Assessing the Transfer Shock of Community College Students Transferring to an Urban Public University

Download or read book Assessing the Transfer Shock of Community College Students Transferring to an Urban Public University written by Louis White and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examined the extent of transfer shock experienced by community college students transferring to an urban public university. Review of the published literature on transfer shock uncovered no studies of this type conducted at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), urban or otherwise. Accordingly, a public urban HBCU was chosen to serve as the focus of this research. Six cohorts, consisting of community college transfer students entering the HBCU in the falls of 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, or 2005, formed the study's parameters. Students transferring to the HBCU in the falls of 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 had their academic performance tracked for all four semesters, while fall 2004 transferees were tracked for three semesters, and 2005 fall entrants for only one semester. The study ended in December 2005. Secondary data and the quantitative method were employed in this research. The data studied have been stored at the HBCU, available upon request, subject to approval by the Institution's Review Board. The IRB approved the request for the data sought for this study, which were obtained from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in an electronic format with no identifying information; therefore, no interviews or any other interaction with these students were needed. Of the requested data, those pertaining to gender, age, enrollment status (full-time or part-time), semester and year of initial enrollment, final community college GPA and HBCU GPAs (first through fourth semester enrollment), and the final HBCU GPA were the obtained data. Other literature in this field indicated that community college transfer students who transferred from community colleges that prepared them well for transfer to four-year colleges were less likely to suffer from transfer shock. Studying the amount of transfer shock encountered by transfer students from various community colleges could have indicated the quality of preparation given students at these various community colleges. Collecting such data year-to-year would also have yielded a pattern indicating the consistency of quality of preparing these students for transfer, along with creating a longitudinal study. Qualitative studies would have provided an added dimension to these studies. -- Abstract.