- All right, good morning y'all.
My name is Edwin Valderramma
with UC San Diego's Early Academic Outreach Program.
Today I'm here to give you
the first part of a two part series
of you got into college, now what? Part one.
So, part one today we will be discussing
how to SIR to university.
So for those of y'all who don't know what an SIR is,
SIR is the statement of intent to register.
So for those seniors who have
gotten into university, congratulations.
We're going to talk a little bit
about how you SIR to that university
and making sure that that choice you're making
is the right choice.
So with that being said,
we're going to go ahead and jump right into it.
So, first off and foremost,
congrats on your acceptance to university.
You're hard work has definitely paid off
and now you're one step closer
to being on your way to university.
So before we go into more detail,
I want to go ahead and present us an overview.
So first and foremost we'll be discussing
what is an SIR and why it is important.
After that we'll go a little bit into
selecting the right university
and making sure that choice is correct for you.
Talking about now how do I SIR,
a little bit after the SIR as well as some closing thoughts.
So let's go ahead and jump right into it,
talking about what is an SIR.
SIR stands for the statement of intent to register.
So this means that you will be attending
and enrolling at one specific university.
So notice how I say one specific university.
So you're only able to attend or SIR to one university.
So that's very important
because you're not able to SIR to multiple universities.
So yes you may have been accepted to two, three, four
or many different universities
but you're only going to be able to send that
statement of intent to register
to one of those institutions.
And that's very important because you want to
submit that before May first.
So I understand that being accepted
to a variety of different universities
may be a little troublesome in making that right decision.
So that's why we're going to be talking about,
in our next slide, how you select that right university
so that way you're not tempted
to SIR to multiple institutions.
All right, so now we are selecting the right university.
So when selecting the right university
it can be broken down into two different things.
So first and foremost is researching your school or schools.
So when you're researching your school
you do want to consider the location of that university.
You want to consider is that university in state
or is it out of state.
Is that university in your backyard,
100 miles away or across the nation?
The reason you want to be considering those factors
is because are you going to be paying
in state tuition or out of state tuition?
Those are very two different price tags
so you want to consider those things as well.
You also want to consider what is around that university.
Is there night life for you or is there nature around you?
If those are things that you prioritize,
you're definitely going to want a university
that has you those priorities for you.
So I have two links here, youniversitytv.com
as well as youvisit.com forward slash college search.
So with the current pandemic,
its going to be a little hard to go out
and visit college campuses but thankfully
these two sites allow you virtual reality tour
of over 600 colleges and universities across the nation.
So it's not every single university
that there is available but it does capture
these very big institutions like
UC San Diego, UCLA, Harvard and so forth.
So definitely check out those two links
if you do want to see your college campus
without having to go to that specific university.
Up next is culture.
So, culture right?
If you're a very academic student,
very studious, you want your university to reflect that.
Or if you're a really big sports fan,
does your university share that same mindset as you
or does it have division with sports?
That culture, whatever that culture
that is important to you,
you definitely want your university to reflect that.
Up next is the major and programs.
So if got accepted as an undetermined major
to your university, you definitely want to make sure
that there are major and programs that are relevant
to you at that specific university.
And even on the opposite end.
Yes you got accepted to that university
with the major that you wanted to
but if you're not completely sure about it,
you definitely want to make sure
that there are major and programs
that are relevant to you
because you do have that option
at university to change your major.
Your major is not for life and forever.
You do have that ability to change it if its something
that's not suiting you for something a little better.
Up next is comparing costs.
So you definitely want to compare
the financial aid award letters.
So we do have a video out
that goes into a little bit more detail
of the financial aid award letters
and breaks them down for you.
But we'll just go ahead and go a little bit into it
to really explain how that plays
into selecting the right university.
So you definitely want to compare those letters
as it determines the amount of free money
that you're receiving or the money that you have to pay back
such as the loans and that expected family contribution.
That EFC.
So you want to understand that
yes you got accepted into your dream university
but if you're not receiving as much money
as compared to another university that has accepted you,
you want to make that decision
because its not just your first year
that you'll be paying tuition
and all those fees associated with university.
It's going to be four or five years
so that cost should definitely
be a factor in your decision
of selecting that right university for you.
All right, up next is how do I SIR.
So you finally got that university down,
you know where you want to attend
so how do you SIR to that institution.
So it's broken down into three easy steps.
So first is logging into your student portal.
So you should have gotten information
regarding your student portal
via email a couple months ago
maybe in February, march or even April.
So you're going to log into your student portal
with your information and up next
you're going to select the intent to enroll
or the SIR option.
So in those two options,
it varies according to university university,
but you're going to see some language
in regards to the intent to enroll or that SIR option.
So you're going to go ahead and select that
and then after you select that,
it's going to prompt you through a different process
according to university university
but that third step is
paying that non-refundable SIR deposit.
So for the UC's, the University of California's system,
it is a standard 250 dollar fee across the board.
So if you got accepted into one of the nine UC's,
it's going to be that 250 non-refundable deposit
for the SIR and what that money does
is just goes to your first year tuition
or first fall term tuition for that university.
For the CSU's, or California State Universities,
that amount does vary anywhere from 50 dollars
to 500 dollars so this is something
you want to be aware of
in terms of having to pay that deposit.
For the UC's, if you did apply using a fee waiver,
you're able to defer the payment
until you're financial aid award letter
comes in in the fall term.
So something to keep in mind,
there are exceptions but you're going to want to go ahead
and check with your specific institution
and if they do have those exceptions
as well as how you go about deferring that payment
until your financial aid award letter does appear.
So that is how you SIR so now that you have SIRed,
you do want to consider some things for after the SIR.
So first right is completing any required tasks.
So it's making sure you send that final transcript,
any AP scores or anything else
that your university is requiring of you
to submit prior to that SIR or after the SIR.
So make sure you want to be on top of that.
I know with the current pandemic going on,
you definitely want to be communicative
with your counselors, as teachers to make sure
that these documents are being submitted
if they're not submitted on your end.
Up next is the housing.
So housing you want to make that decision
to either live on campus or off campus
and submit your application.
So for part two of this two part series,
we will be going into housing.
So feel free to check out that video a little later.
And last but not least is orientation.
So some universities do have orientations
that they make their freshmen attend.
So as a first time freshman that's something
you're going to want to be looking out
in your student email or your student portal
to make sure that you set up a date.
If that is applicable to you.
Orientation is a great way to get connected
to your university, learn a little bit more about it
and then it even ties in to housing.
You know, finding some roommates to live with
for your next year.
So that is the after the SIR piece
and now were going to go
and jump in to some closing thoughts.
So it's very important y'all to do your research.
Like we talked about, understanding that location.
Is this university in your back yard?
How far do you have to travel to attend this university?
What is around that university that may be appealing
or not appealing to you?
Up next would be culture.
What type of culture does that university have?
Does it reflect the type of culture that you want
or that you prioritize?
And last but not least, that major and programs.
Making sure that the university does have major
and programs that are relevant to you
and to your interests.
Secondly is commit to only one school.
Because you did that research
you should only be committing to one school.
So you definitely don't want to submit multiple SIR's
to different universities.
And last but not least, you want to finish strong.
You're hard work has paid off
and has got you that admission acceptance to that university
but that admission acceptance is provisional.
So if you don't do well this last half of your senior year,
they do have the ability
to revoke your admission to that university.
So don't let senioritis hit you too hard
because you definitely want to finish strong
and let the hard work completely pay off.
So y'all, thank you for checking us out.
We genuinely appreciate it.
If you're interested in learning a little bit more
about UC San Diego,
or the Early Academic Outreach Program here,
definitely check us out on Instagram or Facebook.
We would very much appreciate that
as we do post information regarding SIR, housing,
but also student success, mental health and much more.
So thank you all for tuning in.
So take care y'all
and we'll see you again for our next video
in part two which is housing.
So until then, take care y'all.