Date of Award

Spring 2018

Rights

Access is available to all users

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA) in Critical GIS and Public Anthropology

Department

Anthropology and Geography

Abstract

This thesis assesses the academic progress of transfer students at Eastern Washington University. Over %60 of college graduates attend multiple institutions (United States Department of Education, 2006) and more than %70 of Washington students attend a technical or community college before entering a 4-year institution. (HEBC, 2011) This makes transfer students an extremely valuable and important population to universities across the United States. These students run into different issues then average freshmen do, such as loss of credit which can impact their time to graduation and have a negative financial impact. Transfer student success falls heavily on receiving and having access to crucial information at the right time during their time at community or technical college. My research consisted of 4 different methods; surveys, interviews, student data collection and participatory observation. Overall these methods would help me find some of the under lying problems EWU transfer students face. The data collected lead me to believe that the issues students face are happening before they enter EWU and being resolved once they get to a 4-insitution. Those in higher education often hear that the transfer system is broken but it is not always clear what are or where the problems are manifesting from. Since transfer students can account for almost half of EWU students, it is key for EWU‘s success to have a seamless transition for these students. With a strong line of communication and a unified idea of transfer between community colleges and universities, EWU will be able create and maintain important resources for transfer student success.

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