The founders of the community college intended that students planning to transfer to a four-year school would enroll in the Associate of Arts (A.A.) program and receive the A.A. degree, also known as the transfer degree. Since those early days, however, other degree programs have developed, including the Associate of Science (A.S.) degree and the Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree. The A.A.S. degree, in particular, is commonly referred to as an applied or "terminal" degree. Students in applied degree programs were not originally expected to transfer to a four-year institution.

These early assumptions about who should earn which associate degree have led those who study the community college transfer function to define transfer students generally as those who begin their postsecondary education in the community college. Some studies include only students in A.A. programs or who have received the A.A. degree, disregarding A.S. or A.A.S. students altogether (e.g., Baldwin, 1994). Most discussions about transfer and transfer rates exclude or ignore a variety of other students who currently use the community college in "non-traditional" ways—not imagined by community college founders—to attain a baccalaureate degree. These students include

• reverse transfers
  
  
• summer sessioners
  
  
• concurrent enrollees
  
  
• applied degree-holders

Transfer Patterns

Simultaneous Enrollment. In the early 1900s transfer education was perceived as occurring only toward the four-year institution. The founders of the first community colleges expected only A.A. students to transfer, having no notion that, by the end of the century, students would transfer to the community college from the four-year institution, or that they would seek to transfer two-year college credits earned while simultaneously enrolled at a four-year college. They also did not dream that students in applied degree programs would transfer in order to attain a baccalaureate.

Reverse Transfer. The first part of the 20th century saw some four-year college students who occasionally sought admission to a community college, but by the 1960s the admission of four-year college students had become an issue for many two-year college faculty and staff. Referred to as reverse transfers because their transfer direction was the reverse of the expected one, these students were viewed as academically suspect because they had apparently not succeeded in the four-year college. During the 1960s and 1970s, their admission was typically rationalized as part of the community college's "salvage function." When institutional studies began to show that reverse transfers could succeed in two-year colleges, their admission became less controversial. Currently, they are eagerly recruited in order to increase enrollment (Townsend, 2000). Nationally, around 13% of two-year college students are reverse transfers (Townsend & Dever, 1999). Enrolling in the community college helps many reverse transfers attain the baccalaureate at some point, even though the path they take toward that objective was not envisioned when community colleges were first established.

Summer Sessioners. Another group of four-year students who use the community college transfer function is summer sessioners, who enroll in a community college during the summer to take courses for transfer to their alma mater. Moraine Valley Community College actively recruits these students and has monitored their attendance for several years. For example, its Office of Institutional Research reported that in Summer 1999, almost 1,500 four-year students from 150 colleges took an average of 4.8 credit hours at Moraine Valley (Reverse Transfer Project, 1999, p. 1). Technically, summer sessioners are not true reverse transfers because they do not transfer their four-year college credits to the community college in pursuit of an asociate's degree. [Editor's note: Illinois State University maintains a list of courses at Illinois community colleges, including Moraine Valley, which students may consult when considering taking community college courses for transfer to the university. This list allows students to determine exactly which community college courses will fulfill their graduation requirements.]

Concurrent Enrollment. Similar to summer sessioners are those who enroll concurrently at a community college and a four-year college to facilitate acquisition of the baccalaureate. This enrollment might take place during the summer or during the academic year. Attendance at two or more colleges is typical for a growing number of students: "Early data from the 1990s suggest that we will easily surpass a 60 percent multi-institutional attendance rate by the year 2000" (Adelman, 1999, p. vi). Central to this growth in multi-institutional attendance are four-year college students taking courses at the community college, either during the summer or concurrently while enrolled at their four-year institution. Adelman (1999) also found that "sixteen percent of postsecondary students (and 18 percent of bachelor's degree completers) engaged in alternating or simultaneous enrollment" (p. viii), although he did not indicate the percentage for simultaneous enrollment only.

Applied Transfer. Also not foreseen by early community college leaders were those students who enrolled in applied associate degree programs, many of whom transferred to the four-year sector at some point (Berkner, Horn, & Clune, 2000). This phenomenon has been noted in the literature for several decades (e.g., Kintzer, 1983), but there has been little research on the success of these students in attaining the baccalaureate. A recent study in Missouri of applied degree students and their academic performance at the four-year level found that, among a cohort of over 8,000 people graduating with an associate degree from Missouri public community colleges in Spring 1996, 18% or 1,475 students transferred to a public Missouri four-year college by Fall 1996. Of these students, 83% (1,219) had an A.A. degree, and 17% (256) had either an A.S. or an A.A.S. degree. By Spring 2000, the graduation rate and academic performance of the two groups were almost equal. Almost 68% of A.A. degree holders had graduated with an average grade point average (GPA) of 2.97, and over 65% of applied degree recipients had graduated with an average GPA of almost 2.9 (Townsend & Barnes, 2001). Missouri public colleges have been developing specific bachelor degrees and articulation agreements to facilitate the transfer of applied associate degree holders, so the findings of this study may be atypical for other states.

Implications of Transfer Patterns

Students' use of the community college transfer function has several implications, both at the institutional and researcher levels. At the institutional level, community college leaders must realize that admitting the various types of transfer students will bring people to the community college who are sufficiently capable academically and have been admitted to four-year colleges. Thus the community college is neither their first choice nor their last chance to gain a baccalaureate. When colleges seek to increase their enrollments, they may eagerly seek to admit the transfer students; however, when they seek to limit enrollment—particularly in selective programs like nursing—community college leaders will need to decide who should have first chance at community college courses and programs.

Early supporters like William Rainey Harper saw the two-year college as a means to keep academically unprepared students away from the university. Other supporters held a more egalitarian perspective, viewing the two-year college as an opportunity for those who might not be admitted to four-year colleges to begin their pursuit of the baccalaureate. Regardless of the underlying assumption of purpose that the founders began with, they all envisioned an institution that would provide an opportunity to people who would probably not go to a four-year college. Present community college leaders need to determine whether this historical purpose should change in order to accommodate the many four-year college students who want to use the community college transfer function on their path toward a baccalaureate.

Faced with this decision,community college leaders could:

• Base admission into selective programs entirely on proven academic aptitude, which would guarantee transfer students ample space in highly selective programs;
  
  
• Set quotas in these programs and reserve a certain number of places for reverse transfers, leaving the majority of places for first-timers in academe;
  
  
• Give priority to first-timers in academe and only admit reverse transfers if available spaces exist.
  These options could also apply for enrollment in highly sought courses where enrollment is limited and more sections cannot be added.

The benefits of enrolling transfer students must also be considered. Not only do these students increase enrollment, if that is a desired goal; they can also influence dynamics within the classroom by modeling participation in class discussions. Additionally, they are knowledgeable about four-year college norms and practices and they can facilitate the transfer of community college students into 4-year institutions in an informal way by passing along information about such things as financial aid.

Institutional leaders should also consider how many of their applied degree students actively desire a baccalaureate degree and fully intend to pursue one, and how can the community college support their efforts toward this objective. Do relationships need to be developed with four-year colleges willing to offer a baccalaureate in applied studies or in technological studies? Do policy leaders at the state level need to be lobbied for their commitment to facilitating the transfer of applied degree holders?

From a research perspective, transfer studies need to be more explicit about who will be defined as a transfer student. For example, studies should clearly indicate if and why the only people counted as transfer students are those who began their postsecondary education in the two-year college and only attended it before transferring with an A.A. degree. More sophisticated tracking systems may need to be created at the state level to track the transfer of students by type of associate degree. Similarly, state-level research should be conducted on the extent of undergraduate reverse transfer and on the eventual degree attainment of these students. At the institutional level, the extent of reverse transfers, summer sessioners and concurrent enrollment should be ascertained as part of institutional research on the students the community college's transfer function serves.

As the community college begins its second century, it remains the primary pathway for many students toward the baccalaureate degree. As the founders intended, the community college continues to serve students who have no chance or need to enter 4-year institutions, as well as those who need a solid basis before launching to the next stage of their journey toward the baccalaureate degree. It has also become a supporter of the students who seek an applied degree but also wish to transfer to a four-year college. Increasingly, the community college has begun to facilitate the attainment of the baccalaureate degree for many of today's four-year college students by allowing them to transfer to the community college for awhile or enabling them to take summer courses and enroll concurrently. At issue for institutional and system-level leaders is to decide whether the hopes and dreams of these various categories of students will collide, or if all can be accommodated by the community college transfer function.

References

Adelman, C. (1999). Answers in the tool box: Academic integrity, attendance patterns, and bachelor's degree attainment. Jessup, MD: Educational Publications Center, U.S. Department of Education.

Baldwin, A. (1994). Indicators of the university success of associate degree recipients in the fields of business, computer science, and engineering. Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, 1(2), 113-128.

Berkner, L., Horn, L., & Clune, M. (2000). Descriptive summary of 1995-96 beginning postsecondary student: Three years later, with an essay on students who started at less-than-4-year institutions. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

History of Joliet Junior College [On-line]. Available: <http://www.jjc.cc.il.us/admin/history.html>. Accessed May 15, 2001.

Kintzer, F. (1983). The multidimensional problem of articulation and transfer. ERIC Digest. Los Angeles, CA: ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges. ED288577

Reverse Transfer Project, Summer 1999. (November 1999). Moraine Valley Community College, IL: Office of Institutional Research.

Townsend, B.K. (2000). "A second chance for whom? Rationales of community colleges for enrolling reverse transfers," Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 24(4), 301-311.

Townsend, B.K., & Barnes, T. (2001). Tying transfer to type of associate degree. Unpublished manuscript.