2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Vertical Transfer Student Pathways into Engineering: A 20-Year Benchmarking Analysis at a Large Public Research-intensive Institution in Florida

Presented at Transfer Issues Between 2-Year Colleges and 4-Year Engineering and Engineering Technology Programs 1

Students who go to community colleges and then transfer to four-year universities to study engineering bring a diverse range of experiences and perspectives, which greatly contribute to the field of engineering and help national and regional workforce development. However, these students face specific challenges, referred to as the vertical transfer penalty, when they transfer to four-year universities. This can lead to lower completion rates for community college starters compared to students who start at four-year universities. The issue seems to be related to factors regarding the students' experiences, institutional characteristics, and geographic location. This study marks the initial stage of a comprehensive research project aiming to compare historical transfer student data over the past two decades at a prominent public research university in Florida. The study provides a longitudinal view of the academic pathways of the students who attended the university. This study looks at trends in student enrollment and degree attainment over time, accounting for various potentially confounding factors, such as race/ethnicity, gender, domestic versus international status, and initial community college attendance. We found that female transfer students were 1.7 times as likely to graduate with non-engineering degrees than male transfer students. In addition, we found that domestic students were 1.4 times as likely to leave without any degree and 1.8 times as likely to complete non-engineering degrees than international students. These findings have significant implications for future strategies and research initiatives to improve transfer student support and success across different regions.

Authors

Caroline Lubbe University of Florida [biography]

Caroline Lubbe is a first year Chemical Engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Florida collaborating with Dr. Sindia Rivera-Jiménez within the Engineering Communities & Participatory Change (ECoPaC) research group. Caroline's research focuses on the experiences of engineering students transferring from community colleges to four-year universities.
Dr. Sindia M. Rivera-Jiménez University of Florida [biography]

Dr. Rivera-Jiménez is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Engineering Education (EED) and an affiliate faculty to the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida. Her research focuses on understanding the role of engineering communities while enacting their agency in participatory and transformational change. She is particularly interested in broadening the participation of minoritized communities by studying the role of professional development in shaping organizational cultures. As an education practitioner, she also looks at evidence-based practices to incorporate social responsibility skills and collaborative and inclusive teams into the curriculum. Dr. Rivera-Jiménez graduated from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez with a B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. She earned an NSF RIEF award recognizing her effort in transitioning from a meaningful ten-year teaching faculty career into engineering education research. Before her current role, she taught STEM courses at diverse institutions such as HSI, community college, and R1 public university.
Justin Ortagus University of Florida [biography]

Justin C. Ortagus is an Associate Professor of Higher Education Administration & Policy and Director of the Institute of Higher Education. His research typically examines the impact of online education, community colleges, and state policies on the opportunities and outcomes of underserved college students. His recent work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation and published in such venues as Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, American Educational Research Journal, and Educational Researcher. Dr. Ortagus has testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor on the role and influence of need-based financial aid for low-income students. His work and expertise have also been featured in USA Today, NBC News, Forbes, Teen Vogue, CNBC, and other news media outlets.
Hope Allegra Allchin University of Florida [biography]

Hope Allchin is a PhD student in the Higher Education Administration & Policy program at the University of Florida. Her research interests include college access, admissions practices, and student journalism.
Sofia Isabel Montiel University of Florida [biography]

Sofia Montiel is an undergraduate civil engineering student at the University of Florida, where she serves as a Research Assistant for Caroline Lubbe and Dr. Sindia Rivera-Jiménez within the Engineering Communities & Participatory Change (ECoPaC) research group.

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