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University of Massachusetts Amherst
SARIS - Student Affairs Research, Information and Systems
Community College Transfer Survey (S00-C)

Executive summary: Most transfer students (90%) feel that their courses at their two-year colleges prepared them to succeed academically at UMass, and are satisfied with their decision to transfer to UMass. The recommendation of a friend or relative was important to about two-thirds of students in their decision to transfer to UMass, while the advice of a two-year college faculty or staff member was important to about half of the students. Students spent an average of 18 hours per week working for pay while attending their two-year colleges, compared to 10 hours per week at UMass. They spent an average of 14 hours per week studying at their two-year colleges, compared to 18 hours per week at UMass.

On three Tuesday evenings, February 22 and 29 and March 7, 2000, Project Pulse conducted a telephone survey of students who transferred to UMass from two-year institutions. The purpose of the survey was to study issues related to the students' transitions from their previous institutions to UMass. Pulse interviewers attempted to contact 666 students who had made that transition. Interviewers successfully contacted 486 of these transfer students and 392 (80.7%) agreed to be interviewed. The response rate for the survey was 58.9%, and the sampling error is plus or minus approximately five percentage points. The final disposition of the sample is presented in Table 1 and a demographic summary of the respondents is presented in Table 2.

First, students were asked to agree or disagree with a series of statements about how their experience at their two-year college had prepared them for the transition to UMass. Most respondents (90.4%, n=357) agreed with the following statement: "your two-year college courses prepared you to be academically successful at UMass." Almost three-quarters of the respondents (71.5%, n=281) said that they had "consulted with academic counselors about the process of transferring to a four-year institution." Two-thirds (67.4%, n=265) reported that they "knew about the graduation requirements at UMass prior to transferring." Almost half (47.4%, n=185) said that they had "sought counseling advice." See Figure 1 for a more detailed presentation of responses to these questions.

Figure 1. Two-year college experience as preparation for UMass

Students were asked how many hours per week they spent participating in various activities while enrolled in their two-year institution, and then how many hours they spent on those same activities since enrolling at UMass. Figure 2 details the average number of hours students reported spending on each activity in each academic setting. The activity that students spent the greatest number of hours engaged in (on average) at their two-year college was off-campus work for pay, whereas at UMass, the most time-consuming activity (on average) is studying or doing homework.

Figure 2. Mean hours spent on various activities, two-year college and UMass

Students were asked about the kinds of advice that had influenced their decision to attend UMass. Almost two-thirds of respondents (61.9%, n=243) said that "the recommendation of a friend or relative" had been important("very" or "somewhat") in their decision, and 52.3% (n=205) said that "the advice of a two-year college faculty or staff member" has been important (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Influences on decision to attend UMass

Another battery of questions explored students' satisfaction with various aspects of their experience at UMass (see Figure 4). More than 90% of respondents reported satisfaction with their decision to transfer to UMass and their ability to make friends. More than 80% expressed satisfaction with their social life, their overall University experience, the number of courses that had been successfully transferred from their two-year college, their academic progress, and the sense of community on campus. Over 70% expressed satisfaction with the accessibility of faculty, and over 50% were satisfied with their academic advising.

Figure 4. Transfer students' satisfaction with aspects of UMass

Not surprisingly, students with higher UMass grade point averages were more likely to report satisfaction with their academic progress than were students with lower grade point averages. Figure 5 illustrates this pattern.

Figure 5. Satisfaction with academic progress, by UMass grade point average

-- Meg Kluge

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