Building a Better Transfer Community: Improving Engagement and Advising of Prospective Transfer Students

The College of Engineering at NC State has consistently admitted 200-300 transfer students each academic year over the past decade. These students ultimately make up about one quarter of the graduating class in the College of Engineering each year. During this time, annual reports from the College of Engineering regularly reported that approximately 50% of engineering transfer students transferred from one of the 58 institutions in the North Carolina Community College (NC CC) system. This data was extracted from the Office of Admissions database, which reports only the last institution attended, as listed by the transfer applicant. Over the summer/fall 2013 (n=259) and summer/fall 2014 (n=293) transfer cohorts, we collected data on all institutions attended by admitted transfers students and learned that 70% of transfer students each year have previously enrolled at a NC CC. Yet, very few resources were devoted specifically to educating and recruiting prospective transfer students from NC CC’s. Instead, students and advisors have historically relied almost entirely on information provided on the NC State website. On these websites, transfer requirements and engineering curricula are provided along with a NC CC equivalency worksheet to assist with course selection prior to transfer. The College of Engineering has been the beneficiary of strong 3+2 dual degree and 2+2 partnerships (TPT’s) with institutions like Elon University, Meredith College and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Students transferring from these institutions are provided high-quality advising and enjoy a high acceptance rate due to the strong communication pathways between the College of Engineering and the pre-engineering advisors at these partner institutions. The students at the local North Carolina Community College, Wake Technical Community College, also benefit from accurate, high-quality advising due in large part to the diligence of their pre-engineering advisor who is able to attend advising meetings and stay in regular contact with Engineering Academic Affairs. Inspired by the success of these strong relationships with our TPT partners and motivated by NC State’s strategic plan to expand the proportion of transfer students, the College of Engineering teamed with the College of Education at NC State. We established initiatives aimed directly at NC CC’s and their communities: 1) to disseminate accurate information regarding engineering at NC State and 2) to develop a valuable network of higher education institutions in North Carolina. In addition to promoting the transfer of high quality students into engineering at NC State, our goal was to improve their retention and performance. In this paper, we detail the strategies we employed to achieve these goals, including programming and publications created by the College of Engineering, targeted solely to NC CC students and advisors. We describe key components of the efforts, share feedback from our NC CC colleagues and transfer students, and discuss best practices for other institutions seeking to create or strengthen their ties with community colleges. Background and motivation Page 26296.2 American students are more and more utilizing the community college system as a stepping stone to access four-year institutions. While students seeking a variety of bachelor’s degrees begin at community college, the pathway has become a particularly viable means for students pursuing STEM degrees. In fact, a 2005 study estimated that 20% of engineering degree holders began their academic careers with at least 10 credit hours from community college. Mattis and Sislin delved deeper into this statistic, estimating that 40% of graduates of bachelor’s and master’s engineering programs across 1999 and 2000 had attended a community college at some point in their careers. Moreover, the NSF reports that more than half of all awardees of bachelor’s degrees in science, engineering, and health from 2001-2007 had enrolled at a community college along the way. Over the past decade, annual reports from the College of Engineering at NC State have been consistent with these national data, regularly reporting that approximately 50% of engineering transfer students transferred from one of the 58 institutions in the North Carolina Community College (NC CC) system. This data was extracted from the NC State Office of Admissions database. Limitations existed, however, as the access offered to the College of Engineering (COE) restricted queries to reporting only the last institution a student attended, as listed by the applicant. In an effort to more fully understand the composition of College of Engineering transfer students, we conducted an investigation of the summer/fall 2013 (n=259) and summer/fall 2014 (n=293) transfer cohorts. Upon matriculation, we recorded all institutions attended by transfers students, on an individual admissions file basis, and learned that 71% of transfer students in 2013 and 64% of transfer students in 2014 had previously enrolled at a NC CC. We found that transfer students would often enroll at NC State as a non-degree studies (NDS) student during the semester immediately prior to transferring. As such, students would list their most recent institution as NC State. Therefore, in admissions database queries, these students would be designated as transfers from a four-year institution. Given that transfer students typically make up approximately one quarter of the graduating class in COE each year, a significant portion of NC CC transfers were being overlooked in annual report data, and consequently, in services and programming. Students choose the community college pathway for a number of reasons. For students unsure of their academic goals, starting at community college offers the opportunity to explore various fields without incurring significant debt. Those who are quite sure that they plan to seek an engineering degree may fear the “cost bubble” due to reports on nightly news or online media. While engineering degrees are not often associated with not justifying their cost in lifelong earning analyses, community college tuition still offers significant savings. Table 1 shows tuition rates for NC State and NC CC’s for the 2014-2015 academic year. Several engineering programs charge engineering student fees as high as $5,000. While still considered a reasonable rate, NC State has recently requested an increase in the engineering student fee from $90 in 2014 to $500 in 2015 and ultimately to $1,000 in 2016. Depending on engineering major, freshman and sophomore classes may be taken at a community college at a reduced cost with no engineering student fee and little to no effect on overall time toward degree.