Leaders from Loyola Marymount University and the Los Angeles Community College District have signed an agreement that will enable students attending the district’s nine colleges to receive guaranteed fall admission to LMU once they meet specific enrollment requirements.
LMU President Timothy Law Snyder, Ph.D., was among those who gathered for a signing ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017, at Los Angeles Harbor College in Wilmington.
Snyder spoke about the three parts of LMU’s mission – the encouragement of learning, the education of the whole person, and the service of faith and the promotion of justice – and how the transfer admissions agreement aligns with these principles.
“What I most admire in our transfer students is their stunning persistence,” Snyder told the audience that included academic leaders along with college students. “Transfer students are people who have full-time jobs, sometimes full-time families. Commitments that are not common to the wider population and somehow, you focus on your education and you say, ‘I’m ready to make a difference in this world. So I’m going to do well here, I’m going to go to LMU, and I’m going to do just as well.’”
LMU enrolls roughly 550 transfer students annually. LMU student Darlene Zarazu, who had attended LACCD colleges before she transferred, spoke about her experience at the signing ceremony.
“I’m excited to come to school and be able to communicate with my professors as if there is no barrier put in between,” she said. “I have strong connections to my classmates and my professors, and I have begun to see them as role models … that will help steer me on to the right path.”
Joining Snyder and Zarazu on the stage of college’s Music Recital Hall were LACCD Board of Trustees President Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez; Tom Gutto, LMU’s director of transfer enrollment services; and Robert Walsh, S.J., executive director of LMU’s Center for Catholic Education.
To guarantee admission to LMU, prospective students must meet GPA and unit requirements by the end of the fall term, and maintain that performance through the spring term of the application year. Some majors will have additional requirements, such as specific coursework or a higher GPA.
In addition to the fall admission guarantee, the agreement will allow LMU to provide to LACCD students access to campus tours and workshops, information on financial aid and scholarships, and transfer/pre-admission advisement.
Watch news coverage of the signing ceremony on NBC-4 and Telemundo KVEA.
