S3E28: Seattle Colleges Conversations with! Transfer Admissions Counselor Bia Bitar of the University of Washington Bothell

In this our twenty eighth (28th) episode of Season 3, Seattle Colleges host Evan Franulovich interviews Transfer Admissions Counselor Bia Bitar of the University of Washington Bothell in Bothell, Washington about their institution and about what they have to offer international students who transfer there.

1:19 - Meet Bia!

For more information about the University of Washington Bothell, please visit their website at: https://www.uwb.edu/admissions/apply/international  or send them an email at uwbinfo@uw.edu

Copyright © Seattle Colleges International Programs 2023. All rights reserved. For more information about being an international student at Seattle Colleges, please visit intl.seattlecolleges.edu

The theme music 'Bounce' is an audio file pursuant to the Pixabay License as defined in the Pixabay Terms of Service available at https://http://pixabay.com/service/terms/

Also, connect with us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok) at
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Transcript

Evan Franulovich  0:05  
Welcome to Seattle Colleges International Programs and our show 'Conversations with!', where we talk to people that help you understand how you too, can be an international student in the United States and why Seattle Colleges should be your first choice. We'll talk to students and staff and agents and government folks, all kinds of people about what you can expect when you're getting ready to apply or travel here, what you'll experience while you're with us, and how it can all lead to an amazing life. Don't forget to check out the Seattle Colleges International Programs website at intl.seattlecolleges.edu where you can find a treasure trove of information about the school, the programs here and best of all, fill out and submit your application. Again, that's intl.seattlecolleges.edu.

Hey everybody! Welcome back to Seattle Colleges 'Conversations with!' We are not at our Seattle Central campus today, we're out here in Bothell, Washington. Which is a community just kind of to the north. We're here at the University of Washington. I don't know your theme song. What's the fight song for UW? 

Bia Bitar  1:30  
I don't know.

Evan Franulovich  1:33  
That's okay. We're not going to sing today anyway. Well, welcome to Bia. She is kind enough sit down with us and tell us all about why you might want to consider coming out to Bothell to do your studies, transferring away from Seattle Colleges or whatever community college you're at, coming out here to finish your junior and senior year. Welcome! 

Bia Bitar  1:54  
Thank you so much. 

Evan Franulovich  1:55  
Yeah, tell everybody who you are in full, what your title is, maybe how long you've been with UW, and then we'll start go from there, I guess. 

Bia Bitar  2:05  
Perfect, yeah. My name is Bia Bitar. I use she/they pronouns, and I've been here at UW Bothell as an admissions counselor just around two years, around February. So yeah, just had two years, which is nice. I actually graduated from UW Bothell back in 2022, been at UW for a while now. 

Evan Franulovich  2:24  
Right. You didn't always go to UW, you were a high school student at some point. Where'd you go to high school? 

Bia Bitar  2:31  
I went to high school here in Kenmore, not too far. I went to Inglemore High School. Go vikings!

Evan Franulovich  2:36  
Shout out to Inglemore! Hey, really? The school I went to were the Vikings too. Well, that's cool, and then you graduated from there and went straight to...?

Bia Bitar  2:47  
So initially I wanted to go to UW Seattle because that was the dream, but I did not get accepted into the program I wanted, because I applied directly for a major, and I ended up taking an offer for University of Oregon. So I was a duck for a little bit. So don't get too mad about that. I was there for just about two quarters, the class sizes were just too big for me. I think the large lecture halls really got to me. Coming from a smallish high school, like 400 graduating class, I was not excited to sit in a 400 person lecture hall, not being able to talk to the professor. The costs really bother me, because I was paying just out of state tuition. So I decided to transfer to UW Bothell spring quarter of my freshman year. But then COVID started, and we all know what happened there. 

Evan Franulovich  2:47  
COVID, boo! 

Bia Bitar  2:47  
Online for a little bit. I was able to graduate early in 2022 and I think my last year, I was able to get some in person classes. So I was able to get some experience. But I did miss on going to a student section football game, which you can as a Bothell student. 

Evan Franulovich  3:53  
Well, you studied what? What was your topic? 

Bia Bitar  3:56  
Yeah, I graduated with a Global Studies degree as a Bachelor of Arts here at UW Bothell. And I also had a minor in gender, women's sexuality studies and Portuguese. 

Evan Franulovich  4:06  
Oh, wow, that's a lot. That's really cool. Okay, so I kind of want to go back, because you were talking about coming here. You applied to Seattle, but you come to here. So the, if you guys are thinking about the University of Washington, you to understand there are actually three campuses. Can you talk about the three campuses? And maybe if there are more?

Bia Bitar  4:27  
So we are three campuses, we do have some similarities, and then also some benefits of just being a UW student in general. I would say each campus obviously, the obvious difference is going to be location. They're each complete opposite places. UW Tacoma is obviously in the city of Tacoma. UW Seattle is very much in Seattle, and Bothell is growing definitely, but it's on the side to the side a little bit. So there are different locations, obviously. And then major wise, each campus kind of offers their own set of majors, somewhat different, somewhat similar. We have the general set of major. It's around 40 or 50, I want to say, and a lot of minors as well. But as a UW students, you can take classes at the other UW campuses. So I think that's a really nice benefit that students don't realize about. And you can get a minor at the other campus, which is what I did. 

Evan Franulovich  5:14  
Right. 

Bia Bitar  5:15  
That was really nice.

Evan Franulovich  5:16  
So you can be not accepted at UW Seattle, come to UW Bothell as a student and then still take classes at UW Seattle. That seems weird.

Bia Bitar  5:25  
You can take minor, is full minor at Seattle, because they do have some, like language minors all of Seattle. So that's what I took. So you can kind of take a look at what they offer. 

Evan Franulovich  5:34  
Right, right. Why Portuguese just out of curiosity?

Bia Bitar  5:36  
I'm Brazilian. It was mostly culture classes, because I grew up in Brazil, so I did not take any grammar classes needed, but I was able to earn the minor. So it was nice. 

Evan Franulovich  5:49  
Which part of Brazil?

Bia Bitar  5:50  
Rio.

Evan Franulovich  5:55  
Shout out to Brazil. We love the Brazilians. Yes, for sure. Do you have a lot of Brazilian students here?

Bia Bitar  6:00  
Honestly, not too many. It's growing. I think we do have a Brazilian club here in Seattle, but it's growing still. 

Evan Franulovich  6:06  
Cool. So when you were here, were you here on an F-1 visa? 

Bia Bitar  6:10  
I was not. I moved here to Washington my junior year of high school, but I was in Texas as of middle school. I've been in the US over 10 years now. 

Evan Franulovich  6:22  
Sure, sure. So you're a domestic student. 

Bia Bitar  6:24  
I was a domestic student, yeah. I was almost out of state because I wasn't here long enough, only my junior-senior year. So it was almost a little bit I had to...

Evan Franulovich  6:33  
Since you graduated from a high school, would have had to been in a Seattle school. So why didn't you do the Seattle Promise program? But weren't not in Seattle.

Bia Bitar  6:41  
I was in Kenmore.

Evan Franulovich  6:43  
Did you consider a community college pathway?

Bia Bitar  6:46  
I did not at the time, my family didn't really know about it, nobody really graduated here from the US, so we were like, not sure what it was about. I thought I was gonna be more vocational. That was my idea of community college initially. But I do regret it. I wish I had done it. My high school had IB college or IB credits, which was nice, but I think running start would have been nicer. 

Evan Franulovich  7:07  
Would have been great, yeah. 

Bia Bitar  7:08  
Could've been much easier, more straightforward credit transferring. 

Evan Franulovich  7:11  
Right. She did what a lot of high school students traditionally do in the United States, went straight to a four year university. In her case, started at UO came to UW. Both great schools, and then did all four years. But you can do a two plus two, where you do your first two years at a community college and then do two years at one of our transfer schools, and you guys are a partner of ours, which is really great. What does that mean like? So you guys are a tag partner of Seattle Colleges. So we've got an international student who wants to go to Seattle Colleges first. What benefit do they get for you being a tag partner?

Bia Bitar  7:49  
Yeah, I think it just a lot of interactions with us. I try to be on campus at least twice a quarter. There's always at least one transfer event, and at least we try to do at least one more tabling, just me out there is for anybody that's just walking by campus and has any questions. And just knowing that we're there and having being able to offer any help that they want, just in general, email us at the first time you're starting to think about transferring. We can help you figure out prerequisites, anything you need for transferring ahead of time, so you're not just before applying, figuring out you need a whole other class that you didn't have. 

Evan Franulovich  8:22  
Right. 

Bia Bitar  8:23  
So definitely reach out to us as early as you're considering transferring, we can help you out.

Evan Franulovich  8:28  
Totally agree, that's great advice. I say, the more lead time you have, the better. So yeah, both Tacoma and Bothell are tag schools of ours, which means when you apply to Seattle Colleges. You can actually write down and apply to two of our tag schools. So you could write down both UW Bothell, UW Tacoma, if you wanted, and you'd get acceptance letters from us and from you guys at the same time, which is nice when you're wanting to show your educational pathway, which is cool. So you had mentioned that each one of the campuses have slightly different programs or slightly different things. So what do you guys kind of specialize in? Where do you lean out here in Bothell? 

Bia Bitar  9:07  
I would say definitely the STEM programs are going to be our really heavy one. CS always. I think honestly, in all three campuses, CS is going to be our strongest, most popular major.

Evan Franulovich  9:07  
And just for those second language users out there that don't know what CS is? 

Bia Bitar  9:12  
Computer science. 

Evan Franulovich  9:13  
Computer Science, that's right.

Bia Bitar  9:17  
So the computer science going to be very popular, but also business and psychology are also top three majors at our campus. Business has a lot of minors and concentration options as well. 

Evan Franulovich  9:34  
For example? 

Bia Bitar  9:36  
Economics, finance, accounting. We do have the CPA, which is a accounting certification option. We do have that as well. And we do have a couple others that I'm gonna forget.

Evan Franulovich  9:48  
That's all right. And then, if they do their business degree here, can they stay and get their MBA here, or do they have to go to Seattle?

Bia Bitar  9:54  
Yes, we do also have an MBA program. So even if you do a bachelor's at Seattle, you could come back here for MBA. So you have a different campus on your transcript or on your degree later, but we do have an MBA program as well later, for anybody that's interested in graduate school. 

Evan Franulovich  10:10  
That's cool. And if you already have your bachelor's degree from your home country and you want to go after an MBA, you could come to Seattle Colleges first to do a short term certificate, knock out your prerequisites, apply to UW and then get into their MBA program. Let's go back to that. Let's get back to the transfer process. So they do two years with Seattle Colleges, and they want to come to you guys. What do they got to do?

Bia Bitar  10:36  
Yeah, so assuming you've been talking to us, you got all those prerequisite classes done, because that's the best way to transfer, is going straight for your major. You can transfer pre major and finish prerequisites at Bothell, but I always recommend stay in the community college, finish those prerequisites and then apply straight for your major to transfer. It's a better pathway, and it's just more straightforward for you. So you're not here as a pre major. Not sure if you're gonna get into your major later. 

Evan Franulovich  11:02  
Yeah, I think that's good advice. 

Bia Bitar  11:04  
Especially with the most popular majors such as computer science, is definitely best to wait and have more options than being here full tuition. It's a lot of money. 

Evan Franulovich  11:13  
Is it possible that you guys only accept a certain number of people into your computer science program and then you cut it off?

Bia Bitar  11:20  
Yes, yes. We need more funding to have more teachers, more studies, more everything. So we do have a limited amount every quarter that we can admit, and we always get more applications than we can so.

Evan Franulovich  11:32  
Of course. 

Bia Bitar  11:33  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  11:33  
So international students might want to know how they fall in I don't know how you prioritize. You're getting applications from domestic students. You're getting applications from international transfer students. So in what order do you think you consider them? Do you set aside so many places for international students? How does that work? 

Bia Bitar  11:53  
Yeah, so for us at Bothell in our computer science program, which is great because I'm the admissions counselor for computer science. So, I know all these. 

Evan Franulovich  12:00  
Yeah, that's great. Talking to the right person. 

Bia Bitar  12:03  
So for us, we just consider transfer anybody that's transferring in without a bachelor's degree, if you have a bachelor's degree, do not apply for a computer science program. It's not a good pathway. If we had space, we would consider post bac applicants, but we never have space, so might as well not apply. We have other options, or seems like there's a graduate certificate options, and we do have computer science master options at UW Bothell, so that would be a better pathway. 

Evan Franulovich  12:30  
Cool. 

Bia Bitar  12:30  
But if you don't have a bachelor's degree, and you just have some credits, then you're transferring in, no matter if you're international student or not. If you're international student, you're submitting a couple more documentation to us, meeting the English Proficiency through a test or through 90 credits at college and good grades. But there's also, if you have international degree, then you also need an international credential evaluation sent to us, things like that, but that'll be the only difference. But we accept transfer applications for international students any quarter, as long as that major has an application for that quarter, what else? And we don't prioritize any differently between other transfer students, so that's nice. 

Evan Franulovich  13:10  
So if they have to get the international evaluation done for their transcripts, but they've already had it done once for Seattle Colleges, do they have to do it again for you? 

Bia Bitar  13:20  
If It's valid. They can just ask the company to send it to us. It's like a transcript. It should be saved, and the company should be able to send it to us.

Evan Franulovich  13:27  
Okay. Good to know. 

Bia Bitar  13:28  
Yeah, it should be okay, as long as the you can ask the company. You will probably have to pay again because you're sending it to a new institution. But it won't take long, because, in theory, you already have it done.

Evan Franulovich  13:37  
Right, right. Good to know. How long does it take for that review process to happen. So, you know, some people are thinking about they need to get through transcripts. How much time should they build in? 

Bia Bitar  13:46  
Yeah, so we'd normally say four to eight weeks. Except for computer science, which tends to take longer because we have a faculty committee reviewing it; there's more of a tight timeline for when they can review all the applications. So for that one, it does tend to take a little bit longer on the 10 weeks. We try our best to hurry it up. When we see an international applicant, we try to check in as soon as we can to make sure they have all their transcripts, because the international credential evaluations do take a while if you haven't gotten them done. So I always recommend, if you need that done, just get it done ASAP to have that on file, so it's not too much of a worry timeline wise. But if you don't have prerequisites from your international transcript, it's a little bit easier. We have more wiggle room on waiting on that transcript, but if you have prerequisites, we're gonna need that on file to review, so keep that in mind. 

Evan Franulovich  14:35  
Out of curiosity, how many total international students do you guys have out here at this campus?

Bia Bitar  14:41  
That's a good question. I would say we're just under 6000 students, so I want to say 10% of that. 

Evan Franulovich  14:50  
Okay. 

Bia Bitar  14:50  
Maybe I think. It's around where we're at, maybe a little more. 

Evan Franulovich  14:54  
Well, that's pretty good. 

Bia Bitar  14:55  
You have the new dorms, which I think has been a good appeal. 

Evan Franulovich  14:58  
Yeah. 

Bia Bitar  15:00  
There's a couple different options freshmen have, like dorm style, one bathroom shared with two or three people in a dorm style. And then the other two new buildings are for upper classmen or transfer students that are more apartment style. Everyone has a kitchen, so it's nice. 

Evan Franulovich  15:15  
Last time I was here, they were actually still building these. They have brand new dorms. It's very nice out here. 

Bia Bitar  15:15  
It smells like new construction. 

Evan Franulovich  15:16  
I'm sure it does. So if they come as a junior, they can get into the dorms. It's no problem? You don't boot them out or whatever. They can stay the whole time. 

Bia Bitar  15:34  
More than welcome to come, especially to the apartment ones. I think they're really worth it. And you don't need a meal plan with the ones with the full kitchen, because you have a full kitchen. 

Evan Franulovich  15:41  
Right. 

Bia Bitar  15:41  
So that's nice, but the dining room is open to anyone. It's a public restaurant for Bothell, technically. So if you're walking around Bothell, you're welcome to come. 

Evan Franulovich  15:48  
Really? 

Bia Bitar  15:49  
Dine here. The city of Bothell wanted us to make it public. So we said, yes.

Evan Franulovich  15:54  
Yeah, yeah. So is it sit down dining, or is it like a cafeteria style? 

Bia Bitar  15:58  
There's both, so there is a all you can eat. But for that one, you do need to eat it by a pass. I don't know how walk-ins would work. But for students, you can just put your ID, and then the other two options are just using the GrubHub app, and you can order your food. 

Evan Franulovich  16:14  
Wow. So of the 10% or whatever for international students that you do have, where do they tend to come from mostly? Do you have students from all regions? Are they heavily  from one region? 

Bia Bitar  16:29  
I think we're heavily more from Asia, but we do have a little bit of everywhere. We do have a lot of refugee students. They've been here for maybe a couple of years, but they're technically kind of international students considered still. They might not have a full associates yet, so they might still be considered international students or out of state.

Evan Franulovich  16:49  
How many transfer in? You know, if you have that many international students total, what percentage of those are actually? 

Bia Bitar  16:56  
Yeah, so we are 60% first year, straight out of high school students. And then 40% transfer. 

Evan Franulovich  17:03  
Okay. 

Bia Bitar  17:05  
That's quite a few then. 

Evan Franulovich  17:05  
Yeah. 

Bia Bitar  17:06  
We're heavier transfer in the past, but now with the dorms and everything, we're increasing our first year as well. 

Evan Franulovich  17:12  
It seems like you're in a really great location here, because you've got community colleges that way. You've got them this way. So I'm guessing you're drawing from, like, Edmonds and Shoreline and Seattle, Bellevue. 

Bia Bitar  17:24  
Cascadia, of course. 

Evan Franulovich  17:25  
Cascadia! That's right. 

Bia Bitar  17:28  
Shares some spaces with us as also.

Evan Franulovich  17:30  
That's right. So a lot of the classes are down there. 

Bia Bitar  17:32  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  17:33  
Yeah, that's right. So this is all dorms, administration, and then the classes are all down to campus. They have a beautiful sports field down there. University of Washington, University of Oregon, these are big division one athletic schools. Do you guys have separate teams from the Bothell campus, or does all that take place at the Seattle?

Bia Bitar  17:56  
The D1 stuff is all at the Seattle campus. 

Evan Franulovich  17:58  
It's all Seattle. 

Bia Bitar  17:59  
But we do have our ARC, which is our activities and recreation centers for students that was student made. Students from both Bothell and Cascadia, kind of sat down, or like, we want this for us, and they got, we pay tuition, so they got down, and they were able to get that going a couple years ago. So now it's a building that's shared between them. So it has one level this gym, but they also have a couple different clubs and intramural options as well that happen in the fields and things like that. 

Evan Franulovich  18:28  
Gotcha. 

Bia Bitar  18:29  
And we do have, I forgot their name, but they are the outdoor out the outdoor group. They will take students out to hikings and things like that. And they have the equipment. They will just sometimes pay a small fee for whatever they need to take, and then they go all together, and it's already like a plan, so you just go.

Evan Franulovich  18:45  
So if you want to be a athlete, might want to be looking at Seattle, most definitely. So why do you think maybe you kind of already answered this, but let's cover it again. So we've got 3 UW campuses to choose from when they graduate. Doesn't really matter, right? They all just say UW, right? 

Bia Bitar  19:04  
They all just say University of Washington. I thought it would say what campus, but it really doesn't. My degree just says University of Washington. We do have our own Chancellor, so we do have her signature on there. But other than that, that's the only difference that you could physically tell in the degree, it only says University of Washington.

Evan Franulovich  19:21  
And I tell people, you know, when I'm talking to people about where they might want to transfer out, the UW is a big research, division one, it's a big school, and it's nationally ranked. Am I right? 

Bia Bitar  19:35  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  19:35  
Can you talk about your rankings and why they might want to consider coming here? 

Bia Bitar  19:39  
I don't want to say the exact number, because I don't want to mess them up. But we do have a really good like, how much you invest coming to school and how much you're making after you graduate. We're really good. We're actually above Seattle, just because I think we're a smaller school so and we have heavy STEM classes. But we do have a really good outcome for graduation and how much money you're making after. And I would say just in general, all of our faculty has to be doing some research. So there's always something going on if you're interested in that you can work with them. And even all of your almost of our programs have some sort of senior capstone project, and that could be research that you're doing on your own, aside faculty or with faculty. So there's a lot of opportunities, even as undergraduates, which is nice. 

Evan Franulovich  20:25  
Well, the big question that comes out of every kid's mouth that I talk to at fairs, and I'm sure you hear this all the time, is, how much does it cost?

Bia Bitar  20:32  
Yeah, so for in state tuition is going to be just under $13,000 for fall, winter, spring. 

Evan Franulovich  20:38  
Now that's in state tuition, so you can ignore that. 

Bia Bitar  20:43  
So for international students and/or anybody that does not qualify for in state tuition it's going to be, I think, just under $45,000 for fall, winter and spring. 

Evan Franulovich  20:51  
Right. 

Bia Bitar  20:52  
And then housing, if you were to stay on campus, I think it's around $17,000 for fall, winter and spring, too.

Evan Franulovich  20:58  
So on top of that, so all in probably 60 ish. 

Bia Bitar  21:03  
Yeah, I would say that. 

Evan Franulovich  21:05  
Okay. And scholarships for transfer students? Do you have offer transfer scholarships? 

Bia Bitar  21:12  
Unfortunately, we did not have any scholarships. It's all gonna be state funding or federal funding. So FAFSA or WASFA applications, if you're a first year international applicant, we do just start having a chancellor scholarship. There's available, and it's going to be more or less merit based, or just, we're gonna, it's gonna our own criteria when we're reviewing applications. So that's the only one we have. But that's only for freshmen coming in internationally.

Evan Franulovich  21:23  
And are they automatically considered with that? They don't have to fill out an application?

Bia Bitar  21:43  
We're going to be reviewing and look at our application and we'll go from there. 

Evan Franulovich  21:46  
And do they have a set number of scholarship awards that they give out?

Bia Bitar  21:52  
They don't. They just started this year. So I think they're kind of piloting and seeing how they can go and see the offers and see who takes it.

Evan Franulovich  22:00  
But you said that's for first year they do not apply to transfer scholarships, so be careful there. 

Bia Bitar  22:05  
They don't apply.

Evan Franulovich  22:06  
Okay, great. So no transfer scholarships. So for the purposes of their I-20, they have to show the 40 something. What do they have to show, as far as proof of finances in order to get the acceptance in the I-20. Do you remember what that number is? 

Bia Bitar  22:25  
That's a good question.

Evan Franulovich  22:25  
Okay. I'm guessing it must be in the 40s, because that's what your tuition fees are. All right, fair enough. All right. Well, a lot of people also ask what kind of clubs can they expect? This is not the Seattle campus, you're kind of out of the town a little bit. It's not far from Seattle, but in fact, it's super close on the bus. What can they expect to do out here? 

Bia Bitar  22:54  
You can also join clubs at Seattle. You would have to obviously talk to them and say, 'Hey, I'm from Bothell, but I want to join.' You can even join the Greek Life at Seattle campus. So as a Bothell student, you're still able to join all of that. I did have a couple of friends that did that when there students here, that's an option. 

Evan Franulovich  23:11  
Wow.

Bia Bitar  23:11  
 You do have to go there for all the events and all the requirements, but it is an option for those who are interested. But we do have over 50 clubs on campus, and we always say, if there's something you want and you're interested in, you can start your own club on it. It's not too difficult. And we try to give them a lot of opportunities to show off and fairs and things like that for students, and they can hold events on campus like that.

Evan Franulovich  23:35  
Right. So lots of clubs. You just said about the Greek life. So if you're an international student, you may not have any idea what you just talked about. Can you give them kind of a primer? What is Greek life?

Bia Bitar  23:48  
So I'd say, if you ever watched any American college movie. 

Evan Franulovich  23:53  
Animal House, yeah. 

Bia Bitar  23:55  
It would be those houses that a lot of people live in, and they have some sort of Greek letters on the door names. They call themselves fraternities or sororities. So they are sisterhoods or brotherhoods of groups of people that have a common goal. I think they do volunteering and some sorts, but also a lot of partying. I won't deny them. 

Evan Franulovich  24:15  
That it's true. 

Bia Bitar  24:17  
But I do think they do a lot of volunteering as well. You can do that as well as a Bothell  student.

Evan Franulovich  24:24  
All right, there you go. It's how long by bus to get from here to the Seattle campus? 

Bia Bitar  24:29  
I think it's just under an hour without traffic. 

Evan Franulovich  24:32  
Is it really? 

Bia Bitar  24:32  
Well, with traffic probably like an hour, because it goes through Lake City. You can go through 520 as well, but I think it's a different route. I've only gone through Lake City... 

Evan Franulovich  24:42  
Sure.

Bia Bitar  24:42  
...the more common one.  

Evan Franulovich  24:44  
Well, fair enough. Yeah. So you could technically be get involved in the fraternities or sororities. It is a great way to network with people and kind of have a uniquely American experience. A lot of people ask me, 'Community colleges sound really great. What's the downside?' Well, the downside is we don't have the big football games on Saturdays, like UW does. We don't have the Greek system, the fraternities and the sororities. So if you want to have that big adventurous experience, you can do that if you come here. They can do it just their junior and senior year, can they? 

Bia Bitar  25:20  
Yeah, yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  25:21  
So they don't have to be here from junior-freshman.

Bia Bitar  25:22  
No don't. They have a recruitment for the sororities in Greek life during Spring and Fall quarters. So if any free coming midway through the year, can still apply for those.

Evan Franulovich  25:32  
And they can still go to the football games? 

Bia Bitar  25:32  
Yeah, you still got student section, student cost to go into those, and you're able to go with your ID. So I feel like, even now, with my work ID, I could probably sneak in wearing purple. 

Evan Franulovich  25:45  
That's right. 

Bia Bitar  25:46  
I don't know how I would go. 

Evan Franulovich  25:48  
Do you not go for the games? 

Bia Bitar  25:49  
I went once after after COVID, too. So I think that was the main issue when I was a student. 

Evan Franulovich  25:54  
Sure.

Bia Bitar  25:54  
I regret it. 

Evan Franulovich  25:55  
Right, right. 

Bia Bitar  25:55  
But after I graduated, I did go, I got a couple tickets from another work I was at. 

Evan Franulovich  26:01  
You gotta go guys, even if you don't care about sports, it's just the atmosphere. 

Bia Bitar  26:07  
It is really fun. 

Evan Franulovich  26:07  
It's worth it, at least once. 

Bia Bitar  26:10  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  26:10  
And the cool thing about UW is there's so many sports to choose from. It's not just football. You want to reel off a few, because rowing team is super famous. It's coming up. Yeah, it's coming up baseball, yeah, you track and field. I mean, you name it, they pretty much have it. I get asked a lot when I'm on the road about athletics, and we don't have athletics at our school, but I always point them in your guys' direction. I don't know how that works. If someone was super talented, let's say one of your friends down in Brazil was an awesome volleyball player, what would they do? Would they just contact you, or would they contact the coaches? How would they...?

Bia Bitar  26:53  
They would have to go to Seattle. But I would say you can probably start through the coaches and see how that goes, to see if there is any opportunities to talk to them or show off to them in some ways and videos, because I would imagine you won't just come here just to show yourself. I think it will be too much. 

Evan Franulovich  27:09  
Right, right, right. 

Bia Bitar  27:09  
So there's probably other options. But first and foremost, you need to get into the school. I think you need to be transferred in as students at the campus. But I think is definitely, if that's something you're interested in, definitely worth it talking to the coaches before you also transfer to also transfer to make sure it is an option. You need to be recruited, and you need to make sure what they require.

Evan Franulovich  27:29  
But it is possible. 

Bia Bitar  27:31  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  27:32  
Do you know of anyone? Have you met any students that have done it? 

Bia Bitar  27:35  
Um, not any transfer students, necessarily. But there was a high school person that graduated me, that is a current player.

Evan Franulovich  27:43  
There you go. Cool.  And you know, there are teams at community colleges that some community colleges offer athletics. You can always start there, show what you're made of, and then maybe walk on to one of these other schools. I don't know, it's not a world I'm too familiar with.

Bia Bitar  27:59  
It is a competitive world too, unfortunately. So I feel like it's hard. 

Evan Franulovich  28:02  
Right. If there an international student is watching this, they're like, 'Oh, yeah, UW that sounds really great.' They may be curious, why do I have a dog on the table? 

Bia Bitar  28:10  
So that's gonna be our mascots. We have a live dog that will come to the football games. His name is Dubs. 

Evan Franulovich  28:21  
Dubs!

Bia Bitar  28:21  
Malamute husky, I believe, or something of the sort. He's huge, very fluffy, very cute. But each campus also has mascots themselves. We have Holly the Husky. Seattle campus has Harry the Husky, and Tacoma has Hendrix the Husky. So all very cute. 

Evan Franulovich  28:42  
Very cool. Yeah, I had a good friend, I grew up on the Oregon coast, and they were huge Husky fans, and so they had a husky themselves, and then they named it Rose Bowl, because of a lot of winning seasons back in those days. So that was really fun. Well, shoot. So we're getting ready to wrap this up. I want to just make sure that I give you the opportunity to cover some territory. Maybe I didn't ask you about is there something you really need them to understand or know about coming here, or maybe some advice on the process? Yeah, anything. Turn it over to you. 

Bia Bitar  29:21  
I'll repeat it again. But don't be afraid to ask us questions and admissions here. We're here to help you throughout the whole transfer process. We can literally hold your hand throughout the whole thing to help you. So reach out to us. We're going to let you know if there is a pathway here, what is the best option, we can really help you out so you're not too stressed and feeling like you're on your own making those decisions. Another thing too is, I think something I really appreciated being about those just the small class sizes, is something to consider if you like those. We have an average like 30 people a class. 

Evan Franulovich  29:53  
That's really great.

Bia Bitar  29:54  
So if you're not coming here as a freshman, taking 100 level coursework, you're going to be sitting like 30-20 student classes. So a lot of opportunities to interact with those professors, get their connections with them, and having them as references for later is really important. And I appreciated that, and I think that was really nice. 

Evan Franulovich  30:10  
That was really nice. 

Bia Bitar  30:13  
I always recommend, if you like this, class sizes at Seattle Colleges, I think they are around that size... 

Evan Franulovich  30:18  
Even smaller, yeah. 

Bia Bitar  30:20  
...so I think it's something to consider for sure. 

Evan Franulovich  30:23  
And my understanding is that not just Seattle Colleges, but I think a lot of the community colleges, they sometimes share professors with, like UW professors will sometimes do work here and then pick up a class at these other ones. So sometimes, starting in a community college, you're actually getting the same kind of level of education. 

Bia Bitar  30:42  
For sure. 

Evan Franulovich  30:42  
Sometimes I think people think that community colleges are just like, they're not all that great, but they're really great. This level of education is really good. And then you can come here do your last two years and walk away with a UW, exactly, which is pretty, pretty cool. Are you gonna go do your master's degree? Are you doing it here? 

Bia Bitar  31:01  
I am considering a master's degree most likely in social work. So I'm considering some options. There's a couple full time or part time. So lots to consider. If I can do both of work, full time and part time. 

Evan Franulovich  31:15  
It's a lot. 

Bia Bitar  31:15  
It's a lot for graduate school. So considering the options right now.

Evan Franulovich  31:18  
Sure. Well, let's ask about work. Can your international students work on the campus? 

Bia Bitar  31:18  
Yeah, they can as well. If they have a full I-20, they can work on campus. We do have in general, I think 19 hours limits of students can work. 

Evan Franulovich  31:32  
Sure, yeah. 

Bia Bitar  31:33  
But I think a good thing of work on campus is that we do prioritize, you are student first, then worker for us. So if you need time off for studying. You have finals tomorrow. We're gonna let you go. We're not gonna hold that against you. So I think that's always nice. 

Evan Franulovich  31:46  
And what kind of jobs can they maybe find on campus? 

Bia Bitar  31:50  
With the dorms now, we have RAs, which is nice. So you can get discounted rates for housing or something of that sort. 

Evan Franulovich  31:56  
It's a great job. 

Bia Bitar  31:56  
So I think that's a really good it is a lot of work. You do have to do sometimes 24 hours or like overnight on call. So it's definitely work. It's not easy, but it's nice for the discounts. For sure, but the good thing is that we get Seattle rates for all of our positions on campus because we're UW, so that's nice. But a lot of front desks around campus tutoring jobs, so couple of different options. 

Evan Franulovich  32:21  
Yeah, there you go. And can they come to you for help finding on campus work? 

Bia Bitar  32:26  
We have a career center completely there for current students, to help with finding internships, preparing for interviews, looking at your resume, and even up to two to three years after you graduate, they're still there to help you. 

Evan Franulovich  32:41  
That's cool. 

Bia Bitar  32:41  
It's really nice.

Evan Franulovich  32:42  
So yeah, so not only can they help you maybe find something on campus, but then after you graduate, OPT options, you can get help with that.

Bia Bitar  32:50  
And we also have a full international team that helps all international students with their I-20s and all of that, they're fully there for students as well. 

Evan Franulovich  33:00  
How big is your team? 

Bia Bitar  33:01  
I want to say four. I think three to four, I want to say right.

Evan Franulovich  33:05  
And do they split things? Like just, some people just do admissions.

Bia Bitar  33:11  
We do all the admissions on our side, but they do all the visa processing. 

Evan Franulovich  33:15  
Oh sure, yeah. 

Bia Bitar  33:16  
Dealing with all of that for students, and being there for students and all of those issues as well after they get here. 

Evan Franulovich  33:22  
So yeah, talk to them about transferring, get all your visa stuff answered. I mean, there's lots of support. 

Bia Bitar  33:27  
For sure. 

Evan Franulovich  33:28  
Very cool. Well, so great to visit with you. Thanks so much for making time. We've been wanting to have UW on the show for a long time, because everybody asks about it. So it's really great to have you on here. You guys, if you have any questions, they can reach out to you. Do you want to give me your website or email or whatever?

Bia Bitar  33:48  
You can just email us at uwbinfo@uw.edu.

Evan Franulovich  33:59  
Cool. Yeah. And then you can go to that same place, I guess, just to look at their International website?

Bia Bitar  34:04  
It should be there, yeah. That'll be our general admissions email. So if you have any questions, just send it there, and then we'll route you to the right person if you need it. 

Evan Franulovich  34:12  
Very good. And if they happen to be in Seattle as a community college student, maybe at Seattle Colleges, they want to just come take a tour. Do you guys offer tour? 

Bia Bitar  34:21  
We have tours in person every day, Monday through Friday, one at 11 in the morning and then one at 3pm in the afternoon. 

Evan Franulovich  34:27  
Cool. 

Bia Bitar  34:27  
Summertime, they change a little bit. So check on our website, but we always have it every day most of the times. 

Evan Franulovich  34:33  
Who gives the tours? 

Bia Bitar  34:34  
We have student workers that give those tours. So they're current students, unless they're all out studying or midterms or something, then I would cover for them. But most of the time is going to be the student workers during the tour. So it's really nice hearing from a current student as well. I think is it's nice. 

Evan Franulovich  34:49  
Yeah, yeah. Well, set up that tour, guys. If you're here in Seattle already working as a community college student, come check it out. We've got busses, subways. It's easy to get out here. I did it today. I didn't bring my car; I took the bus. So it's super easy. No excuses. And then, yeah, you get all your questions answered. And then, you know, do your junior senior year be a UW Husky graduate. That'd be very cool. Well, thanks again, every Wednesday right here Seattle Colleges 'Conversations with!' Check us out! Also, don't forget to like, subscribe, share with everybody you know. We want to get the word out there about us, about you, about other regional schools, about the transfer process. All right, take care. Have a great week! Bye, bye!

'Conversations with!' is painstakingly crafted for you by the Seattle Colleges International Programs department and supported by the lovely folks here on our campus. This show is produced and edited by me, Evan Franulovich. We welcome your emails and questions about coming to Seattle Colleges. Please reach out to us via our website or just give us a rating and a review on Apple podcasts as this helps others discover the show. Also, don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube at Seattle Colleges Intl, that's Seattle Colleges Intl. And be sure to check out all of the shows here on 'Conversations with!' Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai