Smooth Community College Transfer to Bellevue University

by A Guest Author

My Gulliver’s Travels of Education and Career

I’ve made it my mission and passion to do my best to inform students of things I wished someone had told me when I was embarking on my college adventure and future career endeavors.  My folks did not go to college, but encouraged my brother and I to go.  Actually, they brainwashed us into thinking it wasn’t an option not to go, but I digress.   By the time I was a senior in High School I was still frantic that I did not know what I was going to major in at college.  Literally unaware of where else to go, I went to the High School Guidance Counselor and I’m not really sure what occurred, but I do remember feeling just as lost as when I went in.

Hopefully, that did not happen to you.

Then, I settled on majoring in Psychology solely because people often came to me for advice and my dad said I was good at it so why not major in Psychology?  Now then, to choose a college or University, I chose a local University because it was, well, local.  I don’t recall ever talking to an enrollment counselor or advisor; perhaps my folks did that for me.  So, for the next year I studied Psychology and then I met my future husband who was military. After completing 2 ½ years of college we married and moved to another state.  I visited the local University and was told that a lot of my credits would not transfer and I had to take a whole year’s worth over!

Being young and naïve and not having anyone in my life to tell me any different, I accepted this egregious situation and spent the time and money doing over an entire year’s worth of credits.  I’m still bitter by that.  I completed my Bachelor’s of Psychology (finally) and while working (not in my career field) my manager says to me “We’ve got a Human Resources Manager position opening up and I think you’ll be great at it, it pays $75,000.”  Needless, to say I didn’t get the position (that is because I didn’t have any experience in HR.)  By now I decided I’d be going to get my Master’s in HR because it pays well.  So, after 2 more years of school I finally have my Master’s degree, and I think it’s my golden ticket to that $75,000 paycheck.   Wrong.  First of all, I applied to all sorts of jobs and the first job I got was using my Psychology degree in Social Services.  Then, when I started trying to get an HR job again the pay was less than what I was currently making because I didn’t have any experience in HR.  So, I stayed in Social Services even though that pay was an insult.  Yes, I did get promoted quicker than others once I was trained because of my degrees, but in my 24-25 year old mind I was peeved that I had to start with such low pay with a Master’s degree!

Fast forward to the future, I’ve now worked as a Career Counselor, Enrollment Counselor and now a Relationship Manager between Community Colleges and Bellevue University.  My eyes have been vastly opened to the resources that were available to me that I didn’t know existed.  I also came to realize that not all schools are the same.  Had I known I could shop around I wouldn’t have lost a year of credits, aargh! My children will know the secret formula: The secret formula is education + experience (whether internships or volunteer work) = mid to upper level career entry and pay.  I will shout from the rooftops about free resources both at Community Colleges and Universities like Career Services.  They have Career Coaches that gladly and painlessly do a career assessment on you to help you find your way.  There’s free tutoring both on campus and online and a Writing Center to help you with your papers, just to name a few.

Community College Transfers

If you're interested in transferring from community college to Bellevue University, learn more about degree acceptance, requirements and other helpful information at their main website: http://www.bellevue.edu/community-college/transfers.aspx

Every day, the dedicated faculty and staff at Bellevue University are helping people discover it is possible to reach their education goals and live their dreams!  If you would like more information or an individual advisory session, feel free to contact me:

Angela Olesen
http://twitter.com/AOlesen
http://www.facebook.com/angela.olesen.3
http://smoothesttransfer.com
angela.olesen@bellevue.edu

This post was written by A Guest Author

This post was written by a guest author. If you have high quality, useful information to share with students, send us an email or click Write For Us to learn more. And in case you're wondering - yes, you can promote yourself in this fancy author byline.

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Tina Min October 10, 2012 at 5:34 pm

This is a useful article, really great!

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Sclavi October 20, 2012 at 12:40 am

now you have to ask yourself, is this the best post you can push out?

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TeddyBern February 5, 2013 at 12:47 pm

Hello! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok. I’m absolutely enjoying your blog and
look forward to new posts.

Reply

raphael February 11, 2013 at 5:11 am

Can I just say what a relief to uncover somebody who truly knows what they’re discussing on the internet. You certainly know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. A lot more people really need to check this out and understand this side of the story. I can’t believe you are not more popular since you definitely have the gift.

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