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Transferring Colleges: Two-Year to Four-Year | College Coach Blog

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Steve Brennan

Written by Steve Fernandez-Brennanon May 13th, 2015

Before coming to College Coach I worked in admissions at a breadth of institutions. My most recent experience was as associate dean of admission at Occidental College in Los Angeles, where I was responsible for international admissions and read applications from around the world but specifically Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Russia, Romania and Bulgaria. While at Oxy I also made the final decision on applications from students applying from all over California; Chicago and the Midwest; and Hawai'i and the Pacific, and I served on the athletics admission review committee and was liaison with baseball as well. I started my career at Marquette University where I reviewed applications for each of the seven undergraduate colleges including engineering, business, and nursing, as well as for the direct entry physical therapy and BS/DDS programs. At Loyola University-Chicago, where I was assistant director of admission, nearly half of the applications I reviewed were applying for pre-medicine. While in Honolulu completing my master’s degree at the University of Hawai'i I served on the graduate admission committee for the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, and after graduation I served as the founding director of advising at College Connections Hawai`i, a Honolulu non-profit focused on Native Hawaiian and first generation to college youth, where I worked as an independent counselor helping students and their families with all parts of the college application process. I have presented at the national admission conference as well as state and regional conferences on topics related to keeping the admission process student-centered, helping students write their best essays, and retaining first generation students and students of color.
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Transferring Colleges: Two-Year to Four-Year

There are lots of reasons – financial, academic, lifestyle – to start your college career at a two-year college.  Whatever went into your decision, you’ve changed and been changed by your two years at community college. Now that you’re thinking about applying to a four-year college, what do you do? First, consider your priorities.  What’s most important to you?  Is it finishing as quickly as you can, even if that means a more expensive option, or are finances driving the bus?  Is it enrolling in a specific school, or perhaps a specific department or program?  Are you able to move to a new city or state, or are you only considering schools nearby?  Do you have other priorities? Being clear about what you want – what’s possible, what’s affordable, what’s practical – will be the first step in making sure the next ones are in the right direction. If your focus is on saving money and completing as many credits as you can at your (likely) more affordable two-year school before you transfer, keep the credit policy of your target institutions in mind.  Some colleges only grant degrees to those who complete a minimum of two years (or usually 60 semester credit hours) on their campuses; some will confer degrees to transfers who complete just their final year.  In either case, it’s likely that you’ll need to transfer to get your upper division courses – those usually at the junior or senior level – and meet graduation requirements. Be careful when planning your course selection, making use of the information from your target school to ensure that you’re maximizing your time and savings. If your focus is finishing your degree as quickly as you can and you are less concerned about cost, think about your timing.  When do you want to start at your new school?  Many four-year colleges happily admit transfers in any term (fall, spring, summer, and in some cases even intersession terms), while others accept transfers only in the fall.  If a college has an application deadline of January 15th, and they only admit transfers in the fall, then on January 16 you can’t hope to enroll in that school for another 19 months!  That might be okay if that college or university is your dream school; if your goal is to move into a four year program and get your BA or BS as quickly as possible, it might mean removing that school from your list. As you can tell from all of this, timely planning is very important, and to be able to do that you need reliable information.  Start with your current school’s transfer center, and find out their policies and support services.  Does your school have an articulation agreement or a Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) that defines outcomes (admission to the school you’re targeting!) for certain benchmarks (courses and grades)?  If so, that can greatly simplify your path.  If not, or if you are targeting a four-year school that doesn’t participate, be in touch with your target school or schools.  They are the ones that set the policies, the timing, the requirements, and the minimum expectations you’ll need to satisfy to be a successful transfer student. So as you prepare to transfer to a four year school, set your priorities, plan early and well by gathering information from both your current and target schools, and work hard!  After all, the harder you work and the stronger your record, the more choices you’re likely to have.

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