The Transfer Dilemma
Community colleges have always been
good stepping stones to four-year colleges. But despite a number of programs
that promise admission to four-year
schools upon completion of a two-year associate program, many transfer
students fail to meet the standards for a
baccalaureate degree.
A National Center for Education Statistics report found that of first-time,
public two-year college students in
2003–04 who transferred to a four-year
college, only 29 percent attained a bachelor’s degree. An additional 15 percent
(right) Students at Portland Community
College in Oregon access registration
services.
transferred and enrolled in a four-year
college, but had yet to earn a degree.
As pressure mounts to boost the
nation’s college completion rate,
community colleges must increase
the number of students who complete
two-year associate programs en route
to a four-year degree.
Though several potential roadblocks
—a lack of communication between institutions, cost, and a long-standing bureaucratic morass, to name a few—continue
to make transfer difficult, many colleges
are addressing these challenges through
stronger counseling services, smoother
credit-transfer agreements, and clearer
pathways to programs of study.
Access to Information
At Holyoke Community College (HCC)
in Massachusetts, transfer is part of
students’ DNA. Some 45 percent of
students who enroll in HCC eventually
transfer to one of the state’s institutions
of higher education—not an easy decision, considering there are nearly 100 to
choose from.
“Transfer is ingrained here, from the
president on down,” says Mark Broad-
bent, coordinator of transfer affairs
at HCC. “Our faculty is always asking
students where they want to go next.”
Every HCC student has a faculty
adviser, and Broadbent discusses the
transfer process in new-student orienta-
tions and workshops. In addition to state
school agreements, HCC also has joint
admission programs with local private
colleges that guarantee acceptance
(dependent on GPA). And the college
maintains comprehensive lists of
scholarships and financial-aid forms for
students as they navigate the process.
Though transfer is a big part of the
culture at HCC, that’s not the case everywhere. At Tarrant County College (TCC)
in Texas, some 50,000 students likely
never considered earning a four-year
degree before enrolling at TCC, and
many who did enroll did so unaware of
their transfer options.
To reverse this trend, administrators
launched a transition-to-college course
that aims to help students move higher
