Transferring out of a community college, for many students, seems like a long shot, especially for those who have jobs and are struggling to make ends meet.

However, that is not the case for Jose Mendez, 18, psychology major, who plans to transfer this fall to a University of California, preferably UCLA.

It is difficult to get in to a UC if you are a student at El Camino, Rene Lozano, transfer center coordinator, said.

Lozano added that getting into some Cal State schools can be as difficult due to impacted majors.

The transfer rates have been increasing over the past few years and El Camino is currently No. 7 out of 115 community colleges in transfers to UC schools and California State Universities. In comparison, this past year Santa Monica College was No. 1 in transfers.

Although EC is No. 7 overall, for CSUs they rank No.3 and for UCs they rank No. 10.

As showed in the data, the percentages of the colleges mentioned are very similar and it all has to do with the amount of students enrolled versus the amount who transfer.

In order to transfer into a UC most students have to work hard to ensure that they are admitted into the school of their choice. For Mendez working hard is not something that is foreign to him.

“I’ve always worked hard,” Mendez said. “It is a privilege to go to college here in the U.S. versus in Mexico.”

Mendez came to the U.S. as a toddler and has always excelled in school. At such a young age Mendez skipped kindergarten to go into the first grade.

As he was growing up, the hardest thing for him was trying to catch up with the other students who were always one year older.

Mendez is currently a student ambassador and a tutor for the Knowledgeable, Engaged, and Aspiring Students program.

Mendez said he has been working on starting a club for undocumented AB-540 students called Achieving Higher Education for All Dreamers (AHEAD).

This is a club designed for students to empower one another because of the institutional barriers that exist, Mendez said.

EC recently got priority registration with Cal State Northridge because it is now considered a local area college.

Comparitively Cerritos College is not considered a local area college to any of the local universities, Brittany Lundeen, transfer center co-coordinator, said.

Being considered a local area college to CSU’s means getting priority admission and registration. This means that transfer applicants from non-local area colleges still have a chance of being admitted but the chances are slimmer.

One reason that factors into SMC having higher transfer rates is the amount of student population versus other campus.

As of last spring there were roughly 30,000 students at SMC while EC only had about 24,000. This is a 20 percent difference in amount of students enrolled.

Santa Monica had a total of 2,264 transfers and EC had 1,653. This means that nearly 7 percent of students transferred from EC versus SMC who had nearly 7.5 percent of their students transfer.

The rates of student enrollment to transfer rate are fairly similar at both colleges. This is for both Cal States and UC’s combined.

Long Beach City College (LBCC) had 24,739 students enrolled last year. Cerritos College had 23,805 students enrolled.

This is a 3.78 percent difference in students enrolled.

Long Beach had a total of 1,194 students transfer to both UC’s and Cal States equaling to a total of 4.83 percent transfer rates.

Cerritos college had total of 1,105 transfers which means that 4.65 percent of their student population transferred.

Cerritos College and LBCC have similar transfer rates although they rank differently according to the data from the Chancellor’s Office.

LBCC ranked No. 13 and Cerritos College ranked No. 21 out of 115 community colleges according to data from the Chancellor’s office website.

“You shouldn’t look at the ranking of a community college,” Lundeen said. “Most of Cerritos’ student population is part-time students who happen to be first-generation students.”