Throughout the last few years I have gotten the opportunity to work with transfer students (both lateral transfer students and vertical transfer students) in many different facets of Higher Education. I have seen the transfer student experience through Residence Life, Orientation, Student Involvement and Academic Advising. I have also seen the experience at many different universities. What I have found is that as a whole, many transfer students do not have a great transition experience, which often times leads to transferring again, a poor experience at the university, less involvement in student orgs, and less of a connection to the university. I think that many colleges and universities see transfer students as a hands off easy population. They have already been a new student at another college previously, so as long as we schedule them, send them through a modified orientation (which is usually much shorter than a brand new student), and get them the coveted student ID, that they will fare alright on their own.
I don’t agree with this.
I think transfer students often times get left in the dark. They are coming into a situation where they are brand new, they often times don’t already have a “social clique” to connect with, and that makes transitioning to a new place and new school even more difficult. They need guidance, they need support, and they need opportunities, thats where we come in as Higher Education and Student Affairs practitioners. I know new students are fun, they are fresh, bright eyed and eager, we get so excited about marketing programs and services to them, that we often times over look the transfer students. Below are just a few ideas/recommendations I have for student affairs practitioners, to help transfer students to have the most successful transfer experience they can.
* Please Note: These are simply my recommendations, I do not claim to be an expert. These are simply my perspective.
Recommendations for Meeting Transfer Student Needs (By Department):
Academic Advising: Advisors it is important to realize that transfer student are often more confused, and more “green” than new students make sure you help them understand scheduling(specifically how to schedule), their course content, specific academic university related rules…etc. I have also found that as an advisor to transfer students, that my students e-mail me or contact me for all sorts of questions and issues, including financial aid, health insurance, getting involved…etc. You are usually one of their first contacts at the university, be sure to guide them and send them in the right direction.
Career Services: Transfer Students tend to get confused about how to list multiple schools in their resumes, they often times are also more confused about internships. I have seen it helpful to offer career services presentations specifically designed for transfer students because their questions are often times very different from those of the one instituation student.
Residence Life: Residence Life operates very different from school to school , but from seeing transfer students going through the residence life process I have found that taking extra time and really pairing transfer students with someone of common interests helps in their over all experience. They have someone to talk to, someone to connect with, and an ally in the transfer experience.
Student Involvement/Leadership Development: It’s important to market student orgs and leadership opportunities to transfer students. It is often times harder for these students to make connections on campus, so joining an org or becoming involved in something can really help. Sometimes having a presence at transfer student orientations is enough to help market all the your university has to offer.
There is a lot more I could say on the topic, but to avoid redundancy, I will end by simply saying that transfer students make up nearly 20% of the student population these days, and it is important to make sure that we provide them with enough resources and support to succeed.
Two Videos on “Transfer Student Shock”
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Kristen,
Nice post. I completely agree that we often ignore the need for transition assistance for these students. In addition to acclimating to a new campus, services, and expectations, they are often doing all of this is a much more abbreviated timeline. For example, they don’t have a year or two to prepare for an internship, they need to connect and prepare the minute (if not before) they walk on campus. Thank you for raising questions and offering suggestions of how we might aide these students in their transition to campus.
I completely agree. Working in activities and leadership development in a community college, most of the students I work with transfer, either immediately or within a year or two. I feel so disheartened when I check in with students who were outstanding leaders on my campus and find that they have not gotten involved at their new campus. They spent two or three years creating a sense of leadership self efficacy only to find themselves starting over again and discouraged at the thought of having to re-establish themselves as student leaders. Many would much rather spend that energy on their academic work. I wonder how we as student affairs professionals can partner better to ease the transition experience of our students. I wonder, how many of you who work at the 4-years know your counterparts at your largest sending 2-year institutions? I challenge you to reach out and start brain-storming ways to help students “plug-in” quickly and lessen the learning curve. Do you have transfer student reps on student government? If you run an emerging leaders program, could you have a track for transfer students? If you have an “established” student leader track, do you allow transfer students to enter that track without having to do an emerging track first? Is there a way to delay class officer elections until the Fall so transfer students might have an opportunity to run for office? Are they ways to bring potential transfer students to campus the previous Spring to participate in “club fairs” or a “Meet the Greeks”? Any other ideas/suggestions to facilitate transfer student involvement?
Great tips for transfer students and a good reminder of the special needs of this population!
I also really enjoyed both videos and hearing about the two different models at UCLA and Berkeley!
I found your blog from the SA Blog Directory! I hope you will check out my blog – Diary of a Student Development Professional – and leave a comment at http://www.studentdevelopmentblog.com/2010/08/04/tell-me-about-your-blog/
I look forward to meeting you!
Coordinating transfer orientation was probably one of the most frustrating experiences of my entire career. It used to baffle me that offices on campus would beg and bribe to get a piece of freshman orientation, but you couldn’t get them interested in participating in transfer orientation to save your life.
When I first started working in orientation, the first-year students AND families got really nice resource workbooks – and the transfer students got a one-page schedule. Slowly but surely I was able to get folks on board to create a resource workbook and offer other comparable materials for transfers.
It’s also tough when your institution as a whole gives off the impression that they don’t care about transfers. Whenever they talk about cutting undergraduate enrollment, it’s always the transfers…
Kristen,
Great post! You raise some great points about increased need for professionals to recognize the transfer population. So many times it seems, as you mentioned, there is the shorter orientation for them and that is it.
A counter-point I wanted to raise about that is this. From my experiences working transfer orientation, it seems that a section of that population comes into the experience with a sophomoric attitude, in that they have an sense about them that they’ve been through this before and they don’t need all this information/ orienting. I am with you on the thought that they need more than we give them, but how do we break down that barrier and connect with those students to promote their success and ensure they have the tools they need?
As an academic advisor for “undecided” transfer students, I agree that we don’t offer them nearly as many services as we do for true first-year students. At my institution, transfer students are forced to register themselves for classes much later than anyone else on campus (e.g., first years, continuing students) and frequently have difficulty obtaining courses that they desperately need to be accepted into their major or to explore potential majors. Also, since they have completed work at the post-secondary level already that has been transferred they have lots of questions regarding equivalency that need to be addressed. In terms of better serving this population, though, I am at a loss. Student’s don’t often decide that they are going to transfer until very late in the admissions process which forces the late registration issue. Also, the transfer of a student from a community college to a four-year institution is never an easy transition and students need to be guided regarding policies and procedures. My office offers a “Transfermation” workshop (http://sas.buffalo.edu/workshops/index.php#transition) early on in the semester, but its never well attended. I’m not sure if that is because student’s aren’t aware of it (despite extensive outreach via email, Facebook, etc.) or if they feel as though they don’t need the services. We also offer transfer students the ability to complete their orientation session online, which while more convenient, doesn’t allow them to access the campus directly nor meet in person with their advisor. Online orientation, in my opinion, is a step backwards for transfer students.