For Maria Zavala, a college representative from Berkeley, Transfer Day at De Anza College is a perfect opportunity for colleges to dispel any myths about college admissions.
“Many times, students come up to us and ask the ‘is it true…?’ question and it allows me to directly clarify anything they may have heard,” she said.
More than 20 colleges gathered in the Hinson Center cafeteria on Oct. 25 to find out more about prospective colleges.
Julia Kovalenkova, a second year business and economics major at De Anza College,  said Transfer Day is a great way for students to ask questions.
“I am an international student so this is a really good opportunity to kill multiple birds with one stone,”she said.
“I like having all the colleges in one place for me to meet with and ask questions.”  
The annual event equips students with crucial information about transferring.
“You get a lot more value from talking to a representative then a website,” said Louis Martin an admissions counselor from CSU Monterey Bay.
“It’s information that you couldn’t really pull off the Internet.”
Mia Segura an outreach coordinator at San Francisco State said the process of transferring can be overwhelming.
“Our purpose is to help educate and guide students so that they have the smoothest transition possible. SFSU has a lot of transfer students so we know what it can be like.”
A major issue concerning public colleges this year is the inevitable budget cuts that threaten admission and tuition.
The situation is making students think twice before they apply and in some cases, they opt for a private university instead.
“The budget cuts are really unfortunate but it has increased the amount of applications we get,” said Andrew Haesloop, assistant director of admissions at Notre Dame de Namur University.
“It gives us a chance to work with a group of students who wouldn’t have considered looking into a private school.”
Kelly Erland, a representative from University of California, Santa Barbara agreed.
 “I think that students are definitely being more cautious and are looking for different options because of the budget cuts,” she said.
Most of the representatives agreed that although the budget cuts haven’t reduced the number of interested prospective students, tuition is increasing and the number of available faculty and classes is decreasing.
Sarah Dragovich, a college representative from San Jose State said, “Oh, we can definitely feel the toll the budget cuts are taking on public education.
“Tuition is greatly affected but San Jose State University actually hired two additional staff members to try and compensate.”
Kevin Singh, a second year biology major said he is still interested in the public school system.
“I want a more open-ended education but the budget cuts are really affecting my acceleration into a four-year university because the amount of available general education classes are decreasing,” he said.
Linda Meyers, a college representative from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State, said students should consider out-of-state options.
“We see the detrimental effect that the budget cuts are having on education here in California and it’s hard,” she said.
 “This is my first time at De Anza and I like that students who are going through this tough process get a chance to learn about all these different schools and can weigh their options.”