申请转学一定要提前关注学校信息并提早准备

Angela_passions · 发表于 2014-9-18 09:42:14

现在有越来越多的国内学生试图通过“转校”进入理想的美国大学。据美国Maryland大学的数据显示，该校有一半本科生都是转校生，且转校生的人数还在上升，这也是美国高等教育的普遍趋势。在这儿提醒大家，虽然美国转校入学比较灵活，但一定要多关注各学校的规定并提前咨询，以免误事。

Jasmine White was accepted to Morgan State University, her dream college, almost 10 years ago. But the New Yorker discovered she could not afford the out-of-state tuition.

"I just started crying because I had no idea where I was going to get [the money] before class started," White recalled.

Instead of coming to Baltimore, she earned an associate's degree at a community college in New York, and served five years in the Army Reserve.

Now 26, she is finally enrolling at Morgan State this fall. With the experiences she has had, she believes she will be able to better focus on her studies than she could have when she was fresh out of high school.

"I think I'll be more mature," White said. "I won't really be interested in all the partying and the distractions that's going on."

White's path through higher education is growing increasingly common. About half of the undergraduate students in the University System of Maryland started their college careers in a different school, officials say, and the number of transfers is rising. (The figures do not include the University of Maryland University College, a primarily online university in which nearly all are transfer students.)

Morgan State, a public university outside of the University System of Maryland, is enrolling more than 450 transfer students this fall.

Those numbers reflect national trends. Educators and analysts credit the economic meltdown and slow recovery: More students, looking to stretch their education dollar, are completing half of their college credits in cheaper two-year programs before moving on to a four-year college for their full bachelor's degree.

"In the past I think there was the assumption that students were starting at community college because they weren't ready to go to a four-year school," said Janet L. Marling, the director of the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students at the University of North Georgia. "Now we're seeing people exercise choice."

Colleges are welcoming the surge. They are stepping up their efforts to recruit students from two-year and other four-year schools — sometimes offering financial incentives — and creating programs to address the specific needs of transfer students.

Andrew Flagel, the senior vice president for students and enrollment at Brandeis University, says the historical distrust at many four-year schools about the caliber of education at community colleges has waned.

"The shift that you see is the recognition by even the most elite institutions that most of the talent in higher education is sitting in community colleges," he said. "There's a tremendous opportunity to bring in diverse students by establishing community partnerships."

William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, said the state "stands out in having a very constructive collaborative relationship with community colleges."

Maryland's four-year schools are working more closely with community colleges, he says, and establishing pipelines to allow students to transfer more easily.

Towson University in particular has moved aggressively to enroll more transfer students, according to Ben Passmore, an assistant vice chancellor at the state university system who studies enrollment trends.

Towson is opening a new academic building at Harford Community College in Bel Air this fall to offer a seamless transfer for graduates of Harford and Cecil community colleges. The university also has partnerships with other community colleges to lure students, offers academic assistance to transfers, and tracks how they are performing.

Nationwide, about 45 percent of students at four-year colleges — both public and private — transferred in from a community college, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported in 2012. The proportion in Maryland was 40 percent.

The University System of Maryland and the Maryland Higher Education Commission track the number of students who transfer between institutions annually, but do not keep data on the total number of transfer students enrolled at a school at any one time.

The number of students who transfer to schools in the University System of Maryland from four-year colleges has remained steady over time, according to Passmore. But the number of transfers from community colleges has grown from about 9,400 students in 2008 to nearly 12,000 in 2012 — an increase of about 25 percent.

Maryland universities are expanding agreements to guarantee admission to community college graduates who meet academic requirements. Some are adding programs to lure transfer students from community colleges and other schools.

Read more:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-transfer-students-20140907,0,48381.story#ixzz3DcxNqn91