A study by National Center for Education Statistics shows that almost four in 10 students who enroll in a college in the next six years won’t be able to transfer any of their credits to their new institution.
According to the same study, which had a sample size of approximately 17,000 students at more than 3,000 colleges, more than 50 percent of student transfers come from two-year public colleges. Students who transfer from these colleges to four-year public institutions transfer the highest number of credits with them.
Knaus said the IU Office of Admissions has no say in what courses will transfer from other colleges.
“We implement the decisions on the courses that’ll transfer, but the academic departments and the schools at IU make those decisions,” Knaus said. “We don’t make those decisions.”
He also said the type of college from which a student transfers has no impact on whether or not their credits will transfer, regardless of whether a student transfers from a smaller community college or a larger university, as long as it’s an accredited institution.
When a student applies to transfer, IU will process his or her application and provide them with an admission decision within four to six weeks, Knaus said. Upon admission, the transfer application will immediately be reviewed to see which credits transfer.
“At the same time when we admit the student, we do an overall evaluation of their transfer to see what courses will transfer in,” Knaus said. “So as soon as they are admitted they will know what courses transfer to IU.”
Senior Michael Collins transferred to IU during the spring 2013 semester as a junior to attend the Kelley School of Business, and he described his transfer process as easy and painless.
Collins said he didn’t experience any difficulties with regard to credits transferring because he made sure to use the online credit transfer service to check that all of his previous credits would transfer to IU before completing the application process.
Although ensuring that credits will transfer before applying can be helpful, it doesn’t actually guarantee the process to be easier for any student.
Knaus said the majority of credit transfer issues happen with students who decide they wish to transfer after having already completed a significant amount of credits at another institution, credits that may or may not be compatible with IU’s curriculum.
“My situation was different than most students who start at Ivy Tech and then transfer to IU,” said Collins, who attended two other schools in Colorado before moving to ?Bloomington, transferring to Ivy Tech Community College and ending up at IU.
Collins said he was luckily able to transfer all of his approximately 72 credits when enrolling at IU. Other students aren’t as lucky.
“We can’t put every single college in and every single course that they offer,” Knaus said. “It would take forever to try to do all of that.”
Knaus said the main reason students transfer is because they are unhappy at their current college for various reasons, and most students don’t begin college with the intent to eventually transfer somewhere else.
As was the case with Collins, many also transfer to IU for a specific program in which they’re interested.
Although the ultimate goal for student transfers is to graduate in a cumulative four years, adding up collectively the number of years spent at each college they attended, this just isn’t possible for all students.
One thing Knaus said students can do to ensure maximum credit transfer is to speak individually to members of each department to attempt to negotiate the possibility of classes transferring that didn’t originally. While he doesn’t guarantee this will change anything with respect to credits students are able to get for classes, Knaus said he believes it to be worth a try.
“We encourage them to work individually with the departments and state their case,” Knaus said. “That allows them the opportunity as an individual to be an ?advocate for themselves.”
