option. Drew had not chosen his major when he started at Delta College and took many courses before declaring as a philosophy major.

“My inexperience and lack of guidance on what I wanted to do is what led me to take additional units,” Drew said.

A press release by California Community Colleges and CSUs stated Associate degrees for transfer were created to demystify the process and establish a pathway to an associate and bachelor’s degree with no units wasted.

Felipe Gomez, 26, a recent sociology graduate at Sac State, was able to follow an ADT path for business while at American River, changed his major and did not complete the degree.

He was able to successfully transfer to Sac State without following an ADT due to his active involvement with different transfer programs at American River.

“If you’re not involved you’ll get lost,” Gomez said.

Gomez took part of the Journey program while at American River to assist him with the transfer process. Journey is a federally funded program that provides support services to first generation low-income students who have a goal to transfer to a four-year university.

“I think it’s a fantastic thing for students that know what they want to major in,” Drew said.