Today, the pre-engineering student is very much at home on campus. He’s an active member of Pi-Kappa-Alpha and enjoys a number of intramural sports. “The community of ASU is so friendly. I’ve had a great experience since transferring.”

So great, in fact, he hopes to become an ASU RAMbassador so he can help other transfer students find the same success. These student ambassadors give campus tours, volunteer for community service projects and help with many ASU functions, like Ram Jam and the Homecoming Dinner. “I’d like to be involved in the organization so I can help incoming transfer students,” says Wiley.

What advice will he give them? “Get involved with as many organizations as you can handle,” he says, “and have good positive relationships with all of your professors.”

Texas Tech’s down-to-earth atmosphere and the friendly and welcoming people she encountered on campus solidified her plans to transfer from a regional university in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex to Texas Tech.

Texas Tech’s admissions staff made transferring easy, she said, ensuring that all her application materials were submitted.

“I regret not starting at Texas Tech my first semester of college. Yet, when I transferred at semester, it was an easy transition for me because of all the opportunities available to students,” Magan says.

Magan advises other transfer students to visit Texas Tech and seek out all the ways to get involved on campus. She knows firsthand how easy it is to get involved from the beginning. Magan got involved in student government, joined a Greek letter organization and became a member of President’s Select, a student ambassador group.

“The transition becomes even easier when you know that they offer your major,” she says. “When I transferred to Texas Tech, my major was psychology, but then I discovered a major that better fit my career plans.” She’s now majoring in human development and family studies with the goal of one day becoming a licensed professional counselor.

Magan readily admits telling students that “Texas Tech was the right choice for me, and I know it can be for you, too.”

Set to graduate in Spring 2011, Nate is a Communications major who has made the Dean’s list in both 2009 and 2010. He notes a number of campus resources that have helped him excel at ASU. 

 “The Porter Henderson Library has helped me tremendously with different research projects,” he says. “I’ve also used the Writing Center to proofread papers and get help with my writing skills.”

 But it’s not all academics for Nate. “I play various intramural sports,” he says. “I love being involved in the Film Club. I attend ASU volleyball, basketball and football games and other sporting events.”

 When asked what advice he’d give a potential transfer student, his answer is simple: “Get involved in as many activities as possible and enjoy college while you can.”

“LeTourneau was a smaller school, and I wanted a school that wasn’t too big, but wasn’t too little,” Justin says. He wanted to attend a larger school with more networking opportunities than his smaller university offered. That was when he decided to look into Stephen F. Austin State University with a population of about 12,000.

“SFA was a perfect fit for me. I liked the environment, and it was also a much stronger business school.” Justin had always been familiar with SFA because he grew up in the area and visited the campus for many UIL competitions.

However, being a transfer student didn’t come without some challenges. “I was very involved and had a lot of leadership roles at LeTourneau,” Justin says. “The hardest part was getting back to the status I had there and making new friends. I had to get used to the school and used to the city.”

Justin “without a doubt” made the right decision to transfer. “Coming here, you have the ability to be what you want and have options available to you.”

He advises other transfer students to get involved on campus in some way immediately and be welcome to changes, especially different ways of thinking.

“I felt after getting an associate’s degree, I had to go on. It just seemed natural to keep going to school,” Brittany says.

Being familiar with class registration and other administrative requirements helped make the transition easier for Brittany. The hardest part, however, was getting involved in campus organizations and meeting people. “It was difficult to meet people at orientation, especially since at the time, transfer students weren’t allowed to go to Jack Camp with the freshmen,” she says. “But now they have changed that rule to help include transfer students.”

Brittany advises other transfer students to try living on campus because it is another way to meet people and to get involved. “Even though you may have enough hours to move off campus, living on campus for at least a semester will help you meet more students, especially ones that you don’t have class with.”

Brittany graduated in December 2009 and is now an admissions counselor at SFA. “I feel like I made the right decision to transfer,” she says.

 Zarzosa describes his first stint in community college immediately after high school as “not quite successful.” He had a different mentality then and was trying to balance too many competing concerns.

After several years in the workforce in Southern California, he began taking a few classes at a community college “simply for self-edification. I went because I wanted to learn some things.” That experience provided a smooth transition and a head start on his degree program when he enrolled full time at Lamar University a few years later as a biology major with the ultimate goal of earning a doctor of veterinary medicine and Ph.D. in public health.

Lamar’s admissions staff made transferring easy, he said, evaluating his transcript for classes that met Texas core curriculum requirements and informing him of necessary steps in the application process.

“I think a community college is a nice stepping stone. It bridges that gap between high school and the university,” Zarzosa said. “I came (to Lamar) knowing what I wanted and knowing I was at a time in my life where I didn’t have a chance to goof off or to mess around. I had to be focused.”

“We owe it to the state to increase access to college and improve the workforce for the betterment of Texas and these efforts, we believe, are fostering some remarkable strides toward achieving a more educated labor force,” said David B. Prior, UT System executive vice chancellor for academic affairs. “As these and other efforts gain more momentum, we expect the number of community college transfers to increase across all Texas public universities.”

In a collaborative effort with the Texas A&M University System and the state’s 50 community college districts, the UT System last September launched Transfer 101 which offers easy-to-use directions for successfully making the transition from community colleges to four-year institutions. Last October – the first full month of its operation after launching – the website recorded 551 hits. In April 2010, the website recorded 5,455 hits. Read more about the UT System’s efforts to ensure success for transfer students.

“It was almost three years from my last high school class until my first college class,” explains David Fink, who joined the U.S. Air Force right after high school. But he decided to pursue his education because his colleagues in the reserves “showed me that getting a college education was a prerequisite for many of the things I wanted in life.”

Fink started his college career at San Antonio College, while still in the military, but said he wanted a change of pace. Both his sister and a friend recommended Texas State University because of the beautiful scenery and the students and faculty.  Fink decided to follow in their footsteps.

“The Texas State rep at the San Antonio College campus was extremely helpful and made all the paperwork seamless,” he says. “The website was so user-friendly that I was able to go online and set up my e-mail and other student accounts before orientation, giving me more time to meet with my advisor.”

His experience in the reserves means that he still occasionally gets called up for active duty. “Being that I am a veteran and still active in the Air Force Reserves, I face a few more challenges than traditional students,” he says. “Last semester, I was called up for two weeks of military service right at the beginning of the semester. I was amazed with how willing my professors were to accommodate me, instead of having to withdraw.”

Fink says he’d recommend transfer students “be proactive in working with advisors and faculty during the entire transfer process — all you have to do is ask.”

“Collin County gave me the initial confidence, knowledge and skills that I needed to grow as a student at UNT,” she says. “I needed that base before being able to specialize and refine myself in my chosen career path.”

Saides said she transferred to UNT for three reasons –the quality of UNT’s psychology and education programs, the feeling of community, and the beauty she found on campus.

“When I visited UNT I felt at home,” she says.” I knew it was a place I could plant my feet and grow. When I learned the counseling graduate program was ranked No. 1 in the state, that sealed the deal.”

After transferring her course work from Collin County, Saides earned a bachelor-of-arts degree from UNT in 2009, and plans to graduate with a second bachelor’s degree in development and family studies in August, 2010.

She says the decision to transfer to UNT was definitely the right decision for her.

“UNT provided me with an incredible array of support and services that have allowed me to succeed, such as amazing scholarship opportunities,” she says. “The students are diverse, and being a Greek-Australian student who loves to travel, my needs for a rich cultural environment were fulfilled. The students at UNT have made my college experience a great one.”

“I got some college credits, learned how the higher education process works and was able to figure out what I wanted to do with my life while I dabbled in a variety of classes,” she says.

It’s a long way from Philadelphia to Denton. So how did Benscoter, who graduates from UNT in May, 2010, get from one city to the other?

“I came to visit a friend, I loved the people and the weather, I knew UNT’s College of Education is really prestigious, and by that time I knew I really wanted to teach,” she says. “It turned out UNT was a perfect fit.”

UNT helped her to overcome the financial challenge she faced in transferring to a four-year university.

“I was able to get financial aid – loans, grants and scholarships – and also found a job through UNT’s Career Center web site.”

But, Benscoter says, what’s most important is how UNT has uniquely served her needs through “the myriad of mentors and supporters I’ve met.

“UNT faculty and staff have always been willing to go above and beyond for students, both current and former,” she says. “I feel more prepared and supported in my education and field experience than I would have been anywhere else, and I feel just as supported as I face the task of finding a teaching job.”