Elite Universities Do Not Care About (Community College) Transfers

Transfer students are often initially overlooked or are ill-equipped to navigate the first-time freshman admissions system. Some of UT-Austin’s top graduates every year begin their studies at community college. Transfer admission allows universities to enroll first-generation and low-income students who might want to save money at community college.

Many have family obligations requiring them to stay close to home following graduation. Transfers often come from nontraditional backgrounds, including mid-career professionals, military veterans, and parents.

They’re my favorite students to work with because they have at least a year or two of post-high school experience. Compared to high school seniors, they often have more precise goals about what they want from their education.

There are far fewer resources available for prospective transfer applicants than first-time freshmen, especially at four-year universities where there aren’t designated offices to help students transition away from their campus.

Information for honors programs and research opportunities are geared toward first-time freshmen. An intrepid prospective transfer is often left guessing whether they’re eligible for a particular program. Identifying prerequisites adds an additional challenge to whether a student might be eligible for enrolling in upper-division courses in their major because degree plans are suited for students already on campus. Incomplete information on their sites complicates applying to universities such as Michigan Ann-Arbor, making it difficult to write the “Why Michigan?” essay.

Erecting barriers for transfer students decreases diversity on college campuses because it deters nontraditional students from applying. Prospective transfers applying for the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering receive a surprise requirement weeks after completing their application. They have only two weeks to submit a separate application to the program on an almost identical topic required on the Coalition Application.

UNC Asheville admits 94 percent of their applicants, yet they take an opposite approach to clear and transparent admissions requirements. They’ve mindlessly adopted holistic review procedures so that they can learn about “your successes, challenges, interests and goals—everything that makes you who you are.”

Students are more than their grades. Few would debate that point. But admissions requirements aren’t the appropriate place to communicate an institution’s commitment to embracing the student as a whole.

At many highly selective universities, transfers regardless of socioeconomic status or ethnicity are an underrepresented cohort. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation published a comprehensive report on transfer student success called Persistence.  They determined that transfers represent 11 percent of the undergraduate population at top public universities and only 3 percent at private schools. “35 public selective institutions enroll four times as many transfer students as the 140 private selective institutions.”  

For example, Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Stanford admit around 1 percent of their transfer applicants compared with more than five times the admissions rate for first-time freshmen. MIT, Yale, Amherst, and Claremont McKenna accept fewer than two dozen transfers each year. Williams, America’s top liberal arts college, admitted 11 transfers, whereas Cal Tech accepted only three transfer applicants in 2019.

These disparities between freshman and transfer admissions rates represent a deliberate institutional preference for privileged students over historically marginalized populations. Given the scarcity of spaces and lack of information at elite universities, it’s surprising that any prospective transfers apply at all. A lack of viable transfer pathways puts added stress on getting things right the first time as a high school applicant.

By contrast, Cornell, Brown, Pennsylvania, Columbia, and U Chicago admit transfers at similar rates to first-time freshmen.

Still, transfers to elite universities are twice as likely to come from another four-year university than a community college. Their preferences reflect society’s bias toward four-year degrees while shunning local colleges. The Persistence report found that community college transfers are slightly more likely to complete their degree relative to first-time freshman or transfers from four-year universities. Given the higher success rates of community college students, it’s peculiar that transfer admissions at elite universities prefer students originating at four-year universities.

Closing the door to transfer students, especially from community colleges, sacrifices opportunities for enrolling a more diverse and capable student body. Transferring into Michigan’s Engineering program requires a very specific math course sequence that includes linear algebra and differential equations. These two courses go above and beyond any other public university that usually just require engineering physics and a few calculus semesters.

One of my clients took these beyond-calculus courses at their community college under the impression that they met the prerequisites. However, the credits didn’t transfer because they’re classes that are ordinarily only offered at four-year universities. Michigan’s transfer equivalency system didn’t recognize them. Despite being a first-generation black student with a community college 4.0 GPA—the kind that Michigan purports to value highly—they were denied without further consideration (after wasting time with their required five essays and the application fee). He considered emailing and then decided he is better off enrolling at a university that would treat him better.

Any elite university that claims to value diversity and college access yet admits significantly fewer transfers relative to first-time freshmen is hypocritical. A sincere commitment to diversity and college access would decrease barriers for beginning at a community college and accept first-time freshmen and transfers at similar rates. They need to maintain some balance between incoming transfers from two-year colleges and four-year universities.

The Persistence study about community college transfers concludes that the most effective way to increase college access and bring diversity to campus is to enroll more community college students:

“Because lower-income students are three times more likely to begin their postsecondary pursuits at a community college than higher-income students, strengthening transfer pathways to selective institutions has the potential to increase bachelor’s completion rates for our nation’s brightest students. It also can assist selective higher education institutions increase the diversification of their student bodies along lines of socioeconomic status, first-generation status, or age.”

If elite universities sincerely committed themselves to increasing access and diversity, they would admit and enroll more transfer students, especially those from community colleges.