Abstract:
A substantial component of student populations at four-year institutions is comprised of transfer students from community colleges. Successful academic transition to a university or college is affected by acclimatization to college courses through the community college. The objective of this study was to compare the characteristics of transfer students to non-transfer students by gender, area of study, and academic credentials, and determine if transfer students and non-transfer students performed equally well in introductory agriculture courses. Transcripts of 275 students in the School of Agriculture at Tennessee Technological University were examined to determine differences in academic success between transfer students and the nontransfer sample. Both groups were similar in respect to gender and ACT scores. Overall grade point average was 0.10 points higher for transfer students. In five introductory agriculture courses, transfer students generally had higher grades than their nontransfer counterparts. This was especially apparent in freshman level courses in plant science and animal science, where transfer students had approximately 30 more earned credit hours than the non-transfer group. Generally, transfer students had gleaned the benefit of the college experience, were more mature, and more focused than the non-transfer students at the time of enrollment in most introductory agriculture courses.
Keywords:
transfer, non-transfer students, agriculture courses, performance
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