Thomas Garvie
tgarvie@uwyo.edu
Issues with credits not transferring from Wyoming community colleges to UW will be less of a problem, as the university has articulated new agreements with the colleges to assure credit transfer.
According to a UW press release, this will help transfer students in popular majors to meet the bachelor’s degree requirements.
The goal is to have 17 UW degree programs agreed upon and aligned with the Wyoming community colleges.
The new agreements are timely, as transfer students to the university have dealt with a variety of hurdles.
“No matter what, coming from a community college things were [goint to] be different,” Casey Terrell, transfer from Western Wyoming Community College to UW, said. “Each transfer student has a different experience; however, the content of that experience is dependent on similar factors.”
Mai Lee Olsen, admission representative at Eastern Wyoming College, discussed the process of assisting students with transferring.
“It starts with meeting with the students,” Olsen said.
The process continues with the discussion of deadlines for transcripts, registration, scholarships and grants and then waiting for acceptance, Olsen said. She added that she operates on a “case to case basis” as each student has different needs and goals to be met.
“EWC was very helpful,” Davin Gerrard, graduate from Eastern Wyoming College and transfer to UW, said, “they helped me with financial aid so I didn’t have to pay anything.”
Finding the right institution for each student is the most difficult aspect for transferring from a community college, Olsen said. If a student chooses, EWC as well as other community colleges can refer students to the Wyoming Advance Transfer program.
Olsen said the program is convenient because it allows for the initial application fee to be waived, for automatic acceptance if criteria are met and a more personalized experience for students.
Director of Admissions at UW Shelly Dodd shed further light on the transfer program saying it “helps students find out more about things like coarse work and credit transfer.”
While Olsen and the admissions representatives at EWC have been successful in providing students like Gerrard with what she said is a “pretty smooth” transition, not all transfer students experience the same kind of support from their two year institutions.
“They kind of made me do everything by myself,” Kaitlin Gerrard, former Casper College student and UW transfer, said, “and Casper still isn’t helping me.”
Kaitlin said the transfer documents were difficult to complete without much assistance.
Terrell, now in his first year at the UW College of Law, said he had issues transferring, as well.
“Western Wyoming Community College did a great job educating me, but they didn’t necessarily hold my hand and lead me here,” Terrell said. “They didn’t warn me about additional general degree requirements.”
While support for transferring students seems to vary between institution and opinions of those services between each student, there seems to be a consensus about UW admissions and its support of transfer students.
“Admissions here was very helpful,” Kaitlin said.
She said despite applying late, the admissions office was helpful and did everything in their power to make a semester here at UW possible for her.
Dodd said the crucial part of the process is “about helping students know what they need to transfer.”
The process at the university begins with Rob Deniss, associating recruiting director, who travels to the community colleges to assist with the process, Dodd said. She added that then it is important to ensure students have the proper pieces in place to come to UW, including transcripts and applications.
While it seems to be a very simple process, it appears to be one that is working, Dodd said.
Gerrard and Terrell said they both have been satisfied with UW admissions.
“They did as much as they possibly could,” Terrell said.
Gerrard, Terrell and Kaitlin said improvements that could be made to the process is communication between institutions as far as paperwork and increased transparency in regard to additional course work that one should expect.
While these obstacles all exist for transfer students, Dobb as well as all three of the students interviewed said the most difficult aspect of the transition is the cultural hurdle.
“Almost overnight you go from knowing everyone to knowing almost nobody,” Terrell said. “In community college you know everyone and they know you, but when you start at the university you feel more like a face and a number.”
This is an issue the office of admissions is very aware of, Dodd said.
“UW just feels so big to them,” she said.
Kaitlin said a lack of ‘one-on-one’ attention from the educators at the university is what differs from the community college.
For Gerard the sheer size of classes is troublesome.
“It’s hard going from classes of 10 to classes of 140,” he said.
Overall opinions seem to vary with the process being characterized both as “smooth” and “difficult.” And despite the differences between community colleges, the UW admissions office alleviates much of the struggle, Kaitlin said, but she added, “college is just complicated,” and this is a process that will continue to improve with the new university and community college agreements.
