1. Transfer Students at ASU
Snapshot

2. Who are the transfer students at Appalachian?
New transfer student enrollment is 1,196 students, a 4.2% increase from Fall 2014 and a 7.3% increase from Fall 2013
Students transfer from three places:
70% from community colleges – up from 67% in Fall 2014
28%from four-year colleges – down from 31% in Fall 2014
2% from other types (such as foreign institutions or military)
Since 2010, there has been an 18 % increase in community college transfers.
Transfer student talking points 2015
Retrieved from

3. Transfer
student talking points Fall 2015
Retrieved from

4. What do they study? Transfer student talking points 2015
Retrieved from

5. UWC Transfer student survey Spring 2015
Sent out to 3999 transfer students.
124 opened the survey
79 answered some of the questions
~around~ 45 answered all of the questions
(I am told that these are actually good odds!)
Central research question:
What is the University Writing Center already doing for transfer students at App. State?
Underlying research interest:
Confidence

6. Rank the following parts of the writing process in terms of how confident you are in your ability to do so: 1=lack of confidence & 5= a great deal of confidence

7. What do you find most helpful when you seek help with your writing
What do you find most helpful when you seek help with your writing? 1=least helpful 5= most helpful 1 2 3 4 5
Non- directive: 8 17 28 20
Directive approaches 6 19 11 13
Freedom to discuss ideas 9 35
Hearing your work read out loud 18 22 24
Writing multiple drafts 15 16
Peer review 25
Teacher Feedback 26 42

8. Writing preparation: Students report
How well prepared did you feel for college writing when you came to ASU?
Transfer students surveyed Spring 2015

9. How have you found writing at ASU?

10. What prepared you for college writing?

11. Non-traditional transfers students discussing the development of their own confidence:
“I guess, when you fail, you can look back and say, what did I do wrong? And what can I do differently? And then you do something differently and you succeed and you’re like: I have this now and {confidence} builds on that…” –Jasmin “We’ve {nontraditional} had more time to develop how we go about doing things, and if someone questions that then…well that’s the way I do it. -Reva It’s worked for 26 years… -Jasmin

12. “For me it’s knowing that I really put the time and effort in there
“For me it’s knowing that I really put the time and effort in there. Because I mean honestly, I have written papers the day before they were due before, and gotten an A, but I feel great about it when its something I did, I put some effort into it. Feeling really good… and confident about an assignment means I thought about it ahead of time; I put in a lot of effort into it my planning. Not when it was just something I threw together. Not when its something I did because I had to do because it was an assignment but also because I wanted to {take} some time with assignments. When I think through them more, I actually enjoy doing it; there something I can be proud of that I put the time and effort into.” - Kristen

13. References
Fong, C.J. & Krause, J. (2014) Lost confidence and potential a mixed methods study of underachieving college students’ sources of self-efficacy. Social Psychology Education, 17,
Flaga, C.T. (2006). The process of transition for community college transfer students. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, (30)
Ishitani, T.T. & McKitrick. (2012). After transfer: The community college students at a four-year collegiate institution, Community College Journal of Research and Practice. (34)7,
Hench, T.L. (2014). Using confidence as feedback in multi-sized learning environments. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology. (13)4,
Clark, K.M. & May, I.C. (2015). Upper-division transfer students: Designing a Supplemental instruction program for nursing students within a science based curriculum. Community College Journal of Research and Practice. Doi: /
Ishitani, T.T. (2008). How do transfer students survive after “transfer shock”? A longitudinal Study of transfer student departure at a four year institution. Research in Higher Education. 49:
Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Terenzini, P.T. Pascearella, E.T. & Blimling, G. S. (1999). Students’ out of class experiences and their influence on learning and cognitive development: a literature review. Journal of College Student Development, (40)5,
Lanaan, F.S. (1996). Making the transition: Understanding the adjustment process of community college transfer students. Community College Review, 23(4),
Robbins, P.R. & Tank, R.H. (1995). University students’ preferred choices for social support. The Journal of Social Psychology, 136(6),