By Baylee Pulliam
After high school, Kassandra Wallis wasn’t quite ready for the University of Louisville.
“I just didn’t think I was prepared for it yet,” said Wallis, now a sophomore nursing major.
Instead, Wallis spent the beginning of her college career at Jefferson Community and Technical College. She transferred to U of L last year. Among students at U of L, she is not alone.
“Forty percent of students at U of L are transfers,” said Kathleen Mandlehr, director of U of L Transfer Services, also known as ULtra. “Forty percent of those come from community colleges.”
By these numbers, roughly 16 percent of all U of L students have transferred in from a community college, equating to about 720 new U of L students each year.
According to Mandlehr, the number of students nationally who filter through community colleges before attending a four-year university now rests at 46 percent. However, many believe that there are stereotypes against community college transfer students.
“People assume that community college transfer students were not smart enough to begin with to get into a university,” said Brandon Walker, a transfer student from JCTC who is now a junior biology major at U of L.
Mandlehr said that this assumption just isn’t true.
“A lot of them have the grades,” said Mandlehr. “A lot of them have other reasons for not going directly into U of L.”
For example, Mandlehr said that the large class sizes of a public university can be overwhelming to some students.
“I felt like it would be kind of overwhelming to go right in,” said Wallis. “The classes seemed like they’d be huge and I didn’t want that.”
According to Mandlehr, class sizes at community colleges are on average around 75 percent smaller than they are at U of L.
ULtra representatives also noted the costs associated with larger universities as a possible cause for starting out education at a community college.
“I had to pay for everything, with a little help from my family and my own work,” said Walker. “As a result, affording university tuition was not an option.”
According to the United States Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, the average cost of tuition at a four-year public university has increased $10,874 since 1980.
“We try to make it easier for them, though,” said Mandlehr. “KCTCS students transferring into U of L actually received 97 scholarships this year.”
In order to ensure that these scholarships are distributed, ULtra has made an effort to reach out to community college students before they transfer into U of L.
“We’ve actually instituted a program where we send advisers to a lot of schools in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System to help students prepare to transfer into U of L,” said Mandlehr.
Like Wallis, many U of L transfer students who come from community colleges filter through JCTC. Advisers, like Betty Hampton of the College of Education and Human Development, travel to JCTC and other school campuses in KCTCS to work with students who plan to transfer to U of L.
“Once students have made the decision to transfer, we … make sure they understand their program and degree requirements thoroughly,” said Hampton in an e-mail communication with The Louisville Cardinal. “We feel it’s important to reach out to students – even before they apply to U of L.”
Advisers speak with students to make sure they take classes that will transfer to U of L and they understand the academic resources that will be available to them once they arrive on campus.
Walker felt ULtra was a very helpful tool for him, when he was transferring to U of L from JCTC.
“[The] program made the transition very easy because I got acquainted with U of L before I started to go to school here full time,” said Walker.
Lately, increasing the ease of students transferring into four-year schools from community colleges has gained nationwide attention.
On Oct. 5, President Barack Obama hosted the White House Summit on Community College. Tony Newberry, the president of JCTC, was one of roughly 20 community college presidents to attend. JCTC representatives noted the importance of community colleges to the U.S. education system.
“We felt privileged to be a part of it,” said Lisa Brosky, director of public relations for JCTC. “Community colleges are important, not only locally, but nationally.”
Developing possible legislation that would increase the affordability of public universities was a major goal of the Summit on Community College. It has been proposed that the current executive branch administration may be working with college and university presidents to lower the costs associated with higher education. Some actions include extending the length of time students can be covered by their parents’ medical insurance and increasing financial aid to students.
“The key here is that we want to open the doors of our colleges and universities to more people so they can learn, they can graduate and they can succeed in life,” said Obama in a phone conference on Sept. 27.
However, this legislation does not yet exist. Until it does, ULtra plans to continue to aid community college transfer students as best it can.
“The university has actually dedicated a lot of time and effort to these programs,” said Mandlehr. “It’s pretty unusual for a university to do that. It’s great that we have this opportunity to help these students.”
Students like Wallis and Walker appreciate the efforts.
“Now that I’m here, I’m glad I am,” said Wallis. “The transfer office really helped me. And now I’m really starting to feel like I’m a part of campus.”
