University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Achievements and Promising Practices

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Evaluation Overview

Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Student Body: 16,525 undergraduate and 8008 graduate students

Name of Program: C-STEP (Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program)

History of Work with Community College Transfers:

  • As a public institution, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a history of accepting qualified community college transfer students.

Community College Partners:

  • Alamance Community College
  • Durham Technical Community College
  • Wake Technical Community College

Outreach:

  • UNC has a four-step process for conducting outreach to high schools, including letters to counselors, emails to high school students who indicated an interest in attending UNC, posters, and an open house for prospective transfer students.
  • UNC sends informational posters to each of its partnering community colleges.
  • Students who applied but were not accepted to UNC as freshmen receive an email with a link to the C-STEP website.
  • UNC and/or grant funded community college advisors hold informational sessions at partner campuses.

Recruitment:

  • Recruitment is seen as a joint responsibility between UNC staff and the grant-supported advisors at the partnering community college; UNC staff and community college advisors maintain frequent, informal phone and email contact.

Pre-admission Assistance:

  • Students at Durham Technical Community College and Alamance Community College receive stipends to participate in C-STEP.
  • Durham Technical Community College provides a transfer credit chart to prospective transfer students to help them plan their coursework.
  • Current C-STEP students return to their community colleges to talk with prospective C-STEP transfer students about the academic rigors and social environment they will experience at UNC.
  • The C-STEP staff at UNC meets with and advises groups of students and individuals at partnering community colleges on taking summer classes, the role of advisors in majors, and other academic planning and support matters.

Application & Financial Aid Support:

  • A UNC academic advisor meets with newly enrolled community college transfer students, and helps them complete academic worksheets to plan their time at UNC.
  • Based on student feedback, UNC revised its financial aid workshop to provide additional focus on personal budgeting.
  • UNC maintains an online interest form as part of their C-STEP website (see Promising Practices).
  • UNC admissions staff provides workshops and hands-on assistance with financial aid applications.

Post-admission Assistance:

  • UNC has established a paid peer mentoring program for current community college transfers to support their newly enrolled transfer peers.
  • C-STEP has also recruited and coordinated faculty to participate in a mentoring program for new community college transfer students.
  • The C-STEP orientation is linked to the general transfer orientation so that community college students can feel integrated into a larger community of transfer students.
  • Academic advisors send periodic support emails reminding students of such things as the role of advisors, and how to register for and drop classes.
  • C-STEP staff helped create links with the existing UNC Tar Heel Transfer group to provide additional social support for new community college transfer students.

Internal Focus:

  • UNC has a growing network of academic and student support, individuals, offices, and services linked to the C-STEP programs and initiatives.

Institutional Commitment:

  • The C-STEP program is among the University's top priorities reflected in the “Carolina Covenant”—a recently initiated program to enroll additional students who come from families with incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty guideline.
  • UNC has a development officer dedicated to identifying funding for the C-STEP and other access initiatives.

Other:

  • UNC admissions staff and faculty from Durham Community College and Wake Technical Community College give collaborative presentations on the C-STEP program in various venues.
  • UNC hired additional admission staff to support the C-STEP initiative.

Achievements through Year 2:

  • During the first year of CCTI, 77 students participated in C-STEP activities. In 2006-2007, 66 community college students joined C-STEP. Thirty students enrolled for the 2007-2008 academic year and function as a cohesive, supportive cohort. There is strong participation in C-STEP activities—dinners, resume writing workshops, etiquette dinners, social events, etc.
  • C-STEP students have been successful in gaining admission to highly selective professional programs at UNC.
  • UNC offers flexible housing options to C-STEP students, including early selection of roommates (see Promising Practices).
  • Academic advisors are able to track the academic progress of C-STEP students and intervene as necessary to provide additional supports.
  • The program has developed and continues to develop a network of supportive contact people/offices across the campus as well as with contacts at partnering community colleges.

Promising Practices:

  • UNC has established an accessible, user-friendly website with an online interest form that mirrors many of the components of the admissions application and asks for an estimate of family income (helping the admissions office to identify low- to moderate-income students with an interest in transfer).
  • Flexible housing options for C-STEP students include, but are not limited to, opportunities to choose housing and roommates before other transfers do.
  • Students with special financial needs, such as childcare, are advised about how to go through the appeals process to receive funding that is not covered in the student budget.
  • Financial aid staff is seeking out low-cost study abroad options for community college transfer students that can be covered by financial awards.

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