Making sense of transferring

If you aren't going to transfer, stop reading.
If you are going to transfer, keep reading.
If you have no idea what transfer even means, haze yourself and then keep reading.

It's never too early to start thinking about transferring from community college. You need to have that goal in mind from the first semester/quarter and never lose sight of it. As much as it sucks to have to treat school like a job instead of an excuse to do keg stands on Wednesday afternoons, there's no way around it. You're not a regular student.

Think about what you want to study in school. I can't help you with that part - just Google stuff, read a little bit, talk to friends and family, or just sign up for a counseling session at community college. Hell, do everything I just listed. The important thing is to nail something down. You can always adjust majors but it's harder the more time you spend in school.

Once you figure that out, think about where you want to transfer. Do you want to stay around the area you're in right now or go somewhere else? Are you planning on working hella hard and getting over a 3.5 (B+/A- range) and getting into a UC campus or be more low-key and stick with a CSU? Do the schools you're looking at even offer what you're interested in? This is actually a problem more often than you realize. Just go on the school's website and click through the departments to see what they have.

Easy, right? Now go on assist.org and use the drop-down menus to choose your community college, the school you want to transfer to, and your major. A transfer plan will come up detailing exactly what classes you need to take if you want to graduate. This is a great way to be prepared when you meet with your college counselor and double-check the schedule you have mapped out. Since you only get to meet them a few times during your first two years it makes sense to make the most out of these sessions.

One more thing about counselors: they're great people but they have hundreds of students to deal with. No one cares about your education or your future career as much as you. That means you need to make sure everything you're told is true. Trust, but verify.