2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 176: Work in Progress: Case Study of Factors Affecting Reverse-Transfer Students’ Degree Completion

Presented at Student Division (STDT) Poster Session

This is a work-in-progress paper that analyzes the factors that prompt students to reverse transfer. Reverse Transfer students refer to students who first attended 4-year institutions and without completing a degree transferred to community colleges. According to the National Student Clearinghouse throughout a 19 months duration (2018-2020), 1.9 million students dropped out of college and only 250K students reverse transferred. In addition to a low percentage of students who reverse transfer, only a small percentage attain a bachelor’s degree. Particularly in Illinois, a state that contributes to the highest dropout rate for those who reverse-transferred, only 16% of reverse-transfer students earn an associate’s degree and 24% attain a bachelor’s degree. There is also outdated and limited research on reverse transfer students. Our current research is designed to understand the factors of why students did not complete at the institution where they first enrolled and compare it with the community college experience through case study interviews. Our future goal is to longitudinally understand the factors why there is a low success rate in bachelor attainment among reverse transfer students. For this current paper, we conducted several case study interviews with reverse transfer students at ABC College engineering program to understand the barriers faced at 4-year institutions and factors that made students consider a reverse transfer. The preliminary results will be used to create a pre- and post-survey of students' experiences at community colleges. We used the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) method for case study interviews. The appreciative inquiry method uses questions that focus on elevating and expanding on the participants' perspectives. In this paper, we will present two cases we plan to follow these cases longitudinally as they go through community college and then onto a four-year institution to attain a bachelor's degree. We hypothesize that reverse transfer students can complete associate and bachelor's degrees if barriers are identified early on and institutions of higher learning, both community colleges and 4-year transfer institutions can design interventions to support reverse transfer students so they feel they belong. Our two cases show that belonging, community, and intentional student support are the top barriers for reverse transfer students. In both cases, the programmatic approach at ABC College Engineering Program makes them feel they belong to the profession and provide them motivation to complete their bachelor’s degree. Detailed outcomes of the cases including what students wish they experienced at the institutions they first enrolled and expectations of the future transfer institutions will be presented. Our future results will help community colleges design interventions to support the reverse transfer population and inform prospective 4-year transfer institutions of the needs of reverse transfer students.

Authors

Perla Abigail Bran City Colleges of Chicago [biography]

Perla completed an Associate in Engineering Science (AES) at Wright College. She was a tutor, mentor and a research assistant of the NSF HSI Building Bridges into Engineering. She is pursuing Material Science and Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering. Perla is doing regenerative engineering research.
Casey Mikaela Tan City Colleges of Chicago [biography]

Casey Tan is a Junior majoring in Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University. She completed her Associate in Engineering Science (AES) at City Colleges of Chicago- Wilbur College. At Wright, she spent two years participating in research. In 2023, she engaged in regenerative engineering research at Northwestern University.
Jason Kwame Frimpong Osei-Tutu City Colleges of Chicago [biography]

Jason Osei-Tutu is a computer engineering student at The Grainger College of Engineering at UIUC. Prior to UIUC, he completed his Associate’s in Engineering Science (AES) at Wilbur Wright College. While at Wright, Jason served as a tutor, a mentor, a research assistant and was the President of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Wright Chapter. Jason also served as an engineering intern at the Fermi National Laboratory.
Mr. Luis Vicente Villanueva City Colleges of Chicago [biography]

Luis Villanueva is an incoming Junior transfer for Electrical Engineering to The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is completing his Associate in Engineering Science (AES) at City Colleges of Chicago-Wilbur Wright College in the class of 2024. He is a tutor, near-peer mentor, and research assistant. He will participate in the Summer Research Program Opportunity for Electrical Engineering through the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign in the summer of 2024
Ms. Brenda Najjuma City Colleges of Chicago [biography]

Brenda Najjuma completed an Associate’s degree in Engineering science (AES) at Wilbur Wright College and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering at the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At Wright College, she has been a tutor, peer-to-peer mentor, and research assistant. She had an internship as a Software Engineer at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). She has also been part of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Women in Engineering Summer Program.
Dr. Doris J. Espiritu City Colleges of Chicago [biography]

Doris Espiritu is the Dean of the Center of Excellence for Engineering and Computer Science and Professor of Chemistry at City Colleges of Chicago-Wilbur Wright College. She also serves as the Senior Advisor to the Provost of the City Colleges of Chicago. Doris Espiritu is one of the first National Science Foundation’s research awardees under the Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program. She pioneered Engineering at Wright and had grown the Engineering
program enrollment by 2500% within five years. Doris founded seven student chapters of national organizations including the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and ten times Outstanding Chapter Awardee, the American Chemical Society-Wright College Chapter. Doris promotes collaboration between K-12 schools, other community colleges, 4-year institutions, non-profit organizations, and industries. Doris’ current research is to design and implement practices that develop Community of Practice (CoP), Professional Identity, and Self-Efficacy to increase diversity in Engineering and Computer Science and to streamline transfer from community colleges to 4-year institutions.

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