New opportunities are emerging for Skyline students as 13 associate degrees have been added to the list of degrees for transfer.

This includes new transfer degrees from the following departments: Administration of justice, anthropology, business administration, communications, early childhood education, geology, history, kinesiology, mathematics, music, physics, and psychology. There are three other degrees pending approval.

The new transfer degrees are now available to students who want to obtain an associate degree while planning to transfer to a California State University. For more information, students should visit the Skyline College website, navigate to the Transfer Center, and click Transfer Degrees.

Skyline also offers an AA-T and AS-T workshop: Understanding the New Associate for Transfer Degrees. Throughout the workshop students will gain knowledge about the requirements not only for Skyline students looking to transfer, but also for many community colleges statewide.

Skyline counselors are available for support and are encouraging students to get the degrees simply because it eases the transfer plan.

“The purpose of creating the degrees was really to facilitate transfer for students to create a very easy pathway from the community college to the university,” Jacqueline Escobar, skyline counselor and articulation officer, said.

There are 60-unit degrees at Skyline College in which all students have to do is complete the courses for the major, or the CSU general education requirements. Achieving an associate’s degree allows a student to have a guarantee of only having to complete 60 units after enrolling in a university.

While earning a degree may seem simple, the process of transferring can be complicated. Although it says “degree with a guarantee,” the guarantee is only for certain students depending on which CSU the student is planning on attending and if his major is impacted there. If a major is impacted, that student will not receive a guarantee of admissions. However, if a student is applying to a CSU in a major that is not impacted, and has already finished the degree at Skyline, he will have a guarantee of admission. In addition, students applying to a CSU in an impacted major will get a GPA bump. The GPA bump depends on where they are applying.

According to Escobar, in 2013-2014, 97 students applied for transfer degrees. There were 26 applications for the Fall of 2013 and 71 applications for Spring 2014.

Interested students can meet with a counselor to get more information about these new associate degrees for transfer.