Megan Scott, Harford Community College
Harford Community College (HCC) Advising, Career, and Transfer Services Department has undergone changes to transfer programming offered to students. In alignment with community college research data and advising literature, the department added several group workshops and increased the presence of transfer admissions representatives on campus to assist students in building transfer student capital and successfully preparing for transfer. The advising literature and data show that academic advisors from community colleges are important in helping students successfully prepare for transfer.
What is the Problem?
Data from the Community College Research Center (Velsco et al., 2024) shows us that one third of community college students are transferring to a four-year institution despite survey data that indicates 80% of community college students aspire to earn a bachelor’s degree upon entrance of the community college. Exploring the one-third successful transfer population, fewer than half of these students go on to earn a bachelor’s degree within six years of entering community college. Looking specifically at the State of Maryland where HCC is located, community college research data shows that Maryland community college students that are considered low-income of all genders are completing their bachelor’s degree at a 9% rate which is below the U.S. average. The population is lower than the U.S. average in all four areas of the transfer outcomes data: transfer-out rate, transfer-with-award rate, transfer-out bachelor’s completion rate, and the cohort bachelor’s completion rate (Velasco et al, 2024). The data shows that a majority of community college students are not successful in meeting their transfer goals at the community college level. The students that are successful with transfer are not meeting their goal of completion of a bachelor’s degree. Looking at the U.S. and Maryland data, along with talking with students that attend HCC, it became evident that something needed to be done, and the transfer programming and planning services that were offered by HCC Advising, Career, and Transfer Services were not meeting the changing needs of the students. The need to look at advising literature to determine best practices in transfer programming and planning arose.
What Can Help Students Succeed in Transfer?
Advising literature and resources from NACADA unearthed a new concept called transfer student capital (TSC). TSC is defined as “knowledge that students accumulate and use to navigate the transfer process” (Hayes et al., 2020, p. 49). TSC can be thought of as all of the ways that students come to learn about the transfer process and explore their options. Community college advisors play a significant role in providing students with opportunities to build transfer student capital. In a study conducted by Wang et al. (2017), TSC was defined as “support students had for transferring, usage of multiple types of transfer services, transfer-oriented interactions with friends and family, and acquisition of transfer information through online and print materials” (p. 314). Most of the areas identified in this study can be touched on by services offered by community college advising; Wang et al. (2017) found that another key topic in advising literature called aspirational momentum is a key precursor to transfer student access and that quality of transfer services at the community college level was the only factor that was statistically significant in increasing aspirational momentum (p. 314).
Additional research conducted by Lazarowicz and McGill (2022) confirmed that advising plays an important role in the development of TSC and student success beyond the community college. Lazarowicz and McGill (2022) made recommendations for helping students build TSC: “community colleges should enhance their support services to provide students with a seamless transition” and “students who feel advisor concern and know where to find resources are more likely to succeed in their new academic environment” (p. 43). TSC is an important resource to help students understand their academic ability and keep up the momentum for goal attainment. HCC used the concepts and literature of TSC to evaluate the transfer programming resources and develop intentional TSC building events.
Transfer Education Programming at HCC
Before Fall 2022, HCC offered a transfer fair once a semester and also invited transfer admissions representatives from transfer partners to table in the student center. The transfer fair was an event that was well attended. The advising team surveyed students asking if they felt that after attending the transfer fair, they knew the requirements needed to transfer. Most students did not feel that they knew everything they needed for transfer. Students with more questions were referred to the transfer admissions representative table event. After working with students and analyzing the state data and advising literature, several new programs were offered at HCC to build TSC.
The first program that was started was a Prepare for the Transfer Fair workshop that was offered one week prior to the transfer fair. The event covered what a transfer fair is and provided participants with a list of questions that they could ask the admissions representatives at the transfer fair. This event is offered as a group advising session and open to students in all majors and student statuses. In addition to this event, a need for group advising curriculum for transfer became apparent. The next program that was designed was a transfer preparation workshop. This workshop defines associate degree, bachelor’s degree, and other key transfer terms like articulation agreement and transfer partnership. An overview of the partnerships is discussed along with an example of how to read articulation agreements. This is provided to new students digitally at orientation and is offered throughout the semester. These events focus on building general TSC and how to read print and online materials from transfer institutions.
In addition to workshops, HCC enhanced the visits from transfer admissions representatives. The visits now include an information session on the school and application assistance days. The schools come more frequently throughout the semester and rotate between information sessions, tabling in the student center and offering application assistance days. These events build TSC specific to the institutions that the student is targeting. The student can meet someone from the new school and learn about the specific requirements for that school all while being supported by HCC advisors.
The transfer fair is still offered once a semester but students now are provided with a list of schools prior to the event along with the list of questions that is also offered in the Prepare for the Transfer Fair workshop and a worksheet where students can take notes on schools of interest noting things like tuition, scholarship opportunities, and if their major and minor choices are offered. The new format of the transfer fair has received positive feedback from students. This helps students that may not have been in attendance of the workshops gain TSC in an informal way.
The final way HCC is working on enhancing pre-transfer advising through developing TSC is having academic advisors attend information sessions offered by popular transfer schools. For example, the advisor that works with the engineering students attends the popular transfer school open houses for engineering to gain up-to-date information to better advise students during transfer planning sessions. Advisors that attend the open house sessions then bring the information back to the entire team and present new changes and information so all advisors have access to best advise students interested in transferring.
Future Direction
HCC has seen success in students attending events and starting the transfer planning process early. HCC Advising, Career, and Transfer Services is committed to building transfer student capital through group advising sessions and increasing the presence of the transfer partners on campus. The future direction of transfer planning for community colleges should be on building TSC through various formats so all students have access to resources and workshops to properly prepare them for the next steps. Future direction for HCC is focused on finding new ways to offer the workshops and increase the number of schools offering on-campus information sessions to allow for more diversity in transfer schools on campus. Beginning in Fall 2024, HCC is hoping to partner with other campus offices including My College Success Network and Student Life to offer a Road Scholars Program where HCC brings students on a field trip to tour local transfer partners to allow students to gain TSC on the new college campus and increase student comfort in the new environment.
References
Hayes, S., Lindeman, L., & Lukszo, C. (2020). The role of academic advisors in the development of transfer student capital. NACADA Journal, 40(1), 49–63. https://doi.org/10.12930/nacada-18-35
Lazarowicz, T., & McGill, C. M. (2022). Agents of support for community college transfer students: A qualitative study. NACADA Journal, 42(1), 35–52. https://doi.org/10.12930/nacada-20-34
Velasco, T., Fink, J., Bedoya, M., & Jenkins , D. (2024, February 7). Tracking transfer: Community college and four-year institutional effectiveness in broadening bachelor’s degree attainment. Community College Research Center. https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/publications/Tracking-Transfer-Community-College-and-Four-Year-Institutional-Effectiveness-in-Broadening-Bachelors-Degree-Attainment.html
Wang, X., Lee, S. Y., & Prevost, A. (2017). The role of aspirational experiences and behaviors in cultivating momentum for transfer access in STEM: Variations across gender and Race. Community College Review, 45(4), 311–330. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091552117724511
