Reducing the Costs of College Transfer

Nationally, the process of transferring credits can saddle learners with significant added costs. To remedy this, some institutions are supporting student success through a broader acceptance of transfer credit and other practices aimed at reducing costs to students.

The result has not been a loss of tuition revenue or students who are underprepared for upper-level courses. Rather, by aligning policies with students’ interests, those institutions are reaping the benefits of greater enrollment, retention and completion.

The Costs of Today’s College Credit Transfer System

Whether by choice or circumstance, today’s learners increasingly take intermittent pathways to completing their degrees. Learners transfer between institutions, stop out and re-enter college, and gain valuable skills and experiences from a variety of sources that span work, professional development, community engagement and higher education.

Over 40 million learners have some college credits but no credential, and 38 percent of students transfer colleges during their educational journey. Unfortunately, learners are often penalized for these nonlinear paths, facing a host of barriers that lead to lost credits and increased costs.

In our recent paper, we identified the major barriers and documented the costs they impose on learners. We also examined promising strategies to address credit mobility barriers and transfer student success through a learner focus group and case studies of the following leading institutions:

• Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU)
• Governors State University (GSU)
• Moraine Valley Community College (MVCC)
• Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)
• Reynolds Community College (RCC)

The barriers we identified stem largely from poor information, slow and burdensome processes, and institutions pursuing shortsighted financial incentives. 

These common challenges can deter learners from completing the transfer process or their degree. In fact, learners who had fewer than half of their credits accepted were 2.5 times less likely to graduate than those with more than 90 percent of credits accepted. New data from SNHU found that learners who transfer in fewer credits had lower year-over-year retention rates.

Identifying the True Costs of Transfer

The barriers learners face lead to costs that are short and long-term, financial and emotional:

• Enrollment costs: These include transcript fees, institutional transcript holds and tuition to retake credits that were rejected. The average learner transferring to a public four-year institution will pay over $13,000 in additional cost of attendance expenses. Learners are also likely to incur additional debt, especially if they exhaust their financial aid eligibility.
• Optimal choice costs: Learners may be forced to make suboptimal choices, such as choosing a school or major based on credit acceptance rather than fit. Forgoing a more profitable STEM major for a more flexible general studies major, for example, can cost students $24,000 in annual earnings.
• Human cost: Transferring within a higher education system that may already feel unwelcoming, especially for first-generation and historically underrepresented students, can lead learners to question if they are really meant to get a degree. This can precipitate dropping out, which creates financial costs on top of the psychological.
• Opportunity costs: These include lost wages from staying in school longer to complete or lost earnings for those who never finish their degree. The average three-month delay costs graduates $15,400 in lost wages. Those who drop out before earning their bachelor’s degree forgo $600,000 in lifetime earnings compared to adults with an associate degree.

Building a Learner-Centered System

Today’s learners desire—and deserve—a clear, timely and cost-efficient credit-transfer system that acknowledges their diverse needs, priorities, experiences and skills. The learners in our focus group were very clear about those priorities; the literature and institutional case studies affirmed them.

To attract, retain and graduate today’s learners, higher education institutions must build systems that put learners’ needs at the center. The transfer process should be:

• Timely: The credit evaluation process can often take four to eight weeks. Such delays can force learners to choose between delaying enrollment in a particular school or course or risking paying for courses they end up not needing. SNHU and VCU strive to provide credit evaluation decisions within two to three days, while applicants to GSU can upload a transcript to see which credits will likely be accepted and which will apply to certain degree programs.
• Clear: The learners we interviewed appreciated the active, early engagement from their advisers, who provided clarity about timelines and expectations at all stages of the process. In addition to advising, institutions use articulation agreements, transfer pathways and guides, and curriculum mapping to provide learners with more certainty about which courses to take and how they will transfer from one institution to the next.
• Cost-efficient: Financial challenges constantly weighed on the minds of the learners we interviewed. Having their credits accepted and advisers help them design programs to shorten their time to graduation provided a great sense of relief. Reynolds Community College staff often see learners’ transfer decisions come down to two factors: “Who will accept my credits?” and “Who will give me financial aid?” The institutions design plans tailored to students’ goals and are creative and flexible in maximizing the credits that will transfer and apply to degrees. SNHU, VCU and GSU offer flexible, interdisciplinary degrees that are popular among transfer students because they can typically apply more of their credits to a degree.
• Learner-centered: A student-centered transfer system means helping students overcome common barriers and ensuring that they feel a sense of belonging. To make the process more seamless, SNHU handles tasks that learners are typically responsible for, such as requesting transcripts and paying the associated fees. Learners also said advisers made them feel like they belonged, that they had someone in their corner who understood their circumstances.

Institutions Reimagining the Transfer Experience

The institutions in our case studies exemplified two behaviors that are core to their ability to successfully serve transfer students. One, they have cultivated a transfer-friendly culture across the institution. And two, they have dedicated resources to ensuring their policies and practices succeed.

• GSU described a “get to yes” mentality in finding ways to accept and apply transfer credits.
• VCU is developing procedures for evaluating experiential and workplace learning by means of portfolio reviews and challenge exams.
• SNHU increased staffing to cut down credit-evaluation time and significantly expand the number and quality of articulation agreements.

These practices reflect an institutional mindset of flexibility and creativity in supporting transfer students. Staff continuously pursue innovative processes, consider ways to get as many credits accepted as possible for learners and prioritize the learner’s experience. They also reflect an investment of resources needed to achieve a transfer-friendly culture, especially personnel.

This investment is paying off for both the institutions and the learners they serve.

Will Carroll is Managing Director of Strategic Finance & Student Success at HCM Strategists. Meaghan Rajkumar is Director of Research & Strategy at the Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice.