Kirkwood Community College and other community colleges are partnering with the Iowa Private Transfer Collaborative to ease the transfer process for students. (Photo courtesy of Kirkwood Community College)
Kirkwood Community College President Kristie Fisher said one of the Cedar Rapids institution’s goals is to increase opportunities for students for their path after graduation, one being a transfer to a four-year university.
While the majority of transfer students go to the University of Iowa or another public institution, Fisher said those students who want to attend a private university can face certain challenges when it comes to transferring. Iowa community colleges like Kirkwood are working with a group of private universities to ensure students hoping to further their education can transfer without issue through an Iowa Private Transfer Guarantee admission agreement.
“One of the things we do at community colleges is we try to open the world up to our students, and so when they come in and they have a great experience here, we just want them to understand that there are so many possibilities out there…” Fisher said. “For some students, they’re sure where they want to go, and that’s great and they should do that, but we don’t ever want somebody to feel like they didn’t have a choice, because there are so many great choices in the state.”
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The Iowa Private Transfer Collaborative, made up of 19 private colleges, is using a three-year, $350,000 grant from the Arthur Vining Davis and Teagle foundations to launch the admission agreement with 15 community colleges and develop other methods of making the transfer process easier and more transparent, said Iowa Private Transfer Guarantee steering committee member Lauren McCarthy.
McCarthy, who also works in Drake University’s college of business as an academic advising specialist, said the grant was part of a nationwide initiative to promote student transfers from community colleges to private colleges. The collaborative is using it for a number of initiatives, the biggest being the transfer guarantee.
Through the agreement, students earning an associate of arts or an associate of science degree at a community college in Iowa will have guaranteed admission to any of the participating private universities.
Other initiatives include helping universities form more individual articulation agreements with community colleges, McCarthy said, so students with an associate degree will also have their general education requirements met before they start at a four-year school, and developing a website with more information about the colleges and resources for transfer students.
Grant project director Kim Linduska said working with the private and community colleges has been a “really positive experience,” with people on both sides ready and excited to work together for their students.
“I’ve worked on transfers my whole career, and I have found that both the private institutions and the community colleges are eager to connect, to talk about how best to serve transfer students, to talk about the barriers for transfer students and how they can recruit and serve them,” Linduska said.
Faculty from the institutions have also come together through the collaborative, Linduska said, in order to discuss possible alignments of curriculum and any support they can provide for transfers. They work with a panel of transfer students as well to hear about their experiences with the transfer process and how it can be improved, and with student affairs officials and other departments to talk about retaining students once they’ve enrolled.
All of this work is being done with the mission of achieving greater transparency, McCarthy said, so students know that if they’re in an associate degree program and want to keep going with their academic career, it is possible for them to attend a private college.
For all the benefits students will receive from the collaboration, Linduska said the institutions will also see positive outcomes. With an expected the enrollment cliff causing universities to worry more about declining student populations, having a guaranteed transfer agreement could help boost student populations.
The students who do end up transferring after completing community college are also generally determined to finish their four-year degree, Linduska said, and those are the kinds of students these universities want to attract.
“Every institution, public or private, really appreciates students who have a real desire to complete their bachelor’s degree,” Linduska said. “So it’s good for the private institutions to work more closely with community colleges to make sure that those students who do come, complete.”
Fisher said one of the biggest barriers students face when wanting to transfer to a private university is a lack of understanding about their tuition pricing, and when a student expresses interest in going to nearby Mount Mercy University or Coe College, college staff emphasize that they should look past the sticker price and speak with financial aid officials to better learn the costs.
Beyond the price, McCarthy said she thinks many students attending a community college don’t think they’ll have the right credentials to qualify for a private university.
“I used to be a transfer advisor here at Drake, and I was struck by how many students who are coming from places like DMACC seemed really surprised that they were admitted to Drake,” McCarthy said. “I think sometimes private colleges seem more exclusive or elite than they really are, and so we just want to break down that barrier and make it more transparent to students to say, ‘Hey, you’re earning an associate of arts or an associate of science, you know, you’re meeting the requirements to come to our school and have a great experience.’”
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