USM hopes to boost transfers

The University System of Maryland hopes to encourage more students to complete two-year community college programs before transferring to its own schools, following the advice of a report the Board of Regents received during its meeting last month.

By streamlining the process of transferring to this university — or another university system institution — the system can make it easier to persuade students to take the more cost-effective route of knocking out entry-level requirements at a less expensive college, according to Nancy Shapiro, an associate vice chancellor for academic affairs for the university system.

"In my opinion, I think what matters most is not whether the student starts at a two-year college but how they end up at the four-year college — whether they graduate successfully with good grades, maybe honors, whether they've had undergraduate research or internships," Shapiro said. "I think it's the outcomes that matter."

By making it easier to transfer credits and by advertising the advantages, officials said the university system can attract more students from community colleges.

Colleen Hoffman, a government and politics major who graduated last year, thinks the "2 + 2" transfer model — two years at community college followed by two at a university — is a good idea, especially if it means saving money.

"There's some really well-off areas in Maryland, some of the highest in the country, so there's good community colleges because of the money funneling into them," Hoffman said.

Hoffman also said if she could start over again, she definitely would have taken the "2 + 2" route, although she would have taken the first two years at a community college in Pennsylvania.

"It's a good way to save money and to put yourself through college as a result, especially a university with a well-regarded name and good reputation," Hoffman said.

However, D. Britt Reynolds, this university's director of undergraduate admissions, said the primary goal of these initiatives is not to affect the number of incoming freshmen and transfer students but to increase the quality of transfer students coming in and keep them from wasting time retaking classes whose credits didn't transfer.

"I think we need to be planful and make good plans with our colleagues at the community college and the students at the community college," Reynolds said, "so that we are not just planning from the point they are making the transition but that we are making the plan ahead of time so that when they make that transition, they have taken the right courses."

Teri Hollander, another associate vice chancellor for academic affairs for the university system, said the board is currently planning to work with the Maryland Association of Community Colleges this summer in a joint committee tasked with developing incentives that would spur more community college students to commit to getting their associate's degrees and transfer.

"We have begun the environmental scan of best or most promising practices across the country as well as those in Maryland," Hollander said. "Our state is already considered one of the leaders in transfer, but we need to now focus on degree completion."

Hollander noted studies showing that students transferring to a university after completing their associate's degree have a higher graduation rate than those who enroll as freshmen in four-year colleges.

The report also noted that a higher number of community college transfers to system institutions have been minorities. According to the report, the number of black and Latino community college students who transferred to a university system institution over the past five years have increased 17 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

Some students say it's already fairly easy to transfer to this university from a community college.

Besides a science credit that was briefly lost to a computer error, senior criminology major Billy Arrington's transfer from Carroll Community College suffered no holdups.

Arrington said he initially decided to only pursue his associate's degree but later decided to transfer to a university as a ticket to a more secure job in the future.

"In this day and time, I need a bachelor's degree, and I can make more money if I have a bachelor's degree," Arrington said.

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