How can you streamline the transfer process for students?

One of the first questions TRs are looking for is what will or how much will transfer in from their previous college experience. Simultaneously, it is likely, they are trying to learn what degree they can complete the quickest with the collective college credit. Providing a heightened service to connect the dots is crucial to the TR starting at your institution. Providing informed unofficial transcript evaluations to start mapping their road to your institution will start demonstrating the potential of starting at your college. This conversation also helps develop trust and provides a plan to complete their educational goals. Never under estimate the power of one-to-one communication to help a student find their way.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of assembling an internal group of stakeholders dedicated to supporting transfer students’ experiences. In addition to ensuring that every service you originally built for first-year students is now redesigned to align with transfers—housing, student life, counseling and orientation—you have a new set of transfer circumstances for which to create policies and practices—chiefly in admissions, advising, and registrar, but maybe also in financial aid, bursar, child care, and student employment. An efficient steering group with registrar, admissions, advising, and at least one transfer-friendly member of the faculty is a good start, along with a senior champion.

There is a wealth of data and feedback, but are we listening to it and is it good data? To streamline the process and assist transfer students (and any students), we must use both hard and soft data to inform decisions. They are not mutually exclusive. First: Use hard data to build a foundation of understanding of the market (US Census, enrollment trends at surrounding community colleges, etc.). Second: When conducting outreach, soft data (feedback, surveys, etc.) builds upon this and guides the strategy in meaningful ways and guides us back to the mission. However, be careful when assessing the data, because when something seems off, most likely we are missing a piece of data, which has now skewed the results.

There are many factors to consider regarding a smooth transfer experience. First, solid articulation agreements are crucial - including standing agreements with the majority of feeder schools and a point person(s) to be on standby to create new ones. Second, make sure that if articulation agreements only apply to transfer students earning associate's degrees that there is a defined course mapping for transfer students from those schools not holding associate's degrees. Third, make sure that there is clear communication regarding residential expectations for transfer students. Some transfer students want to live on campus while others prefer to commute. Some colleges are prepared for upper division residential students while others aren't.