For many students at Las Positas, the college is a stepping stone –– a place to prepare for the next chapter at a four-year university.
With the UC and CSU application deadline coming at the end of November, many students have transferring on their mind.
Through LPC’s programs, many students have managed to become success stories. LPC aims to inspire students to follow in their footsteps. However, finding success and transferring to a competitive four-year college isn’t as easy as it may seem.
Transferring is a challenge for LPC students because resources, like counseling services, are insufficient and difficult to access. There are ways for students to transfer, and learn how to transfer, but they are not always accessible.
The avenues that a student could take to transfer out of LPC are varied. There are Associate in Arts or Science for Transfer, or the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum route (IGETC), and fulfilling the UC and CSU requirements.
These routes grant students access to more prestigious colleges and universities and better academic opportunities overall.
These methods rely on the assistance of LPC’s counseling department. Getting in contact with and scheduling an appointment with counselors, however, is a strenuous process.
As of spring 2025, LPC had a headcount of roughly 8,000 students. According to the LPC website, there are only 14 full-time and 11 part-time counselors on staff.
Even with the part-time counselors, the number of students each counselor has to accommodate would be in the hundreds. Part-time counselors must balance this with other part-time responsibilities. For any employee, this is too heavy of a workload.
Even if hundreds of students did not use the counseling center, it would still be very difficult for a student to schedule an appointment to discuss transferal. And even if a student could make an appointment, it would be for a very short amount of time.
According to the LPC Counseling office’s website, there are three types of counseling meetings. Two are drop-in sessions that are limited to a maximum of 15 minutes, and the third is a scheduled appointment that may last between 30 minutes to one hour.
Drop-in sessions are often unavailable, and the hours for the counseling center are varied throughout the week. Counselors are in constant demand because of the packed time tables.
The unavailability of the counseling center is a long-term problem that has yet to be addressed, despite growing student need. Thankfully, the chances of accessing the counseling center are not zero.
LPC’s counseling services offer workshops at the transfer center, where counselors are available to provide assistance for students working on the transfer process.
Despite these issues, students are still able to transfer to other colleges through other methods, one of which is the Honors Transfers Program. The Honors Transfer Program is intended for students who excel and have better access to transfer resources.
On the website for the Honors Transfer Program, student Aishani Gupta said, “Through the program, I discovered my passion for research, which has since become a central focus of my academic journey.”
The opportunity often doesn’t arise to enter programs like this due to unavailability, though. Since the very first day of this fall semester, students interested in applying to the Honors Transfer Program have received the message: “The LPC Honors Program has reached its maximum capacity and we can not accept any more students at the moment.”
LPC’s Honors Program cannot accommodate a larger number of students because, even months into the semester, the program is still full. Interested students are left unable to enter the program. This program’s limited availability means that students who wish to excel cannot succeed like Aishani has. Support for students is inadequate.
LPC does have the resources for its students to succeed and transfer with high prospects. However, the limited access to these resources — and lack of sufficient alternatives — means students are unable to thrive the way LPC vowed they would.
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TOP PHOTO: The limited number of counselors makes transferring a challenge for LPC students.
Musa Ashraf is the Arts & Entertainment Editor. Follow him on X, @MusaZash.
