Post-transfer Transition Experiences for Engineering Transfer Students

Abstract

Expanding and enhancing transfer pathways may help broaden participation in engineering. However, colleges of engineering have primarily focused their recruitment and retention efforts on students who matriculate directly from high school. Our research increases understanding of the transition experiences for engineering transfer students at 4-year institutions so that programs may better support their unique needs. We explore survey data of over one thousand engineering transfer students across four Texas institutions to identify problems post-transfer and students’ perceptions of their receiving institutions and disaggregate findings by transfer pathway, institutional enrollment policies, Hispanic/Latino status, and first-generation college student status. Cost of attendance, credit transfer, and academic expectations surfaced as top problems for engineering transfer students. Although perceptions of their receiving institutions were generally positive, disaggregated analyses show that transfer students should not be considered as a homogeneous population—subgroups of transfer students face different problems and have different needs.