University of California, Berkeley - Achievements and Promising Practices

University of California, Berkeley, Evaluation Overview

Location: Berkeley, CA

Student Body: 24,000 undergraduate and 10,000 graduate students

Name of Program: Transfer Alliance Project/Jack Kent Cooke (TAP/JKC)

History of institutional work with community college transfer students:

  • UC Berkeley has served educationally disadvantaged students at 19 San Francisco Bay Area community colleges since 1999 through the highly successful Transfer Alliance Project (TAP). Transfer students make up about one third of each admitted UCB class. Ninety percent of these transfer students come from California community colleges.

Community College Partners:

  • UC Berkeley’s TAP program previously partnered with 19 community college partners in the San Francisco Bay area. Through participation in CCTI, Berkeley has expanded TAP to nine Northern California community colleges seven Southern California community colleges.

Outreach:

  • UC Berkeley hired TAP coordinators in Southern California who visit partnering community colleges to meet with students and conduct outreach. TAP coordinators in Northern California also visit partnering community colleges.

Recruitment:

  • TAP advisors work with community college transfer counselors and relevant student services programs, e.g., Extended Opportunity Programs and Services, Math, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA), etc. to recruit prospective transfer students.
  • Current and former TAP students serve as “TAP Ambassadors” at their community colleges, helping bring the perspective of successful transfer students to recruitment.

Pre-admission Assistance:

  • TAP advisors meet individually with community college students to advise them on course planning and review progress.
  • UC Berkeley offers a tuition-free summer course for prospective transfer students.
  • UC Berkeley also offers a six-week summer mentored research enrichment program for community college students on the Berkeley campus.
  • A three-day “TAP into Cal” campus visit program provides prospective transfer students an opportunity to receive tailored information about applying for transfer and to get acquainted with the campus.
  • UC Berkeley offers concurrent enrollment during the academic year.
  • A peer mentoring for prospective transfer students provides additional pre-admission assistance and support for prospective transfer students.

Application & Financial Aid Support:

  • TAP advisors provide one-on-one application review and assistance to prospective community college transfer students.
  • Optional workshops on alternative educational/career pathways inform students of the wide range of majors that lead to popular careers, including those majors that are less competitive to gain admission to at Berkeley.
  • TAP staff help review transfer applications and help transfer students secure UC Residential Scholarships.

Post-admission Assistance:

  • Other entities on campus, such as the Transfer, Re-entry & Student Parent Center, provide orientation and academic and other supports.
  • All entering TAP students are invited to a Welcome Reception during the first week of classes.
  • The Center for Educational Partnerships (which houses TAP) and the office of Academic Support and Enrichment Services co-sponsor a Student Life Resource Reception during the second week of classes and invite TAP students.

Institutional Commitment:

  • The Center for Educational Partnerships received an annual grant of $100,000 from the UC Office of the President to support a second TAP staff member in Southern California.
  • CEP also received a two-year $180,000 grant to develop an Early Identification Accelerated Transfer Pathway model for high school juniors/seniors who are good candidates for community college transfer.

Achievements through Year 2:

  • Exceeding its CCTI goals, in Year 1, Berkeley received 39 TAP/JKC transfer applications and admitted 37; 35 are enrolled. In Year 2, Berkeley received 124 TAP/JKC transfer applications and admitted 111 (two appeals were pending as of this writing). All transfer students admitted under the TAP/JKC program are low- to moderate-income.
  • The program provided one-on-one case management services to 108 TAP/JKC students in Year 1, and 210 in Year 2 (133 in NoCal and 77 in SoCal).
  • In Summer 2007, nine students enrolled in summer courses and nine participated in a 6-8 week research internship with faculty. Thirty-nine SoCal TAP students attended the three-day “TAP into Cal” program on campus. A total of 24 students were accepted for summer research or coursework in 2008 (research program lengthened to 8-10 weeks).
  • Berkeley continues to establish partnerships with additional community colleges.

Promising Practices:

  • An individualized advising model deploys TAP advisors as transfer agents, providing course planning assistance, guiding students through the Berkeley application process, and appealing denied admissions decisions when appropriate.
  • TAP advisors urge students to apply to multiple four-year institutions of varying selectivity.
  • Berkeley provides multiple opportunities for community college students to visit campus and experience success prior to applying for transfer, including summer research internships, summer course enrollment, and concurrent enrollment during the academic year. In addition, participating in the summer programs has bolstered the already high likelihood of admission for TAP students.

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