Academic performance of transfer versus "native" students in natural resources & sciences

College Student Journal, Sept, 2005 by Matthew D. Johnson

Transfer students comprise a substantial component of the student body in many 4-year academic colleges, but the factors affecting students' success once they have transferred are poorly understood. Using data from standard university records, academic performance was examined for 2,467 students enrolled in natural resource majors at a mid-sized public West Coast university with a reputation for an emphasis on natural resources and sciences. Contrary to other studies, no statistical evidence was found for a difference in the performance of native and transfer students: both raw GPA and GPA adjusted for precollege variables were statistically indistinguishable between the two groups of students. Two hypotheses for the lack of difference in performance are offered. First, small class sizes at the university studied may facilitate a greater a sense of social security and thereby ease the adjustment for transfer students to their new schools. Second, the geographical isolation may encourage transfer students to remain near the campus community, which could usher more rapid assimilation into the academic community. A better understanding of the factors that elevate and alleviate transfer shock will help academic administrators, counselors, and teachers better ensure the success of transfer students.

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Transfer students comprise a substantial component of the student body in many 4-year academic colleges and universities in the U.S. (Holohan, Green & Kelley, 1983), and approximately 20% of students in community or technical colleges will transfer to 4-year institutions (Grubb, 1991). While much research has focused on a long-term decline in community college transfer rates, factors affecting students' success once they have transferred have been less emphasized (Laanan, 2001). Transfer students face a variety of academic, social, and intellectual climate issues while acclimating to their new schools (Eggleston & Laanan, 2001), and this can lead to a tendency for transfer students to under perform academically relative to "native" students who matriculate at their academic institution for their first two, and subsequent, years. When investigated empirically, this tendency has varied considerably across institutions and states with different community college educational practices (Holohan & Kelley, 1983; Kitnzer & Wattenbarger, 1985).

This report provides data on the academic performance of 2,467 students enrolled in natural resource majors at a mid-sized public West Coast university. Most other analyses have been campuswide or focused on social sciences humanities (Laanan, 2001), perhaps reflecting the emphases of their authors. Only one other analysis has focused on students in natural sciences (Ditchkoff, Laband & Hanby, in press). I conclude the note by offering two testable hypotheses for the difference, or lack thereof, in performance of transfer and native students.

Method

Participants and Setting

Data were obtained on academic performance of 2,467 students who graduated with a Bachelor of Science from 16 majors within the college of natural resources and sciences at Humboldt State University during the 12-year period of 1992-2003 (Table 1). Humboldt State is located in a largely rural county in Northwestern California, and it has a reputation for an emphasis on natural resources and sciences. Although several departments made slight curricular changes over these years, this time span was chosen because the university requirements remained largely consistent and the inclusion of a lengthy period substantially increased the sample size and statistical power. The university's Office of Academic Affairs provided all the data.

Procedure

The students' graduating grade-point-average (GPA) was used as a measure of academic performance. Values were calculated on a 4-point scale from all graded courses taken at the university. Grade-point-average is an imperfect measure of academic performance because it reflects an unknown mixture of study skills, test-taking skills, motivation, raw intelligence, commitment to academic versus other life pursuits, etc. (Mouw & Khanna, 1993). Nonetheless, it is a standard metric for academic performance (Mathiasen, 1984), and was assumed to serve as an index of performance in the absence of an available better alternative.

Variation in GPA is partially explained by precollege characteristics, most notably SAT (or ACT) score, high school GPA, and student age (Mathiasen, 1984), though personality traits may also explain residual variation (Bauer & Liang, 2003). Therefore, to compare the difference in performance between transfer and native students per se, precollege characteristics must be accounted for statistically. High school GPA (calculated on a 4-point scale), age at graduation, and SAT/ACT scores, all obtained via admissions records, were used as covariates. Standard ACT scores were converted to SAT equivalents for students who reported only the former (conversion tables from the College Board, 2003); SAT score was used for students who reported both. Many transfer students did not report any test scores, so these students were examined with a separate analysis (see below). States differ in their transfer guidelines and thus state residency could explain some variation in transfer students' performance (Grubb 1991), so state residency (in-state or out-of-state) was also included as a variable in the analyses.