Two-year transfer plans touted

The N.C. Community College System is backing the UNC Board of Governors’ plan to encourage students to pursue two years of community college before transferring to four-year universities.

Administrators at N.C. community colleges said an increasing number of students are enrolling with the goal of transferring to UNC-system schools, showing that the board’s plan of accepting better prepared students is already in motion.

Anyone earning an associate’s degree in the arts and sciences at a community college is eligible for transfer, said Elizabeth Spragins, program coordinator for the community college system. Many UNC students have taken advantage of this eligibility.

“Over one fourth — 26.6 percent — of those enrolling in the College of Arts and Sciences this year came from state community colleges,” said Ashley Memory, senior assistant director of admissions at UNC-Chapel Hill.

 Thomas Gould, associate dean of university transfer at Durham Technical Community College, said there are 1,500 students enrolled in the transfer track.

“Each year we have 250 to 300 students transfer to four-years,” he said, citing UNC-CH, N.C. Central University, N.C. State University and private institutions such as Meredith College and Duke University as top destinations.

Durham Tech alumni who transfer have an average cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher, Gould said.

“Strikingly, our transfer students actually perform better at the universities as juniors and seniors than native students who began their academic careers there as freshmen,” he said.

The higher GPA seen in most transfer students falls in line with the UNC-system Board of Governors’ announcement last month that universities need to admit better-prepared students in order to receive more funding.

The board is changing their funding formula so that schools are no longer rewarded simply for enrolling more students, but for high graduation and retention rates as well.

Many community colleges are now partnering with UNC-system schools to facilitate transfers.

Joanne Ceres, Pitt Community College’s director of enrollment management, said Pitt feeds into East Carolina University and absorbs many who were not accepted to their first choice.

Some, such as ECU junior Ryan High, initially chose Pitt for financial reasons, but has since realized that he might not have been ready for a university as a freshman.

Pitt better prepared him for college academics and gave him time to get an idea of where he’s headed after school, he said.

“I knew I was going to transfer when I first got to Pitt,” High said. “I just figured I could save some money in the long run. And I really hadn’t decided on my major yet.”



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