photo: UNC-W admissions staff
by Joe Vainner, Enrollment Representative, Cleveland State University
One of the persistent challenges facing professionals who work with transfer students is how to provide programming for prospective students with minimal funding. Erica AngaLay, Associate Director of Transfer Admissions at University of North Carolina Wilmington, shared her experiences creating a transfer visit program with a one-hundred dollar budget with members interested in creating a visit program or improving existing programs at their institutions.
Before UNC Wilmington’s current transfer visit program was initiated, daily campus tours focused mostly on the first-year student perspective and major visit days, such as Seahawk Saturday and Seahawk Preview Day, were not open to transfer students. As nearly half of UNC Wilmington’s incoming students were transfers, there was a clear need for programming aimed at them.
AngaLay identified the following as keys to creating a successful program with limited resources:
- Gaining buy-in from stakeholders in Enrollment Management, Admissions, and Transition Programs
- Creating a recognizable brand for transfer programs and services (“Transfer to Teal”)
- Maintaining ownership of the program and its development
She emphasized the importance of sharing successes with stakeholders, without giving them the opportunity to question the program. “Less is more if you’re starting a program like this,” she said, “in order to get buy-in.”
One unique aspect of UNC Wilmington’s transfer visit programming is the Teal Guides, a student organization whose members lead transfer tours. The program is modeled after the existing Student Ambassadors group and ensures that prospective transfer students visiting campus will interact with current students whose experiences mirror their own. Teal Guides include students of various ages, married students, and veterans. The Teal Guides program has grown from three guides to fourteen in four years. “This is not a paid position,” said AngaLay, “but if you treat it as though it is, they respect it that way.”
As attendance at Transfer to Teal Friday visits has increased, AngaLay has been able to demonstrate a need for transfer students to be included in all of the university’s visit programs. Transfer students are now invited to major visit days, regular Saturday tours include more content relevant to transfer students, and front desk workers and first-year counselors are being cross-trained on transfer admissions.