Bucknell University - Achievements and Promising Practices

Bucknell University Evaluation Overview

Location: Lewisburg, PA

Student Body: 3,400 undergraduate and 150 graduate students

Name of Program: Bucknell Community College Scholars Program (BCCS)

 

History of institutional work with community college transfer students:

Until the late 1990s, Bucknell had a summer program for Community College of Philadelphia students who were interested in transferring. The program ended due to lack of funding but Bucknell’s experiences with it informed the design of the BCCS.

Community College Partners:

  • Community College of Philadelphia
  • Harrisburg Area Community College
  • Montgomery County Community College
  • Lehigh Carbon Community College
  • Garrett College

Outreach:

  • Bucknell’s BCCS coordinator meets regularly with community college partner representatives, sometimes individually and sometimes with all five partners, and makes regular appearances at college fairs and other events on the partnering community college campuses

Recruitment:

  • Bucknell’s BCCS coordinator works with interested community college students in groups as well as individually to provide advising on transfer admissions and financial aid. Interested community college students are encouraged to visit Bucknell individually or on free organized trips.
  • A Summer Academic Program at Bucknell offers classes, academic, extracurricular, and residential support, and campus experiences (See Promising Practices).

Pre-admission Assistance:

  • Bucknell provides several kinds of assistance (see Recruitment and Application & Financial Aid Support).
  • Information gained through meetings and conversations with Bucknell has helped the advisors and faculty at the partnering community colleges to better assist prospective transfer students on their campuses.

Application & Financial Aid Support:

  • Bucknell and community college staff collaborate to help community college students with transfer applications.
  • Bucknell’s admissions office interviews all transfer applicants.
  • Bucknell meets all financial need for the enrolling community college transfer students who take part in the BCCS summer program.

Post-admission assistance:

  • Bucknell coordinates group activities and peer support systems for community college transfer students, and the BCCS coordinator serves as a resource to admitted students.

Internal focus:

  • All majors and all departments are open to community college transfer students.

Institutional Commitment:

  • The BCCS receives broad-based support (e.g., from faculty members who teach in the summer program and from administrators).
  • Articulation agreements with partnering community colleges are being refined in consultation with faculty from the appropriate departments at Bucknell.
  • Community college transfer students receive substantial financial aid packages.

Achievements through Year 2:

  • The number of community college transfer students enrolled at Bucknell during the CCTI has exceeded expectations. Sixteen students transferred from partner schools in fall 2007; 19 transferred in fall 2008 – more than the 15 projected for Year 2.
  • Original plans for the summer program and transfer orientation were well thought out, but have been refined even further in response to feedback and experience.
  • The lists of courses at each partnering community college that Bucknell’s academic departments have approved for transfer credit have been growing, and the process of transferring credits has become smoother.
  • Bucknell has succeeded in addressing students’ housing, work, and other concerns to help ease their transfer and transition to Bucknell.

Promising Practices:

  • The Summer Academic Program offers classes; academic, extracurricular, and residential support; and campus experiences. Participating students, faculty, and administrators see the summer program as an excellent orientation to Bucknell academics and introduction to campus life. Classes are co-taught by Bucknell and community college faculty; beginning in Summer 2008, teaching assistants are transfer students who participated in the program previously and are now enrolled at Bucknell. Community college students generally apply to attend the summer before they would apply to transfer to Bucknell. Accepted students attend at no cost.
  • Bucknell has revised/refined orientation and other student support mechanisms in response to students’ feedback and administrators’ observations.
  • Bucknell’s relationship with its five community college partners is a model of good communication and mutual respect. Two key aspects of this relationship are Bucknell’s responsiveness to the community college partners’ feedback (e.g., Bucknell revised its policy on accepting a course for transfer after one of its partners explained why the course should be accepted) and Bucknell’s transparency about its program.
  • Bucknell has taken preliminary steps toward working with other four-year institutions as well as community colleges to form a regional CCTI model.

Brandeis University
Center for Youth and Communities
Heller School for Social Policy and Management
 Cathy Burack, EdD, Principal Investigator
Susan Lanspery, PhD