My topic idea has not changed since blog one, but it has been somewhat modified. I have taken into consideration how affective the comminity colleges have been in my hometown. The community college in my hometown is Brookdale Community College and it is one of the best ones around. It seems that the community college system is very affective in our area because it gives students a chance to get situated and get over the initial work load change from high school to college. It gives students a chance to find what they are looking for in life such as what path to take towards occupations. When researching the success rate of students coming from community college to Rutgers i found that Rutgers has an easy access website known as ARTSYS to help students realize what credits will transfer to this school. A thing that makes it difficult for those transfering is that when they have taken certain classes that do not transfer and it was a waste of money because they could have been spending time on something that would have helped them. Rutgers provides many different sites to help aid in the transfer process to make sure that everything you have worked hard for will be worth it. Coming to Rutgers from a community college may consider you to stay an extra year because not everything will transfer and it will cost you more money in the end. I dont believe that community college is a failed model all together because it definately helps students find there path but ways to improve it are to offer classes that will definately transfer to schools. Having random classes that do not tansfer allow students to have a higher gpa, but in the end will not help them because they wasted their time and their money. To still find out my topic i need to conduct more research as to specific success rates and statistics for transfering from a community college to a 4 year univesity.
http://ur.rutgers.edu/focus/article/ARTSYS%20eases%20way%20for%20community%20college%20transfer%20students/164/
http://admissions.rutgers.edu/applynow/morefortransferapplicants/njcommunitycollegestudents.aspx
I think you are correct: Brookdale Community College is one of the best. There are also some not so good institutions. But "the community college as a stepping stone to a four-year degree" model, for better or worse, seems destined to expand even more in the coming decade, especially as college becomes less affordable and students are expected to pay for it themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe issues facing transfer students are daunting, and that could make a good topic. But focusing only on the information available (since ARTSYS does provide that info) seems too narrow. I suggest you consider focusing on whether or not community colleges have adjusted their mission to become feeder schools for four year institutions or whether students don't really feel prepared by them to succeed at a four year school like Rutgers. I'd be very curious to know about the student perspective on that -- and statistics.
Is the two year to four year stepping stone model working for students? I think that would be a great question. Then you can definitely talk about wasted time taking non-transfer courses, but also about other issues. The main one for me is preparation and expectations.
I have been involved with transfer issues as they relate to writing for some time, especially through the New Jersey Writing Alliance, which began to create a conversation between two-year and four-year schools but has since shifted its mission to the high-school to college transition. So I have seen these questions from an administrative perspective. I also know that transfer students are not having a lot of success at Rutgers, generally speaking, though there are certainly exceptions (I imagine especially those coming out of Brookdale). I am not aware of whether the University keeps statistics on their success rate (I'd be very interested -- if you are interested -- in helping you find such statistics). We know that a lot of transfer students who get community college credit for Expository Writing (355:101) are not succeeding at other writing courses. We created a writing course (355:301) to help them, but have found it hard to get them to take it -- we're not sure why, but we suspect that they find it too difficult (meanwhile, about 40% of the students currently taking 301 took 101 and say they chose 301 because they heard it is easier than 201 and other courses to fulfill second level writing requirements). I have met many transfer students who have great difficulty even speaking English but somehow passed a writing course at their community college and got 101 credit. They would place into ESL / EAD courses here if they did not already have transfer credit for 101 writing. I find that troubling and I don't see how those students can succeed at Rutgers (unless our standards are sinking dramatically).
these comments have really helped me in writing my paper. is there a way i could use what you said about students not succeeding in specific classes here at rutgers in my paper? also i would definately like to find out information on statistics so i would really like it if you could help me figure that out also!
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