Half have attended more than one college???
 

(Would like to see them survey how GLO membership affects this)



A new study released by (Indiana Univ.) IU's National Survey of Student Engagement found at least half of college students have attended more than one college or university.
Out of all transfer students, more than half took most of their courses from a vocational-technical school or from a community or junior college. On average, transfer students participated less in educational activities than nontransfer students and interacted less with faculty. The study also found about half the students that took complementary courses from other institutions did so to complete their degree requirements sooner.
Junior Dan Waltz transferred from Harding University in Circe, Ark., after his freshman year. In addition to coming to IU, Waltz has taken summer courses at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis because he said the classes are easier. He said he believes attending more than one university helps students broaden their educational base and meet different groups of people. Unlike the majority of transfer students, Waltz had no problems getting involved at IU. He was accepted into a fraternity and the Kelley School of Business and has been active in both.
Shawn Milligan, on the other hand, left IU for Westminster College near St. Louis. Milligan transferred because Westminster is a smaller school that offers smaller class environments, which he believes gives students more personal attention. After the transfer, it took a while for Milligan to find a core group of friends. He said he had a hard time meeting people at first because his peers were already established in certain circles. Now Milligan is involved in campus life with a steady group of friends in a fraternity. He is satisfied with his choice to transfer to a school that better suits his needs.
Higher education experts are concerned with the number of students taking classes from multiple institutions. Jillian Kinzie, the associate director of the NSSE Institute, said transfer students are not as likely to be involved in extracurricular activities, group study sessions or contacting professors. These students are more likely to see the campus environment as less supportive of their education, Kinzie said.
"We have reason to be concerned about transfer students who might not be benefiting as much from their undergraduate experience as their nontransfer peers," she said. "Multi-institute attendance may speed a degree, but it also may offer students a disjointed experience."

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I have attended three schools (I guess you could say) took a few college classes through a Technical school back home when I was still in high school, went to a small four-year college and now transferred to USC to finish out my final three years (or maybe two depending on how motivated I can get)

I went to 4 schools - 3 for undergrad and 1 for my masters.

I went to two schools. :)

I have continously gone to the same school but I also take classes online through a community college so that I can finish faster. My school only allows you to take so many credits at a time.

Many articles on saving money on college coach parents to send their kids to community colleges & such to get the core classes, then go for the higher priced 4-year college.

I'd like to see the study and look at the methodology, and what they define "attended". If it's simply having credits from more than one institution, than this isn't that surprising. If it's actually more specific than that, then I'm kind of shocked.

For a survey like this, just looking at credits earned would be the easiest way to define attendance, but for the conclusions they're drawing, that would be the hardest to make conclusions about. For example, I had credits that I earned in HS from two community colleges in KC. One class I didn't actually go to, but credit for taking part in a project, and the other was through my HS, so I got dual credit. But I never actually set foot in a class room on the campus of either institution, so I would hardly say I "attended" those colleges.

That's how I feel - I had 12 credits from high school that I would hardly count as going to a second institution!

Although, my derailed plan of action did include me transferring to a second college after my freshman year! I graduated from high school when I was 16, and my parents (rightly!) thought I wasn't mature enough to go away to the school to which I had a full scholarship. So, I was going to Pitt for one (1) year, then transferring to William & Mary. Oh, well - the best laid plans of mice and men...!

I went to 4 schools to complete my Undergrad degree... =)

Okay first it's "have" not "half"...


But I have attended two schools for my undergrad - one prior to my miltary service/break and another afterwards (after I sobered-up and scrapped together the cash).

disjointed alum
 

Hutchinson Community College
Emporia State University
University of Kansas
Kansas State University
Utah State University
University of Illinois
Pittsburg State University
Universidad Nacional de Mexico
University of Oklahoma
University of Colorado
--guess that is all

I dunno, I've never thought about transferring. I love it here at Otterbein. It is the perfect size, location, involvement, program for me. I guess I'll have attended 2 universities though, since I'm leaving for study abroad at Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education in 4 weeks, and staying for 6 months.

I'm looking forward to graduate school though.

My brother-in-law, who spent the first 23 or so years of his life being shiftless and lazy, finally got his Bachelors from the fifth college he attended.

If I recall correctly, college number one was the Virginia Military Institute where he lasted a whopping 3 days.

He's since cleaned up his act, thank goodness.

Just one for me, thanks. :)

Re: Half have attended more than one college???
 

It's S-E-A-R-C-Y, AR.

Holy geez...that's the worst attempt at spelling Searcy I've ever seen!! Did this writer not ask the student how to spell Searcy or did the student not know how to spell Searcy?

On another note...I'd like to see how they defined attended, among other things. The ISSE is a scantron type survey given out at campuses who choose to participate (there's a fee, I believe). I don't know exactly how this data is gathered on the form...that may affect the interpretation of it.

PsychTau

BTW: It was just one college for me too.

I read a statistic somewhere saying that something like 1/3rd of all college students transfer, which seemed high at the time, but not so much anymore.

I think that people usually focus on the wrong things during the college admissions process, so it's not really that surprising.

I guess technically I attended 3 schools.

During high school I took some basic classes for dual credit at a community college.

Then I went to a smaller university. I was definitely more involved in extra-curricular stuff there. When I was in high school I never planned on staying at the first university (as much as I liked it) I just decided to go there on a temporary basis. I couldn't decide where I wanted to go even though I got accepted to Tech & A&M but didn't think the big school thing would be for me my first year or so.

After the end of sophomore year, I transferred to UNT (which was almost 7 times as big as my smaller school) and I think I definitely participated in less activities than at my first school. I think the main reason for that was because the job I worked there wasn't a campus job, so it wasn't as flexible as the RA-gig that I had at my first school and many evenings I would be @ work instead of French Club meetings or whatever. My classes were also really hard after my first semester there (getting into the hard upper classmen classes!) and they required a lot more time (and a ton more group meetings for projects) than previous semesters. So I don't think my lack of involvement was because I transferred, but more because I chose to focus on graduating/academics. I was definitely more strategic in picking UNT to transfer to because I thought it was in an excellent location for internship opportunities / future job opportunities. I learned that a lot of the local companies preferred to pick interns from the area (since there are so many undergrad schools up here) and lucky for me, that all panned out just as I hoped :)

I stuck with one school for my bachelor's, but practically all of my friends attended multiple schools so I can believe that it's pretty common. My roommate junior year ended up going to 4 colleges, I think, before she ended up with her degree, and my boyfriend went to 2 schools but transferred back and forth between them several times. Almost everyone I've worked with in the past who were students had been to at least 2 different schools. That seems to be pretty much the norm.

i went to a college during my senior year of hs and i got 24 credits from that school (dual credit), i also went to two other schools for my undergrad. oh well...

- marissa

Alot of people go to the nearby community colleges for a semester to complete their pre-reqs..mainly, because it's CHEAPER! and easily transferrable..

I did go the a CC for a semester, .but my school and the community college advisors screwed me over with the credit trasferring. hence, why I'm finishing in 4 1/2 years.

Feel pretty good, ONLY TWO!

Of course, We are arch rivals now!

I Root For The Gorillas!!!:cool:

I went to:

First, four year private university (2 years)
Second, two year county community college (1 year)
Third, two year private community college (1 year)
Fourth, four year state university (2 years)

Graduated with A.B.

Fifth, two year city community college (finishing up another degree) (1 semester)

On to grad school

Sixth, private seminary (1.5 years; and 2 to go!)

I graduated from IU and went there for five years. I did take a few classes at Joliet Junior College and at College of DuPage during the summers and while on hiatus from school.

Technically I went to three schools.

In HS I did college courses at the local UW (Wisconsin-Stout) extension. Then I did my four years at Beloit College, but I did my study abroad through Loyla Univ Chicago, so I technically attended there. I do have three diffrent transcripts.

One thing that I think was interesting was the comments about true transfers, and getting involved. I don't know what it's like at most schools, but at Nebraska, there were so many clubs and stuff that there was always openings for clubs and leadership positions. I know for a fact that a lot of people got student government positions simply by filling out an app, and not even having to worry about qualifications or an interview. Granted there was competition for the top spots, but there were plenty of positions (including some with some real power that few people knew about) that if you wanted to get involved you absolutely could.

I think that is something that is true wherever you go...if you want to get involved, you can.

I technically have attended 5 schools.

3 as my official undergrad schools (plus I took a summer class at the UW) and one grad school.

this is interesting to me because i know very few transfer students.. none of my friends from high school switched schools and none of my friends from college switched either.. i am friends with a few people who transfered to my college after a year of commu.nity..

and i don't think taking a summer class or when you were in HS really count in attending.. because how active were you in that school?

i took a 3 week summer class at montclair this summer and i was on campus the least amount of time as possible and i hated it...

and right now i'm studying abroad in cork, ireland... so technically you could say i'm getting my undergrad at three schools, but really the only one that counts to me is washington college.. where i will be graduating from in may 2007 after four wonderful years there :)

Yes but technically you have matriculated to three schools and have three transcripts. It really depends on how the question was worded in the survey. Also I imagine it would depend on how many credits you took at the other schools. I took six classes in HS and then abroad I took 4 classes, that is a signifigant amount of work and the classes all counted toward pre-recs and required classes in my major and minors. While I say I went to Beloit College, I technically went to two other colleges, and I think that is why half the people on here have said 'technically'.

I took two summer courses at The University of New Orleans and the rest of the time I attended and graduated from The University of Mississippi (OLE MISS). I don't really count UNO as actually like "going there" because I would just go to class, I never hung out there or anything...it was summer school!

My sister went to Ole Miss for two years and finished up at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg when she changed her degree she had to transfer.

Ole Miss has lots of transfer students, mostly from Community Colleges/Junior Colleges (MS has tons of community colleges).