Addressing Transfer Student Concerns

More than half of college students (64%) in the U.S. will transfer at some point in their college careers (Tobolowsky & Bers, 2019). Even though many students choose to start their college careers at community colleges, transfer students remain an undeserved student population (Cox, 2016). Many students enter community college with the intention of transferring to achieve a four-year degree; however, few complete this transition successfully (Cox, 2016: Marling, 2013). Community college transfer students are less likely to earn a bachelor’s degree, “while 81% of community college students intend to transfer, only 33% do within 6 years” (Jabbar, Sánchez, & Epstein, 2017 p.772). However, why so many community college students do not successfully transfer to four-year institutions is unclear.

This phenomenon calls for a review of the often-complex transfer process and the factors that influence institutional choice. Transfer students are a diverse student population consisting of multiple identity groups (Topolosky & Cox, 2012). Unlike other student populations, transfer students may only share the characteristic of prior college experience. What is concerning for one transfer student may be of little consequence for another. Thus, this study will focus on three broad themes identified from the literature, while recognizing that this study may not be generalization to all transfer students. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the broad themes and the percent of transfer students who enrolled in Fall 2019 at a given public university in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Background and Literature Review

There are three themes that emerged within the literature surrounding transfer student intuitional choice. The themes are as follows: price of tuition, credit transferability, and locality of the four-year institution. The cited influence on transfer student institutional choice is the price of tuition (Cox, 2016; Dowd, Cheslock & Melguizo, 2008; Herrera & Jain, 2013; Jabbar et al., 2017; Tobolowsky & Cox, 2012; Wintre & Morgan, 2009). More than 50% of transfer students come to the four-year by way of the community college (Marling, 2013). Many students chose to attend the community college for financial reasons (Patten, 2017). The same financial concerns that lead students to the community college, also affect their four-year institutional choice. The price of tuition at a four-year institution is, on average, three times the price of tuition at the community college (Patton, 2017). These financial concerns are compounded by the fact that many community college students are hesitant to take out loans (Lasota & Zumeta, 2016).

The second theme found in the literature is transferability of prior academic credit. Students want to know if their credits will transfer to the new institution before they transfer (Lang, 2019; Lasota & Zumeta, 2016, Patton, 2017; Talarico, 2018; Tobolowsky & Bers, 2019; Tobolowsky, & Cox, 2012; Wintre & Morgan, 2009). Finding out if college credit will transfer can be a stressful and confusing process, “only 47 percent of community college students are confident that the majority of their credits will transfer with them” (Talarico, 2018 p.3).

Publicizing state level articulation agreements and common numbering systems can help attract transfer students and aid in finding transfer options (LaSota & Zumeta, 2016). Moreover, colleges and universities who fail to convey transferability, may lose prospective students (Patton, 2017). Universities must convey at least a general sense of credit transferability to build a transfer affirming environment (Talarico, 2018). However, it is important to note that not all students take a pragmatic approach to selecting a transfer institution and some do not consider credit transferability before applying (Tobolowsky & Bers, 2019).

Finally, the third theme is the student’s willingness to travel far from home. Many transfer students consider the proximity to home or family when selecting an institution (Marling, 2013. Jabbar et al., 2017; Tobolowsky, & Bers, 2019; Wintre & Morgan, 2009). The need to be close to family may add more pressure on the student when choosing the four-year institution (Jabbar et al., 2017).

Transfer student’s unwillingness to travel may have to do with unique traits associated with transfer students as a student population. Transfer students are often older with familial or work-related responsibilities which can limit their ability to move for...