Students who transfer from community college see advantages now, but some are seeing disadvantages in the long run

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The University of Maryland is comprised of students of all types.  For many, it was a clear choice right out of high school.  But for some students, attending community college for 2 years prior to attending UMD made financial and academic sense.  In the end, the diplomas will be the same but is there a negative perception of transfer students?

The appeal of transferring from a junior college to a large university

There are a few obvious reasons why some students choose to go to community college before transferring to a 4-year institution.  One of the main reasons being the financial incentive.  Students are able to save a significant amount of money by taking the lower level classes at their local community college.  Not only is community college cheaper, but most students live at home and commute to class which saves on housing.  Another reason is that community college offers more flexible schedules and more online classes due to the fact that more students who attend also have jobs or are older and have families. 

Social problems transfers often encounter after transferring

One of the common problems that transfer students encounter after entering 4 year institutions during their junior year is the common misconception that it is easier to get in as a transfer student than it is as a freshman.

A study was done at the University of California Berkeley that asked transfer students questions about their experience after coming from community college to a major state school such as UC Berkeley.  Some of the results of the study:

• 26.5% of respondents reported experiencing rejection from other students as a result of being a transfer student
• 18.8% of respondents reported that they concealed being a transfer student at least once in the past

Despite a clear social disadvantage the students in the study experienced, their GPAs were overall very high.  The average GPA for the transfer students that were surveyed was 3.44.

How Students Felt When They Shared or Didn't Share Their Transfer Student Status

	Rejection: No	Rejection: Yes
Concealment: No	75.4%	24.6%
Concealment: Yes	32.3%	67.7%

 

The students that were comfortable with sharing their transfer status were less likely to feel rejection than students who concealed that they were transfer students.

Professors perceptions of transfer students are mixed

 In the study it was found that transfer students also experience the same kind of difficulties with professors as they do with other students.  Students responded with situations where their professors talked negatively about the professors at the nearby community college and attributed any difficulty the student was having a result of poor preparation.  

On the other hand, other students found that once their professors found out that they were transfer students, they made sure that the student felt welcomed at the school and offered extra help if they needed it.

Some Universities do not accept certain credits from community colleges

 A common problem that students run into when making the transition from community colleges to Universities is transferring credits from one institution to another.  There is no perfect system that guarantees a student's credits will transfer to exactly what they want them to at the next school because not all schools are the same.

The University of Maryland has a Transfer Credit Center which allows prospective students to enter their classes into the database and see what is the equivalent class at UMD.  This helps students choose their classes at junior college according to what the University of Maryland accepts and does not accept.  

The disadvantage that students are seeing comes when students try to transfer out of state to other universities.  Not only is there no guarantee that every credit will transfer when a student moves schools, but if the school is a private University it can be even harder to prove that a course at an out of state community college is the equivalent to a course at their university.

Could taking courses at community college hurt your chances at graduate school?

Megan Forbes Cleaver is a transfer adviser at the University of Maryland.  She meets with students who are looking to transfer to UMD.  She gives advice to students on what classes they need to take in order to meet the University's requirements so that they can transfer.  In her experience, the number of students that transfer students has actually decreased in the past few years.

A disadvantage that she has seen for transfer students comes when students apply to graduate and medical school.   



Not everyone agrees that community college courses are easier, nor is there any data proving it.  There is a preconceived notion that two year institutions have easier classes and therefore the student would not be prepared for the graduate school work.  This is an alarming pattern that is being seen by students attempting to get into medical school.  Having to re-take classes they have already completed is not only a waste of time but also a waste of money.  Community college courses are generally cheaper than courses at major universities.  If a student is having to take the same class over again, some can find themselves paying almost three times as much as they should have to.

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How we obtain news has changed in the past few years, but those changes have stayed consistent across the globe: By Sydney35 and Mary70

There are many different ways we choose to get news.  Depending on your preference, you may choose to view a certain type of news and choose to view it on a specific platform.

Smart Phone and Tablets
Smart phones and tablets have become increasingly popular in the past decade.  In addition to being a form of peer to peer communication, they also serve as a popular outlet for news.   These devices have changed the way we get news by giving users access to any news they could have gotten in a newspaper. Smart phones and tablets are overtaking the print news market by being able to update users with breaking news.

News Platform by Age
Consistencies within age groups can be found across the globe when it comes to news platforms.  Studies show that young people who have grown up with technologies such as smartphones and computers are more likely to get news online rather than on TV or from a newspaper.  Consistent with how the older generation grew up with TV and newspaper being the most popular form of news, that age group still prefers those mediums.

Apps vs. Browser
Studies have shown that when using smartphones people are most likely to use an news app in order to read the news.  On the other hand, when using tablets, people tend to use a web browser instead of news apps.  This is probably due to the fact that apps are able to cater to the smaller screens on phones and tablets don't run into such issues.

News Sharing by Country
Preferences on how people share their news varies by country.  Users sharing news by email and social networks in the UK haven't changed much in the past few years and remains at 16%.  Compared to the US which is significantly higher at 35%.

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Smart Tablets in the College Classroom can Enhance Learning and Help College Students Do More Than Just Take Notes

The first iPad was released in the spring of 2010.  Ever since then, the smart tablet industry has exploded with new upgrades and devices being released more and more frequently.  Tablets are becoming more common among college students because of how portable they are and other features that make them easier to read and take notes on.  

Comparing note taking methods

The "Pen vs. Keyboard" study I found interesting because it focused on how taking notes on laptops causes students to write notes verbatim rather than summarize the information and put it into their own words.  Because most people can type faster than they can write, laptops are more beneficial if the goal was to get the most information down the quickest.  What was found was that, while more information got recorded on a laptop, actually writing out notes helped the students more because they were forced to think about how they should write out the information.  It requires more cognitive thinking to organize the information that is being presented and to write it out in your own words. After reading this study, I found myself on team pen and favoring the old-fashioned way of taking notes.  Who needs to use a laptop when clearly journals are cheaper and more beneficial to learning?  The technology of tablets quickly changed my mind.

Tablets have more interactive features

Tablets are great tools not only for taking notes, but for students to be interactive in class and truly engage in lectures.  Taking notes on a tablet is very similar to taking notes on paper because of its ability to act as a notepad.  With the use of a stylus, it provides more versatility in the classroom than a notebook or a laptop can provide. As we have seen in class, with the use of our iPads, we are able to be interactive during the lecture by having the presentation on our individual screens.  It discourages multitasking because we are unable to split our screens and therefore get distracted by other activities. 

Acceptance of technology in the classroom

The journal article I found talks about how the key to incorporating technology into the classroom is finding the appropriate way to use them.  It begins with the idea that we have tried to resist technology for the longest time in the classroom setting and it has become very difficult to do.  With all the new online programs that are now used almost universally across the country, it is near impossible to avoid such advancements. "Technology will never replace good teaching, but it does have the potential to enhance good teaching and engage students more actively with the texts and the writing process." (Medicus and Wood)  While the use of tablets and other digital devices in the classroom can be beneficial, it by no means substitutes the power of human interaction.  Technology provides another tool for teachers and professors to use in order to enhance their lectures and assignments.  Students now a days need more stimulus to keep them engaged in a discussion.  By incorporating the use of iPads or other technologies, it keeps them interested and involved for longer periods of time.

Tablets can make college more affordable

Tablets have many other benefits, such as the ability to buy eTextbooks and have complete access to them at any time.  Generally, eTexts are cheaper than buying hard copies of them and also easier to carry.  According to another article I found, when you use a tablet, "not only are they less expensive than their laptop counterparts, but they also offer additional savings through e-books—a cheaper, lighter alternative to expensive textbooks." (Verizon)  Depending on the tablet, the amount that you would save on textbooks would make the purchase worth it after one or two semesters of college.

Whether it be an iPad, Microsoft Surface, or any other smart tablet, they all have different benefits that enhance learning in the college classroom.  Integrating new technologies into the college setting can be a good thing, if they are used appropriately.