Many community college students want to transfer to four-year colleges and universities, yet research indicates that only 22 percent successfully make this transition (McCormick & Carroll, 1997). Research also shows that students who begin at community colleges are less likely to receive a bachelor's degree, when compared to students who begin their academic career at a four-year institution (Dougherty, 1992; Pascarella & associates, 1998; Pincus & Archer, 1989; Velez, 1985). For many transfer students, the path to obtaining a bachelor's degree is long and challenging. There are many explanations for why this is, and perhaps a better understanding can lead to the development of better support programs aimed to increase degree completion rates among transfer students at four-year institutions. In this article, I will explore who transfer students are, consider some of their challenges, and discuss the kind of support programming needed to enable them to crack the code and succeed at four-year institutions.
Characteristics of Transfer Students
Before administrators at four-year institutions can begin to develop support programs that better address the needs of transfer students, they must consider two important issues. First, they must determine the characteristics of the transfer students attending their institutions. Next, they must examine the challenges that these students encounter upon entering a four-year institution. Fredrickson's (1998) study of over 4,700 students who transferred from traditional, occupational, or technical/vocational programs found that typical transfer students were twenty-six years of age, were female, and held part-time jobs. Similarly, the median age for transfer students was twenty-five in a report from a national survey conducted by the Center for the Study of Community Colleges (Cohen & Brawer, 1996). These findings are consistent with most of the research on transfer student demographics.
Transfer students often come from ethnically diverse backgrounds. According to Phillippe and Patton's (1999) report to the American Association of Community Colleges, 48 percent of transfer students entering the community college for the first time were racial and ethnic minorities. Other research indicates that 42 percent of all African-American college students, 56 percent of all Hispanic college students, 41 percent of all Asian/Pacific Islander college students, and 54 percent of all Native American college students attend a community college (Hendley, 1997). These statistics may lead one to conclude that many minority students either prefer the community college setting or are forced to begin their academic careers at a community college. Additional research suggests that minority students often have a more difficult time making the transition from a two-year to a four-year institution. I noted earlier that transfer students are less likely to receive a bachelor's degree, but this statement is especially true among African-American and Hispanic students (Dougherty, 1992; Pascarella & associates, 1998; Pincus & Archer, 1989; Velez, 1985). Additionally, low-income and non-Asian minority students have lower transfer and program completion rates, when compared to their white counterparts from families with higher incomes (Bender, 1991; Brint & Karabel, 1989; Cohen, 1988; Richardson & Skinner, 1992).
Challenges Affecting Transfer Students at a Four-Year Institution
To develop successful support programs, administrators at four-year institutions must first look at the challenges encountered by their transfer students. Lack of financial resources is one of the many challenges that transfer students at four-year institutions experience (McDonough, 1997). Over the last couple of years, the cost of education has increased across the board. Adding insult to injury is the fact that fewer grant dollars are being awarded, and federal student loan debts are increasing. Due to these economic pressures, transfer students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are often forced to ask themselves whether or not a four-year degree is worth the financial debt load. Financial considerations may be especially relevant for transfer students who have already entered the workforce.
Another challenge among transfer students is the articulation of their community college courses to a four-year institution. Nearly 50 percent of transfer students come from technical programs at community colleges (Eggleston & Laanan, 2001). Often, the transferability of technical course credit is inconsistent between two-year and four-year institutions (Keener, 1994). As the number of transfer students seeking admission into four-year institutions increases, chances are that we will also see a rise in the number of transfer students faced with articulation issues once they reach a four-year campus.
At a personal level, the transition to a four-year institution is often very difficult for many transfer students. Many times, during the first or second semester at the four-year institution, students experience a decline in their grade point average, commonly referred to as transfer shock phenomenon (Knoell & Medsker, 1965; Cejda & Kaylor, 1997). Their perceptions of university faculty may also make the transition more difficult. Although it was noted that many faculty members made themselves available outside of the classroom, many transfer students held negative perceptions of university faculty because they felt that they were not trying to help them understand the materials presented in class. Townscend (1995) found that university faculty sometimes encouraged a Darwinian attitude of “survival of the fittest” toward community college students.
Current Programs Aimed at Increasing Transfer Student Rates
In 1985, Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, developed the Exploring Transfer (ET) program. This program was an attempt to increase the persistence and matriculation rates of transfer students from LaGuardia Community College (Eggleston & Laanan, 2001). Other community colleges have subsequently been added to Vassar's program. In the beginning, twenty-seven students were housed at Vassar College and completed two Vassar courses the summer before they matriculated (Chenoweth, 1998). As a result, students were able to experience college life along with the academic demands of senior college courses prior to enrollment at Vassar. A decade later, an evaluation of the success of the program determined that persistence and matriculation rates of transfer students were definitely on the rise. Two hundred and fifty-five (64 percent) of the 399 students who participated and completed the program (191 from LaGuardia Community College) transferred to four-year institutions (Chenoweth, 1998). Of those 250 participants, 97 students earned bachelor's degrees, 33 went on to graduate school, with 21 students earning graduate degrees.
Since national standards do not exist on articulation agreements, these agreements can range from a simple cooperation statement between neighboring schools to a complex set of documents on everything from exact course content to class catalog number (Hendley, 1997). Greenfield Community College's engineering sciences program is a large feeder to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. To assist students interested in transferring, Greenfield Community College tailors its engineering sciences course offerings to the first two years of requirements at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Most of their liberal arts courses, along with some engineering courses, are transferable. Representatives from Greenfield and other state community colleges meet annually at the Amherst campus to discuss curriculum changes and updates. Students who complete an associate's degree at a Massachusetts community college and have obtained a grade-point average specified by the university can skip over the normal transfer process and enter any of the state's four-year schools directly by completing an “Intent to Enroll” form.
Conclusions
Transfer students are usually a diverse group of students with a diverse set of needs. To meet the challenges that many of these students face once they reach the four-year institution, administrators need to try to devise support programs that specifically meet the needs of their transfer students. In doing so, they will first need to determine the characteristics of transfer students entering their institution, and then they will need to look at the challenges that these students face. While this may seem simple, it requires administrators to take a proactive and individualistic approach to solving the problem. The following guidelines for administrators may help to increase degree completion rates and overall positive experiences for transfer students at four-year institutions:
- Establish clear articulation agreements. Look at what is currently being done in your state, and determine what will need to be done to make the articulation of community colleges courses easier for transfer students.
- Conduct an in-depth transfer student orientation. Make sure transfer students tour campus and become familiar with important campus offices.
- Encourage more interaction between academic advisers and transfer students. Develop new innovative programming that will support this initiative, and bring these two groups together. For example, advisers may want to consider group advising because it may help many transfer students feel that they are not alone.
- Foster more positive relationships among academic advisers and administration. Many advisers are aware of the issues that their students encounter, yet they do not feel comfortable making administrators aware of the issues.