Education Commons^™

Transfer Student Experiences At Stanford University And The University Of California, Berkeley, Rachael Madison

Master's Theses

Elite institutions have a long history of serving students from high socioeconomic status families. Transfer students who begin their college career at community colleges are typically from low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority status families. This population of students has historically been underrepresented at elite colleges. The purpose of this study was to examine the community college transfer student experience at two elite universities, one public and one private, and how institutional programs and structures affect the transfer student experience. The study gathered information from eight community college transfer students, four from each elite university, interviewed in one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Four …