Community college students in California now have even more options when planning their path to a four-year degree.

The Board of Governors that oversees the state’s community colleges approved a plan last month that offers guaranteed admission to students who take specific community college courses geared toward their intended four-year major.

Three dozen private, four-year institutions have signed on to the plan, according to EdSource. All but one of those schools will begin accepting students through the program for the 2018-19 academic year. Similar guaranteed admission programs are already in place within the state’s public university systems.

The latest agreement will be especially beneficial to students who need to complete their college degree close to home, said Laura Hope, executive vice chancellor of the state’s community college system. Although students have always been welcome to transfer into private colleges, the new guaranteed admission program will ease the process.

“Many of our students who transfer to a private university, they do so because they are place-bound,” Hope told EdSource. “Geography is one of the reasons they may want to make that selection.”

Read the full EdSource article and view NACAC’s transfer resources.

Admitted writer/editor Mary Stegmeir welcomes additional comments and story ideas at mstegmeir@nacacnet.org.