Community College Transfer Students Research Articles

“That Sounds like Something Geniuses Do”: Exploring How Vertical Transfer Computing Students Conceptualize PhD Pathways

There are currently too few computer science faculty to meet student demand, and faculty from historically minoritized groups are severely underrepresented. Expanding pathways from community colleges to PhDs is one critical avenue to both grow and diversify the computer science professoriate that has been underexplored. To gain insight into these pathways, this phenomenological study utilizes interviews with community college transfer students in computer science to examine how they conceptualize PhD study as part of their academic trajectories. Findings highlight experiences (e.g., serving as a tutor) that promote early interest in PhDs among this diverse and talented group of students.

Choice, Information Inequity, and the Production, Legitimation, and Reduction of Educational Inequality

Background: Choice is a key part of the culture of the United States. Americans believe deeply in the personal and social usefulness of being able to make many choices. Hence, all sorts of efforts have been made to increase students’ options, whether by creating many different kinds of schools and colleges, offering a great array of majors and degree programs, or allowing multiple modes of attending higher education. However, this proliferation of choices reproduces social inequality in two crucial ways. First, the provision of many options produces social inequality: people often make choices that do not serve their interests as well as they might wish, particularly if they are faced with many options and do not have adequate information. Second, the provision of many choices legitimates social inequality: the more one thinks in terms of choices in the context of a highly individualistic culture such as that of the United States, the easier it is for dominant groups to blame nondominants as creating their own troubles through feckless choices. Purpose: This paper focuses on one particularly important realm of choice—higher education—because it has come to play a central role in the transmission and legitimation of social inequality. Four higher education choices are of particular interest: whether to enter higher education, which college to attend, what major to choose, and what modality to attend college (for example, part time versus full time or in person versus online). Analyzing this choice-making process, the paper focuses on the impact of inequitable access to high-quality information. Beyond analyzing how choice proliferation and information inequity join to produce and legitimate educational inequality, the paper lays out detailed recommendations for what can be done to reduce this inegalitarian impact. Research Design: The paper draws on a wide variety of social science literatures including sociology of education, critical race theory, behavioral economics, and cognitive and social psychology. More particularly, the paper synthesizes sociology of education research inspired by Pierre Bourdieu and work drawing on critical race theory. Although there are major tensions between these two bodies of work, they can be fruitfully combined to both illuminate and overcome the ways information inequity produces and legitimates educational inequality. Recommendations: To reduce the role of information inequity in producing and legitimating educational inequality, the paper recommends four strands of change. One strand involves providing high-quality information more equitably through restructured and much more pervasive school counseling and other forms of information provision during middle school, high school, and higher education. A crucial component of this more equitable information provision is drawing on the community cultural wealth of nondominant communities. Second, it is important to design an “architecture of choice” that simplifies choice making and nudges students toward better choices by such means as simplifying the financial aid process, improving credit articulation for community college transfer students, and building guided pathways through college. A third strand involves reducing the harms of suboptimal choices by creating the means to monitor student progress and intervene when students might or actually do go off course. Finally, because suboptimal choices will still occur, it is important to enlighten student choosers and their observers about how choice making under conditions of information inequity produces and legitimates social inequality and to empower them to combat that stratified and stratifying process.

Beyond the Shock: Examining Academic Success in Veteran Community College Transfers at a Rural Land Grant Institution

ABSTRACT The current study explores differences in transfer shock between veteran and non-veteran community college transfer students at a land grant institution in a rural state. Analysis includes institutional data for community college transfer students, including those who self-identified as veterans or used veteran tuition benefits from Fall 2015 to Spring 2022. Many of these students held marginalized identities in other categories such as nontraditional age. Overall, all community college transfer students in the sample experienced a decrease in mean GPA in their first university semester. Veteran and non-veteran community college transfer students did not experience significantly different levels of transfer shock. However, veteran community college transfer students showed little evidence of transfer shock overall and performed better on average than both their nontraditional and traditional nonveteran student counterparts after transferring.

How Social and Relational Identities Shape Community College Transfer Students’ College Pathways

Given inequities in transfer student success, emerging research about transfer students has focused on students’ familial relationships and identities including race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. This qualitative study uses the reconceptualized model of multiple dimensions of identity to explore how social and relational identities influence the college transfer pathways of both pre- and post-transfer students in North Carolina. Findings detail how students’ identities and contextual influences shaped educational decisions and can be leveraged as strengths.

Tapping into early PhD aspirations to advance gender equity in computing: predicting PhD interest among upward transfer students

Purpose Supporting community college transfer students represents a critical strategy for broadening participation in STEM. In addition to being a racially diverse group, students who pursue STEM degrees by way of community college report frequent interests in graduate study and academic careers. Thus, supporting and expanding transfer students’ PhD interests can help to diversify the STEM professoriate. This study aims to identify the experiences that predict PhD interests among students who transferred into the computer science major from a community college. Design/methodology/approach Relying on longitudinal survey data from over 150 community college transfer students throughout their first year at their receiving four-year university, we used regression analysis to identify the post-transfer college experiences that predict early interest in PhDs. Findings We found that receiving information about PhDs from a professor strongly predicted PhD interest among transfer students. Relationships with other variables indicate that the provision of information about graduate school was more likely to occur for students who participated in undergraduate research experiences than for those participating in internships. Descriptive data document inequities in who has access to these types of experiences. Originality/value This paper provides new insight into how STEM departments can develop targeted efforts to ensure that information about PhD training is equitably available to all transfer students. Working to ensure that faculty equitably communicate with students about PhD opportunities may go a long way in countering potential deterrents among transfer students who may be interested in such pathways.

Symposium: Students Guiding Pathways

In this symposium, seven community college transfer students present their perspectives on Guided Pathways curricular reforms. Drawing on published scholarship and policy documents as well as their own lived experiences, they identify positive aspects of the Guided Pathways model as well as shortcomings in its conceptualization and local implementation.

A Dual Perspective on Academic Advising: Challenges Faced by Community College Transfers and Faculty Advisors in Engineering

This study provides a deeper understanding of the challenges facing community college transfer students in engineering and their faculty advisors at a 4-year research university. Using a phenomenological approach, data was analyzed from interviews with nine engineering transfers and seven faculty advisors. The findings unveiled nuanced barriers faced by engineering transfers and their faculty advisors, including transfers’ academic unpreparedness and struggles with nonacademic responsibilities; advisors’ heavy workload, disconnection with other student services, and lack of communication with community college advisors; and restrictions on course selection and program requirements in 4-year engineering programs. The findings provide meaningful insights into developing new policies and practices to improve the academic advising experience for engineering transfers.

Upward Transfer Student Pathways in Computing: Examining Degree and Career Outcomes Through Structural Equation Modeling

ABSTRACT Community college transfer represents an important mechanism for advancing access to STEM degrees and careers. Yet, little is known about community college transfer pathways in computing. Utilizing longitudinal survey data, we rely on descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling to examine community college transfer pathways in computing over the course of the four years after students arrive at their receiving university. Findings document wide variation in community college transfer students’ pathways and highlight the importance of computing self-efficacy in predicting degree attainment, computing career pursuits, and graduate school aspirations in computing.

Discrimination against community college transfer students — Evidence from a labor market audit study

Anecdotal evidence suggests widespread discrimination against community college transfer students, despite their prevalence among bachelor’s degree holders in the US. I send out fictitious job applications and conduct a labor market audit study to examine such discrimination. All applicants have bachelor’s degrees, and a random subset are transfer students who attended community colleges for their first two years of college. I find that, for accounting jobs, community college experience significantly reduces callback rates and undermines the value of graduating from selective four-year colleges. In comparison, sales and marketing firms do not exhibit signs of discrimination.

Mental Health of Community College Transfer Students

Mental Health of Community College Transfer Students

Applying the Loss/Momentum Framework to Identify Systemic Barriers for Community College Transfer Students

ABSTRACT Although 80% of entering community college students express a desire to earn a bachelor’s degree, only about 30% transfer to a four-year institution and even fewer complete a bachelor’s degree within six years. The Loss/Momentum Framework (LMF) is a tool for identifying interactions between an institution and its students that can either propel (momentum points) or impede (loss points) progress toward degree completion. This study utilized the LMF to understand the loss and momentum points commonly encountered by students at various phases of their vertical transfer journeys. Using a qualitative research design, we conducted focus groups and interviews with 33 pre- and post-transfer students from a sending community college and a receiving four-year university in Ohio. Sources of momentum included positive interactions with institutional agents (especially advisors and faculty members), institutional programs and processes that conveyed a transfer receptive culture, and easy-to-navigate transfer processes. In contrast, loss points included inaccessible or unhelpful advising as well as opaque and poorly communicated practices and policies regarding degree requirements, credit transfer, and financial aid. Our findings underscore the need for sending and receiving institutions to ensure advising practices, credit transfer policies, and financial aid processes are accessible and transparent to remove barriers and boost momentum. We also encourage institutions to invest in opportunities for transfer students to build relationships with institutional agents, which are particularly important for supporting minoritized students, and with peers.

Improving the Community College Transfer Pathway to the Baccalaureate: The Effect of California's Associate Degree for Transfer

AbstractThe transfer between two‐year and four‐year colleges is a critical path to baccalaureate attainment. Yet students face a number of barriers in transfer pathways, including a lack of coherent coordination and articulation between their community colleges and four‐year institutions, resulting in excess units and increased time to degree. In this paper we evaluate the impact of California's Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, which aimed to create a more seamless pathway between the California Community Colleges and the California State University. We investigate whether the reform effort met its intended goal of improving baccalaureate receipt, and greater efficiency in earning these degrees, among community college transfer students. We tease out plausibly causal effects of the policy by leveraging the exogenous variation in the timing of the implementation of the reform in different campuses and fields of study. We find an overall positive effect on bachelor's degree attainment. This increase is driven entirely by increased transfer rather than an increased probability of earning a BA/BS conditional on transfer. We find only suggestive evidence that the policy led to greater efficiency (i.e., fewer units at graduation) in BA/BS receipt for transfer students. These findings are broadly consistent across student subgroups.

English Development Sustainability for English as Second Language College Transfer Students: A Case Study from a University in Hong Kong

The sustainability of English development plays a crucial role in higher education. However, the language needs of community college transfer students have not been well studied. This paper examined the language needs and support measures for vertical transfer (VT) English as a Second Language (ESL) students after admission to the university. A qualitative approach was adopted. Thirty-nine focus groups and seven individual interviews were conducted with 124 VT ESL students. The results found that, while community college studies might have prepared VT students for basic written assignments in universities, these students needed support with advanced academic writing skills, and general speaking and listening skills. It is only if the needs and challenges of VT ESL students are clear to higher education administrators that effective strategies can be developed. For instance, the participants were not content with the current measures provided to them and required short, fun, and purpose-driven interventions. This is the first of its kind to explore the English needs and support measures among VT ESL to sustain their English development should be strengthened.

Thriving or Simply Surviving? A Qualitative Exploration of STEM Community College Students' Transition to a Four-Year University.

Community colleges expand access to higher education and play a key role in efforts to increase and diversify the future science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. While community colleges increase access to higher education and millions of students attend them for some portion of their education, the experiences of transfer students remain relatively understudied. Transferring during an academic journey can compound the barriers that students already face when pursuing a STEM degree. This study uses Schlossberg's model for analyzing human adaptation to transition to understand how STEM community college transfer students navigate and adapt to the 4-year university. Five semistructured focus groups were conducted with STEM community college transfer students attending an urban university. Analysis of the focus groups resulted in a new model: the amended model of adaptation to transfer transition, or AMATT, which illustrates various factors that played a role in STEM community college transfer students' adaptation a university. Analyses illumined two broad pathways that students tend to diverge into during their transitions-thriving or simply surviving. This work provides a framework for understanding factors influencing the transfer process and ideally will inform institutions and students as they consider maximal transfer student success.

Predictors and Consequences of Math Course Repetition: The Role of Horizontal and Vertical Repetition in Success Among Community College Transfer Students.

Delays in meeting math requirements can impede the progress among community college students who aspire to earn a baccalaureate degree. To investigate this issue, we used state administrative data from Texas to examine the prevalence and predictors of math course repetition and how math course repetition predicts transfer students' outcomes. More than a third of community college transfer students take additional introductory mathematics coursework despite having fulfilled the requirement-a phenomenon we referred to as "horizontal repetition"-and one sixth of community college students take redundant coursework within a given mathematics course sequence, referred to as "vertical repetition." Using regression models controlling for student backgrounds, academic experiences, and institutional fixed effects, we found that horizontal repetition was linked to lower GPA and, among degree recipients, increased time to degree and excess credits. Vertical repetition was negatively associated with GPA and degree completion and positively linked to increased time to degree and excess credits. Location of course repetition shaped student outcomes, where math course repetitions occurring at the university appear to drive many of the negative associations between both horizontal and vertical repetition and student outcomes. As community colleges and universities across the country consider the efficacy of course sequences and transfer pathways, our research offers insights into patterns and implications of course repetition in core math courses.

Agents of Support for Community College Transfer Students: A Qualitative Study

This qualitative study explored what support community college transfer students relied upon while transitioning to a 4-year university. Investigators examined experiences of 12 full-time degree-seeking students who previously attended a community college. Data included a series of three individual interviews with participants and reflective journals completed by six participants. Two primary agents of support were identified: academic advising and personal support. Participants emphasized active and implied support needs, types, and functions throughout the entire process. By understanding community college transfer students' needs, institutions (agent networks of support) can equip advisors and institutional staff (agents) with the information and resources (functions) that will assist students with a positive transition. We offer implications for advising training and opportunities for collaborative institutional partnerships.

From the Coeditors

From the Coeditors

“That Was the Biggest Help”: The Importance of Familial Support for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Community College Students

This study reveals the informal instrumental and socio-emotional support that non-traditional (e.g., Latinx, Black, Indigenous, and first-generation), low-income community college students pursuing STEM majors receive from family members that combat experiences of marginalization and contribute toward their self-efficacy. Family support can be particularly important for underrepresented undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) students who are at higher risks of dropping out of their program and experience lower levels of success indicators (e.g., sense of belonging, self-concept, and STEM identity) compared to their white and Asian peers. Utilizing a phenomenological approach, we used open-ended questions during focus groups with community college transfer students to gain their experiences with challenges and feelings of belonging in college and STEM. We apply the funds of knowledge framework to investigate the value family support holds for students in navigating STEM challenges and expand the definition of family to include romantic partners and extended family.

University Staff's Perceptions of Community College Transfer Students' Transition Experiences Within a "2+2" Pathway in an Asian Educational Context.

Various countries have alternative pathway policies for 2-year community college graduates to articulate to 2-year university study, forming a “2+2” pathway. However, few studies have explored university staff members’ perceptions of this “2+2” transfer pathway and their understanding of transfer students’ (TSs) transition experiences. This descriptive qualitative study addressed this research gap. Forty-two academic and supporting staff participated in the focus group interviews. Specifically, the study explored the assets and challenges of the “2+2” pathway from the university staff perspective in Hong Kong. The articulation pathway and TSs are highly recognized for their prior learning, academic performances, and the value of the second chance. However, while the university staff were sympathetic to the challenges filling these transfer pathways, their offering of help was limited by government funding and policies restrictions. It is recommended that policies should be established at government and university levels to recognize and tackle TSs’ unique needs to alleviate their heavy workloads through better articulation between community college and university studies. Improving articulation will allow TSs time for social involvement in university life and thus enhance their mental well-being.

Getting to the Core of Credit Transfer: How Do Pre-Transfer Core Credits Predict Baccalaureate Attainment for Community College Transfer Students?

The majority of community college entrants aspire to earn a bachelor’s degree; yet fewer than a third do. States use several strategies to support community college’s transfer function, including a transferrable core curriculum, a block of pre-major coursework universally accepted at public postsecondary institutions. In this study, we used statewide administrative data from Texas—a state with a transferable core—to examine pre-transfer credit accumulation and how pre-transfer core credits predict bachelor’s degree attainment and time to degree for community college transfer students. Our results illuminate high variation in pre-transfer core credit accumulation among community college transfer students. Each additional pre-transfer core credit improves students’ probability of earning a bachelor’s degree, but only up to core completion status. Soon after students are core complete—at which point universities are no longer required to transfer in additional core credits, students experience a negative relationship between core credits and bachelor’s degree attainment.