1. Working with transfer students in a SEM Environment
CAPACRAO Conference, june 11, 2018

2. Dana Strait, Educational Advisory Board
Transfer Students
“Although nearly six million community college students indicate intent to transfer to a four-year college or university, only two million follow through. By making investments in transfer strategy, four-year institutions could tap a market of four million community college students who had at one point intended to transfer.”
Dana Strait, Educational Advisory Board
Seth

3. WHY Invest in TRANSFER STUDENTS?
Yield is much higher than for freshmen
Pool is twice as large as first-time freshmen
Transfer students can help institutions realize diversity and access mission
Reduce need for development education
Filling capacity with minimal academic overhead
Upper-division courses typically operate at 74% of capacity
Estimated 23% of capacity currently filled by transfer students
Filling remaining capacity to 90% could generate millions in tuition revenue
Seth

4. The TRANSFER PIPLELINE as a FOUNDATION of SEM}
Enrollment Outcomes
Retention
Academic Programs
Campus Environment
Strategic Planning
Increase Enrollment
Meet Budget Goals
Build Strong Internal and External Relationships
Support the Institution’s Mission
Seth – 20 minutes – BREAK

5. SEM Foundation and TRANSFER STUDENTS
Know your populations (who you recruit and who you want to recruit)
Foster internal and external relationships
Targeted marketing to students
Bring students (and parents) to campus for transfer-specific events
Provide easy access to information, answer student questions
Help them apply and enroll
Show them the money!
Orient and advise them
Engage Them
Lee

6. What type of student are you?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
A strong enrollment plan will identify opportunities for multiple groups of students. And while you may think that this webinar focuses only on transfer; there is hardly a student enrolled in higher education nowadays who doesn’t have some type of transfer history – credits from high school, credits from a previous institution, military or workplace experience, dual enrolled students, international transfers, transfer between non-credit/remedial education and for-credit classes, etc. Transfer is no longer a subset of SEM, but is now an overarching category.
Understanding who you want to reach out to, who you want to enroll, and who you want to graduate, is important in the planning. You may actually find that a goal is to fill health fitness courses – to maximize those classes and the use of the recreational facilities – and a plan may include enrolling (but not graduating!) seniors in the community.
This website, from Cuyahoga, is a great example of a college, in this case a community college, understanding the different populations of student. Transfer is one of them, but the subsequent pages includes information on transferring for each population.
It’s also important to remember that transfer isn’t one way – many think of it as 2year to 4 year transfer. Reality is different – 2year to 2 year, 4year to 2year, 4 year to 4year, graduate level transfer, and more unidentified – transfer between academic majors or departments.

7. SEM Foundation and TRANSFER STUDENTS
Know your populations (who you recruit and who you want to recruit)
Foster internal and external relationships
Targeted marketing to students
Bring students (and parents) to campus for transfer-specific events
Provide easy access to information, answer student questions
Help them apply and enroll
Show them the money!
Orient and advise them
Engage Them

8. Strong partnerships are key to building a transfer student pipeline, which in turn will build a strong SEM plan for Transfer Students. In this example of the left, University of Baltimore hosts an annual luncheon and program for community college representatives. For those of you unfamiliar with UB, it primarily enrolls transfer and graduate students. They rely on the community colleges to know enough about UB, and to feel comfortable with UB as an institution, to refer students to it. The more you know, the more likely you are to find a match.
On the right, is an example of internal partnerships – which are just as important as external ones. If you don’t have a strong transfer partnerships within your institution – meaning all departments are on board with enrolling transfers, including orientation, advising, financial aid, the academic departments, housing, etc – then your institution wont retain these students. Think about having a transfer adivisory board, or doing a transfer workshop, to share information and., more importantly, to get feedback.

9. SEM Foundation and TRANSFER STUDENTS
Know your populations (who you recruit and who you want to recruit)
Foster internal and external relationships
Targeted marketing to students
Bring students (and parents) to campus for transfer-specific events
Provide easy access to information, answer student questions
Help them apply and enroll
Show them the money!
Orient and advise them
Engage Them

10. Clarity is key when trying to recruit transfer students
Clarity is key when trying to recruit transfer students. The three questions they ask most often are:
How many credits will transfer?
How many credits will I have left to get a degree?
Which degree gets me out the fastest?
Knowing this, make sure the answers to those questions – however complex they may be – are easily accessible and shared. Be flexible with transfer credits, offer degree plans and articulation agreements, and have advising available before enrollment or even application.

11. SEM Foundation and TRANSFER STUDENTS
Know your populations (who you recruit and who you want to recruit)
Foster internal and external relationships
Targeted marketing to students
Bring students (and parents) to campus for transfer-specific events
Provide easy access to information, answer student questions
Help them apply and enroll
Show them the money!
Orient and advise them
Engage Them

12. Real life examples
Location location location! It’s not just about real estate. Students (and their parents) need to see the spaces they are thinking about attending. Get them to your campus – there are many ways to do this:
1) Transfer open Houses – host a transfer specific (or, a track within a normal open house) for transfer students.
2) transfer admit days – have a single day (once a week, monthly, as needed) for students to come to campus and take care of admissions, advising, enrollment, etc.
3) Virtual Tours – not all students can travel! Have an online virtual tour of your campus online.
REMEMBER that there are subsets of transfer students, so think about hosting these events at different times. If you only have them on Tuesdays, or only during the day, then students who plan to attend during the evening or on a Monday/Wednesday schedule may not be able to ever attend. Meet studnets where they are to show your support.

13. SEM Foundation and TRANSFER STUDENTS
Know your populations (who you recruit and who you want to recruit)
Foster internal and external relationships
Targeted marketing to students
Bring students (and parents) to campus for transfer-specific events
Provide easy access to information, answer student questions
Help them apply and enroll
Show them the money!
Orient and advise them
Engage Them

14. Predict their questions, and provide answers
Predict their questions, and provide answers. This seems simple – but it’s amazing how many website don’t have an FAQ, or a comprehensive FAQ. Make sure to update FAQs as you get new or unanswered questions.
And, make sure that everyone who communicates with transfer students (or all students, in reality) knows the answers to these questions!
This example, for York College of PA, is only part of their FAQ. You’ll see it covers a lot of content, for multiple populations, but you know exactly where to go for what. It’s a resource, a tool for transfer students to get answers, to make decisions about where to enroll, to get them through the pipeline, to retain them, and to graduate them. It’s a SEM plan in one space!

15. SEM Foundation and TRANSFER STUDENTS
Know your populations (who you recruit and who you want to recruit)
Foster internal and external relationships
Targeted marketing to students
Bring students (and parents) to campus for transfer-specific events
Provide easy access to information, answer student questions
Help them apply and enroll
Show them the money!
Orient and advise them
Engage Them

16. One of the other questions students ask is, “how do I do it
One of the other questions students ask is, “how do I do it?” For many transfer students, they haven’t attended college in a long time, OR, they attending someplace with open enrollment (i.e. a community college). They don’t know how to walk through the cumbersome and complex process of applying and enrolling. Provide resources for them to walk away with, or to refer. Step by step. In multiple languages, if possible.
Again, the goal of a SEM plan is to get students into and through an institution. If they don’t know how – how can we expect them to do it?
A word to the wise. Have faculty or staff use the checklist to complete the process. They can use fake identities if they need to. But have them try it. See where the bottlenecks are. Identify the issues. Meet the players. And then make necessary changes. Secret Shopping is a thing!

17. SEM Foundation and TRANSFER STUDENTS
Know your populations (who you recruit and who you want to recruit)
Foster internal and external relationships
Targeted marketing to students
Bring students (and parents) to campus for transfer-specific events
Provide easy access to information, answer student questions
Help them apply and enroll
Show them the money!
Orient and advise them
Engage Them

18. I can’t even explain my frustration when an institution tells me they have no scholarship money for transfer students. Or adult students. Or military. Why are these populations treated differently then freshman? (And, as a word of caution, if you tell me that you have a PTK scholarship for transfer students, I can’t be held responsible for my reaction. Not all transfer students are eligible for PTK. Some can’t even afford the application to the organization!) Similiarly, not all transfer scholarships should be merit based. These are students who are, quite often, attending college while working or supporting families. They are thrilled to just be enrolled and getting a B; why are they being penalized because you only have money available for students with straight A’s? Design scholarships that give a tiered range of scholarships based on need, merit, o

19. SEM Foundation and TRANSFER STUDENTS
Know your populations (who you recruit and who you want to recruit)
Foster internal and external relationships
Targeted marketing to students
Bring students (and parents) to campus for transfer-specific events
Provide easy access to information, answer student questions
Help them apply and enroll
Show them the money!
Orient and advise them
Engage Them

20. The largest take away here: plan orientation for the distinct population, and the time the population will come to orientation. Think about what they need to know about transferring and succeeding, and eliminate the frivolous stuff (don’t talk about greek life to a group of 30 somethings. You’re just begging for a Dateline NBC investigation).
One Day
Online and blended
Multiday
Off-site
Weekend and evening
Extended orientation and involvement opportunities
Key components
Academic advising and preparation
Campus resources, involvement, and culture
Student success and personal development
Former transfer students
Orientation leader
Mentors and ambassadors for campus departments
Transfer student panel
Student Leader Training
Transfer student needs
Myths
Demographic information
Providing Faculty Interaction
Provide opportunities for formal and informal interaction
Address benefits for faculty and academic program
Offer meaningful interactions that maximize connections with students

21. SEM Foundation and TRANSFER STUDENTS
Know your populations (who you recruit and who you want to recruit)
Foster internal and external relationships
Targeted marketing to students
Bring students (and parents) to campus for transfer-specific events
Provide easy access to information, answer student questions
Help them apply and enroll
Show them the money!
Orient and advise them
Engage Them

22. And finally, engage and retain them
And finally, engage and retain them. Figure out, through a SEM group, what opportunities across campus students should be interacting with. As your SEM plan includes a link to the institutions mission and goals; how can you engage transfer students (as a whole or in the distinct populations) to support that mission? What specific activities, events, academic lessons, career services, etc. should they be involved in? Connect with the student throughout their education to ensure they become active alumni.
Complete the student life cycle by recruiting them to be active members of the college community post-graduation. With that, they become an ambassador for the school, which could then lead to additional recruitment opportunities…

23. Questions, comments and such
Questions? Thank you! Seth Marc Kamen
Director of Transfer and Prior Learning Design
Montgomery College (MD)