Enhancing Transfer Student Success: The Transfer Seminar

Abstract

Transfer students arguably constitute the largest and most diverse subpopulation of college students today, and it is growing, especially in light of the national economy, rising student loan debt, and significant grant funding being channeled to community colleges, whose students constitute the majority of transfer students (Grites and Duncan, 2012). The issues that confront these students are multi-dimensional, yet often go unnoticed at the receiving institution.1 No matter where the student attended previously, the new institution will most likely have different policies, academic standards, faculty expectations, advising systems, peer groups, and even vocabulary, leaving the transfer student uninformed, uninvolved, and adrift if they are not addressed. Assumptions made by both the students and the receiving institutions as to how these new students should be acclimated contribute to the lack of a systematic orientation that would enhance a successful transition and contribute to a better higher education experience.