With changes to the college admissions landscape and declining applicant pools, it is imperative that US universities think outside the box of standard admissions to find ways to expand access to reach more students from all backgrounds.
The challenges that universities face in seeking to remove barriers and create more pathways for students to pursue a degree include rising costs, lack of uniformity in financial assistance applications and lack of transparency around the expenses shouldered by students and their families. A tactic that I have discussed with Rick Clark, Georgia Tech’s inaugural executive director of strategic student access (see video), is creating pathways for transfer students. Many top institutions are missing an opportunity in not considering transfer programmes as a significant part of their admissions portfolio.
We believe that it is a mistake to overlook this key student demographic. Here’s why:
Transfer pathways attract successful students
College transfers across the US grew 5.3 per cent in the start of fall 2023, according to the National Student Clearing House. Transfers make up 13.2 per cent of the national undergraduate student body, yet many institutions have not altered their enrolment strategies or policies to attract this important cohort of students. At Georgia Tech, more than 20 per cent of our graduating undergraduates did not start their academic career here. Without viable transfer pathways, these talented students from a broad range of backgrounds would not be here, particularly those who were denied first semester admission. And we want them to have another route to our community.
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Georgia Tech offers nine transfer pathways – a comprehensive portfolio of paths of which I’m quite proud. In 2023, 70 per cent of transfer students came in through one of our pathway programmes from 250 colleges across 38 states, representing 38 community colleges and 35 colleges in the state of Georgia.
Last fall, we launched a new transfer pathway collaboration with Atlanta Metropolitan State College (AMSC) that offers AMSC students an avenue to Georgia Tech after their first year of college. The requirements hold these students to high academic standards while also putting resources in place to help prepare them to succeed once they arrive on our campus. For example, we require them to earn at least a 3.3 GPA while at AMSC, receive weekly academic advising and participate in mentoring opportunities.
Students who start at AMSC may not have considered Georgia Tech when originally looking at college options. But we believe that academically driven students who participate in this articulated, cohort-based programme with its mentoring and strong advising structure will thrive once they arrive at Tech.
Transferring can lighten the financial burden
I was a student who worked to pay my own way through my undergraduate degree. While college was certainly more affordable at that time than it is now, I understand and worry about the financial pressures that a student or their family can experience in pursuit of a degree.
One of the best ways we (and other universities) can lighten the financial burden of a degree programme is to provide numerous and flexible transfer pathways for students who, for reasons both personal and financial, didn’t apply to or end up at our university for their first semester or year. It might be cheaper to start college closer to home or students may prefer the flexibility to start in winter, for example, rather than autumn.
I think Rick said it well in our conversation: “True talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not.” I see great benefits in having many avenues that students can take to access an education (whether that be physical or virtual). Making a top-ranked education more accessible through non-traditional pathways is important to expanding who has access to higher education.
College is expensive in the US and a transfer pathway can help lighten that burden.
Transfer students can and will succeed
It is our experience that students with non-traditional paths to a college degree, whether it be transfer or online students, can achieve great things. Transfer students make up more than a quarter of our undergraduate population. Our four-year graduation rate is 70 per cent (the national average is 64 per cent) and our six-year rate is 94 per cent.
We believe that now is the time for universities to look at how they might better establish transfer and other non-traditional student pipelines, consider their future enrolment strategy (particularly in light of shrinking domestic high-school graduation rates) and closely assess institutional data to better understand transfer student success.
Fundamentally, transfer pathways are a strategic way for universities to bolster enrolment and broaden access. In a time when students need and want flexible, affordable options, it is imperative that universities adapt and create avenues for this brilliant, often overlooked talent pool of students. We hope to see more peer institutions embrace this thinking and work alongside us to expand access to a top-quality education for the next generation of students.
Steve McLaughlin is provost and executive vice-president for academic affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
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