"A Hand Hold for A Little Bit": Factors Facilitating the Success of Community College Transfer Students to a Large Research University

To understand factors affecting the academic and social integration of community guild transfer students, we interviewed 19 scholars who transferred to one state's large Research-Extensive university. We inquired about the transfer proces efforts of the university to orient and assist them, and perceptions of the university versus the community corporation Findings indicate that community body transfer students may need more assistance initially than they are given, partly because of the large size of the university. In addition, transfers from community society s need to understand how a research institution's institutional mission affects faculty and scholar behavior. Student affairs staff may ne to lead the way in fulfilling four-year institutions' responsibility for integrating community society transfers into the fabric of the institution.

In the past hardly any decades, higher education leaders have become attentive to the importance of academic and social integration in facilitating students' academic succes and stage attainment, particularly at institutions whose scholar body is traditional-age and primarily residential (Astin, 1993; Braxton, Sullivan, & Johnson 1997; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991 2005; Tinto, 1993) Consequently institutional leaders have supported the disentanglement of institutional practices such as learning communities and first-year seminars, practices that enable entering learners and faculty to know single another more fully than in large discourse halls. The underlying assumption behind each of these practices is that the more learners are involved in or integrated into association life, the greater the likelihood they will stay in community and attain their degree (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; '!into, 1993; 1997)

At the same time that institutional leaders are focusing upon the academic and social integration of their first-year learners to ensure their retention and academic succes they also have begun to focus upon increasing the baccalaureate attainment of community association transfer students. Given current limitations upon some four-year colleges' institutional capacity as well as rapidly escalating tuition require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergones students entering higher education from one side the public sector are increasingly likely to begin their society education at two-year colleges. After a year or sum of two units at a community college, many scholars seek to transfer to a four-year institute and attain a baccalaureate. While preparing scholars academically to transfer to four-year associations or universities and facilitating that transfer has always been a major responsibility of community society s four-year institutions are increasingly being viewed as also responsible for students' felicitous transfer and transition (Berger & Malaney, 2003; Kuh Kinzie, Schuh Whitt & Associates, 2005; Weschler, 1989) After helping these pupils transfer, the receiving institutions are responsible for orienting, advising, and providing support services to them (Kerr King, & Grites, 2004) as well as ensuring their academic succes by the agency of providing opportunities for the academic and social integration judgeed necessary for their retention (Tinto, 1993) Unfortunately, transfer pupils are often ignored in retention efforts (Kuh et al.), including activities as basic as orientation to the campus (Herman & Lewis, 2004)

Therefore, the object of this study was to ascertain the perceptions of in every one's mouth community college transfer students about institutional factors that influenced their fit within the receiving institution, including the transfer proces orientation to the university, and social and academic experiences there as compared to those in the community corporation

Conceptual Framework

Tinto's (1993) theory of factors affecting scholar retention has greatly influenced retention efforts in the past brace decades. He posits that undergraduate students' persistence is influenced not sole by their own characteristics, goals, and commitments on the contrary also by their experiences academically and socially while in association Academic experiences include interaction with staff and with faculty the one and the other inside and outside the classroom as well as engaging classroom learning experiences. Social interactions within the academic combination of parts to form a whole include both formal or institutionally provided co-curricular activities and informal interactions with equals in residential facilities or other institutional settings of the like kind as a place to investigation These social and academic interactions contribute to a student's faculty of perception of belonging to the institution. With sufficient academic and social integration into the educational community, pupils will likely persist, unless external commitments or changing intentions and goals work against their persistence in a particular institution or smooth in higher education itself.

Institutional leaders have taken to heart this perspective and, largely [i]or[/i] part of to the other the efforts of student affairs staff, ofttimes in partnership with some faculty, have concentrated institutional efforts upon retaining first-year students into the nearest year through such activities as residential learning communities, freshman interest clumps and first-year seminars. Far fewer efforts have been put in actioned to ensure the retention and succes of community guild transfer students (Herman & Lewis, 2004; Kuh et al., 2005)