BRCC business student Fernando Sagastume with BRCC Transfer Advisor Rajan Shores
“I wanted to stay close to home for financial purposes.” Like many of our students, Fernando Sagastume recognized the tremendous cost advantage of beginning his higher education at his local community college and then transferring to a senior institution for his bachelor’s degree.
Thanks to the relationship between BRCC and JMU, Sagastume also has been able to meet with JMU Transfer Advisor Kate McDaniel to work toward a smooth transfer process.
Sagastume is pursuing his associate degree in Business Administration at Blue Ridge Community College, with plans to transfer and earn his four-year degree at the James Madison University College of Business.
“I’ve had a good experience as a BRCC transfer student,” said Sagastume. “I feel confident that I’m taking the classes required for transfer. Being able to meet with transfer advisors at both Blue Ridge and Madison has been great and I have a pathway guide that tells me which courses I need to take to ensure a smooth transfer. I carry it in my bookbag. It’s with me all the time.”
“Clear pathways help students save time, money, and brainpower,” said Rajan Shore, BRCC’s Coordinator of Transfer Programs. “The sooner students are provided with a transfer guide for their intended major at their first-choice transfer institution, the better. Students are busy and value their time. They want to be assured the courses they are taking are the right ones for their transfer plan. Clear pathways also take the guess work out of advising.”
Sagastume and Shore are benefiting from years of meticulous planning and work accomplished by faculty and staff at Virginia’s Community Colleges and almost all of the state’s senior institutions of higher education.
The Transfer VA initiative was launched in 2018 on a mandate from Virginia lawmakers who were not satisfied with poor transfer success rates and confusing transfer procedures that often resulted in students having to re-take (and pay for) classes because senior institutions refused to grant credit for prior community college work.
A report this month from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University spotlighted the longstanding extent of the problem. Despite surveys indicating nearly four out of five community college students aspired to earn a bachelor’s degree, only 16 percent of transfer students nationally had earned their bachelor’s within six years of entering community college. (Because of the time required to measure results, the study focused on students entering community college in 2015, years before the Transfer VA initiative began.)
“Virginia fared a little better than the national results, but we clearly knew the transfer process was not working for our students as it should,” said Dr. Micol Hutchison, VCCS Director of Transfer. “The job of faculty collaboration across our colleges and the senior institutions has been thorough and time-consuming, but it’s now starting to pay off. We’ve just added another batch of approved transfer guides based on the Common Curricula to our growing list on the TransferVA portal. We’re up to 215 now.”
“Common Curricula emerged from multiple meetings, considerable feedback from our two- and four-year partners, and numerous iterations of the curriculum drafts,” said Dr. Sheri Robertson, VCCS Assistant Vice Chancellor of Policy & Instructional Support Services.
The portal online tool launched in Nov. 2021 and is constantly receiving upgrades to give students, faculty members and advisors access to reliable information to explore degree requirements and plan lifelong careers.
“The addition of new pathways is progress that should not be under-appreciated,” said Emily Muniz, Associate for Transfer and Talent Pathways at SCHEV. “There’s still plenty of work to be done, but our colleges and universities deserve a lot of credit for putting in the time and effort to help make the transfer process better.”
In addition to viewing the latest additions, you can check out the Common Curricula that have recently been finalized and those scheduled to be finalized in AY 2024-2025.
Student Services Transfer Advisor Jennifer Kidwell (center) meets with transfer students at ESCC.
“Because I’m new to the VCCS, I cannot imagine operating without the current pathways. They’re so turnkey!” said Jennifer Kidwell, Transfer Advisor at Eastern Shore Community College. “The additional pathways add more tools to our toolbox. The transfer guides show VCCS students where to start and will help them determine when to transfer. This information is powerful.”
A few additional notes:
- Growing numbers of Virginia Community Colleges are entering into distinct partnerships with senior institutions to improve their transfer experience. Those partnerships rely on the courses and curricula developed by Transfer VA and usually augment statewide transfer practices with joint advising, guaranteed admission, and sometimes co-enrollment opportunities, which allow students to take classes and enjoy programs at the university while still at the community college.
- VCCS Transfer director Micol Hutchison recently penned a blog post for Inside Higher Education about the importance of working with transfer students to find “the right fit” for their higher education path. (Free signup is required to read the post.)
- Efforts to improve the transfer process also benefit Virginia’s senior institutions, a story explored recently by the Cardinal News Service.
