While there has been a growing amount of research on the success of transfer students, there has been little focus on transfer student choice and other decision-making factors. In the latest C&U, authors Casey Lukszo and Shannon Hayes discuss a case study that seeks to identify and compare factors in the decision process between between students transferring from two-year to four-year institutions and from four-year to four-year institutions.
Their study included interviews with 24 transfer students at a public, state university as well as observations of pre-transfer advising meetings at the state university and a review of state university documents.
“While the community college students shared many of the same challenges as students who began their education at a four-year institution, findings suggest that the decision-making process and the overall transfer process differ greatly among these two populations,” Lukszo and Hayes wrote in their article.
Differences were found in transfer planning, transfer credit earned, and support systems. The authors offer several recommendations for institutions hoping to better serve their transfer student population, including: understand your transfer populations; provide access to accurate information on transfer credit databases, transfer student resources and support services, and scholarships; and ensure online information is updated and accurate.
“[C]olleges and universities must become more aware of transfer students’ needs not only to recruit but also to retain them and help them succeed,” Lukszo and Hayes write.
Other articles in this issue include:
Features
Graduate Enrollment Considerations: Informing Practice and Research by Jeannine Kranzow
Looking Back, Looking Ahead: How Working on a Team Helped Us Each to Grow a Conversation with Sharon Cramer and Connie Cooke
Commentary
Three Years and Counting: Lessons from a Newbie to a Newbie by Joseph Wolk
TES-in the Waters by Amber Andrade
Research in Brief
Diploma Mills and Counterfeit Operations, Part 1 by Allen Ezell
Effects of Residency Determination Services on the Applications from Two Rural High Schools by Andrew Johnson
Campus Viewpoint
The Next Generation of One-Stop Student Service Centers: Part 2 by Francisco Maldonado Altieri
Critical Languages and College Choice by Hannah Schulz, Alexander Taylor, and Rodney Parks
Graduating in spite of us? Identifying and reducing friction points for students by Tammy Aagard and Shelley Dodd