July 30, 2008

Transfer Students Make Up Almost 20% of 4-Year Colleges' Enrollments, Report Says

Nearly one out of five students who enrolled for the first time at a four-year college in 2003-4 were transfer students, according to a report issued today by the U.S. Education Department’s statistical arm, the National Center for Education Statistics.

The report, “Descriptive Summary of 2003-04 Beginning Postsecondary Students: Three Years Later,” covers a range of characteristics of those students from the year they first enrolled until 2006. As a result of that short, three-year window, the report does not contain data on their graduation rates or other evidence of their educational outcome. The report also notes that about one-fourth of the students earned college credit while in high school. —Andrew Mytelka

Comments

1. One would hope that this information would lead to a revision of how universities are held accountable for graduation rates. It’s about time legislators realize that counting only first-time freshmen who graduate from a single institution within six years is a system that doesn’t represent the actual way that students move through their academic careers.

   — Robin    Jul 30, 05:21 PM    #

2. It seems that everyone in higher education already knows this, and it’s just IPEDS, USDOE, NCES and their friends who haven’t yet figured this out. “Swirling” is the word that best describes the typical pattern of students’ progress through postsecondary education. And for students enrolled in online baccalaureate programs, the student who has attended fewer than two colleges is rare indeed.

   — Betty Stevens    Jul 30, 05:33 PM    #

3. I attended a university that allows only 9 semesters of enrollment to earn a degree, including transfer students. If more universities moved toward this policy then n the plethora of students floating around this and that major for up to 9 years to earn a single Bachelors degree would end.

   For many students, including those who come to the USA from other countries, a 2-year college is the best route for them financially, and to some extent to enhance their preparation to pursue higher education.

   State supported institutions are wasting tax payers hard earned money by allowing students to spend 9 years completing one single degree. High school students in public supported school systems aren’t allowed to do that, so when then are the students a publicly supported universities?

   — JR    Jul 30, 07:04 PM    #

4. In quite a few cases, going to more than one college is not so bad… we have to look beyond statistics to why students change.
   For me, I earned my bachelors with transcripts from seven universities and colleges because I was active duty serving on a nuclear submarine under the depths of the Pacific Ocean.
   Florida Central College in Kissimmee while I was in Nuclear Power School; Leeward Community College in Pearl City, Hawaii; Hawaii Pacific College at Hickam AFB; University of Hawaii at Manoa classes at Pearl Harbor; Excelsior College in New York; the University of Georgia in Athens where I went for a year before joining the Navy; and the University of South Carolina where I earned the BS degree.
   And now we can add an M.Ed. from Penn State and damn near a doctorate from there too!
   There’s nothing wrong with taking lots of classes all over. I always knew I would get a degree in finance and I did and I had took classes that matched the schedule of a guy that was under the Pacific Ocean most of the time. I had a few extra credits, but some of the Navy Schools like the Nuclear Power ones that ACE recommended don’t really count towards a degree in finance… maybe nuclear engineering.(HaHa)
   So let’s remember look beyond the numbers and look at why. Often it makes a lot of sense.
   Thanks,

   Paul

   — Paul Rutter    Jul 30, 07:50 PM    #

5. Good point Paul, thank you for sharing.

   — Kyle David    Jul 30, 08:28 PM    #

6. To # 4,

   Paul, your case is justified by working on a Bachelors degree while at the same time being on active military duty. I was writing about the plethora of American kids who matriculate in college, then drink their way through the next 9 years all the while floating from one department to the next in search of a degree. Over the years, I’ve taught a number of students with your background, as well as members of the other group. People like you don’t whine. You guys just do your work and move on to the next course. The drifters drop one major and pursue another at the thought of receiving less than an A, albeit, the level of work just didn’t support day dreaming.

   — JR    Jul 31, 07:28 AM    #

7. The transfer system has it challenges. CC advisors aren’t always up front about transfer credits, so students need to vigilant in researching transfer agreements. Sometimes it seems like advisors are more concerned with driving enrollment to under enrolled courses and less concerned with whether or not students are following transfer guidelines.

   — Sann    Jul 31, 08:32 AM    #

8. I got my bachelor’s after transferring from college to college (to college to college) over seven years (plus a little bit of time dropped out of college), mainly because I was way too immature to deal with it all. Eventually I grew up, got my bachelor’s, and earned a PhD from a top, if not the top, program in my field, and I’m happily ensconced in the faculty ranks.

   Just wanted to point out that even the immature students may end up straightening up—and so I’d say the fewer barriers placed in the way of their growing up and becoming successful, the better.

   — Former slacker    Jul 31, 10:32 AM    #

9. I agree with Former slacker.

   Everyone’s life story doesn’t fall into the same category and we would be excluding a lot of students who would eventually get their degree if we try and fit everyone into that 9 semester pattern.

   Maybe someone would have a child and drop out for a few years or travel…nothing wrong with that. You don’t need to be active duty or drinking to have a life where college in 9 semesters just doesn’t fit.

   — NYMOM    Jul 31, 11:29 AM    #

10. As a former director of student affairs at an international university, I conducted a case study that identifies why first year feshmen transfer to another university:
    a) Due to health reasons
    b) Due to personal reasons
    c) Due to financial reasons

    — Doris Martin    Aug 4, 11:05 AM    #

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