Timothy's Interview

Interviewee: Shawn W./Jennefer C.

Date and approximate length of interview: March 6 – 30 minutes

Interview questions:

·      What was the overall process you went through to transfer to (School name)?

·      Were there parts of the process that were unexpected?

·      What aspects of the transfer process worked well? 

·      What obstacles did you encounter while transferring? 

·      How well did the registrar’s office at both institutions work together?

·      Did the music department help in any way? Music department advisor?

o   In what ways?

·      What aspects of the transfer process could be easier?

·      What kinds of resources would have been helpful to you during the process?

·      If someone were to create those resources, what would they ideally look like to you? 

o   Structure?

o   Delivery system? 

o   Platform?

·      Is there anything else about the transfer process that surprised you – good or bad – that should be taken into consideration?

Interviewee: Carolyn B. (Undergrad Music Advisor – Univ of Texas)

Date and approximate length of interview: March 7 – 30 minutes

Interview questions:

·      What is the overall process for transferring to UTA?

·      What aspects of the transfer process work well? 

·      What obstacles do students regularly encounter while transferring? 

·      How well do the registrar’s office at both institutions work together?

·      As the undergraduate Music Advisor, what is your role?

·      What aspects of the transfer process could be easier?

·      What kinds of resources would be helpful to students during the process?

·      If someone were to create those resources, what would they ideally look like to you? 

o   Structure?

o   Delivery system? 

o   Platform?

                  I intend this project to fill a gap for students who are in the process of, or planning to, transfer from a two-year college to a four-year university. My desire is to create materials that would help guide the student through the transfer process and help them to be prepared for and overcome any obstacles that might come up as they proceed. 

            During my interviews, I spoke with several alumni from my program who have recently transferred to a university. I also spoke with a music department undergraduate advisor at a large four-year institution as well as the academic advisors at my own two-year college. All of them have direct experience dealing with the transfer process for junior college students, each from their own perspective. All of them agreed that junior college students anticipating transfer to a university encounter that may be difficult for them to navigate. This can be for several reasons, the most important of which is that the college entrance process at most universities is designed with new incoming freshman in mind. All interviewed spoke about the new for better and more easily obtained information about the transfer process and what things a junior college student needs to do to successfully complete the process.

            As we move forward in this post-COVID era, with the economy in flux, more and more students will be turning to junior colleges as a viable, affordable option. This means however that there will be more and more students seeking to transfer to universities after completing their time at their junior college of choice. This makes more efficient and navigable ways to transfer much more important moving forward. Having access to thoughtful, guidance and assistance in the process will be vital to those students wanting to continue other education.

            I interviewed each of these individual separately, but they all agreed that a website or some other online medium such as an app that had step-by-step guidance about the basic steps required to transfer would be a good starting point. Of course, each university is different in its requirements for transfer students, but all have the same basic steps. One other suggestion put forward by the recent transfer students was some kind of resource that had curriculum equivalencies between their junior college, and the colleges they were looking to transfer to. This would allow them to see where they stood regarding the transfer credits they would be taking with them. The university advisor that I spoke to also mentioned that the ease of finding information such as degree plans and course listings on their university website could be greatly improved. She mentioned that this was something that she had been lobbying for recently already.

            I believe my first step will be to develop a basic checklist of the most common steps required to transfer from a two-year to four-year institution. This will, of course, look very similar in some ways to an incoming freshman. There are, however, some key differences. The main difference, of course, is their college transcript being transferred, and evaluated by the university to find out which courses will be accepted. This is something that can create difficult difficulties for the student if there are some courses that need to be repeated because the university determines that they do not meet their standards. Although all interviewed said that having a paper version of this checklist would be good, having an online version of it, especially a mobile app version of It, would be ideal.

            I plan to research the most common universities that our students transfer to determine the transfer process for students. Once I do this, I will create the initial form of this checklist and send it to each of the individuals I interviewed to find out if everything makes sense or if any items are missing. Once that is complete, I will create a mockup of what a mobile app or online version of this checklist may look like. It may be easier for me to create the online version of this as I have some limited experience creating webpages. The app version however, may be more challenging as I have no experience writing code for apps.