Not only are students in high school dealing with acne, first crushes and relationships, as well as drastic changes to their bodies, they are also thrown into a new academic and social environment. In case that was not enough to deal with, during their senior year they have to decide where they want to spend the next four years of their lives studying.
As a current senior in college, I look back and realize I could have used a little more time to figure out what I wanted from my college experience. Although many students know, or think they know, what they want by the time their senior year of high school rolls around, I did not.
As a result of my indecisiveness during my senior year of high school, I ended up at a college that was not the right fit for me. Less than a year after that I transferred to Elon. I have no regrets about transferring but I wish I had gotten it right the first time.
A recent study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that one in three full-time college students will transfer before they graduate.
While there is nothing wrong with transferring those numbers indicate to me that many high school seniors, like myself, were not sure what they wanted at age 18. As a result, they had to endure the college application process all over again as college students.
To make matters worse, the American Educational Research Association found that transfer students, although they are becoming more common, are still at a strong disadvantage because of the complicated process of moving academic credits from one institution to another.
The study found only 58 percent of all transfer students have at least 90 percent of their transferred credits accepted by their new institution. These figures show transfer students are often put at a severe disadvantage when entering a new institution.
While college and universities across the country could make an effort to smooth out the credit transferring process for new students, the social struggles such as making new friends and fitting in with new roommates would still be present.
If the American high school process was restructured to act more like the European one, our students would be much better off. By and large, many students in Europe take a year or two off prior to entering a university of their choice.
During this time, they work, help their parents, pursue other interests or travel. Not only does this allow students time to do things many American students do not have the time for between high school and college but it also allows them the invaluable resource of time to think about their future.
In the United States, this would be known as a gap year but it is not common and often is frowned upon. When done correctly, students who take a year off prior to college have a better idea of what they want from their experience. This means that these students are less likely to transfer and more likely to have a focused experience in their first few years of college.
Encouraging American students to take a year off between high school and college is not going to be the answer to why so many students are transferring. There are many different ways to figure out how to get this number down.
Transferring is not a bad thing, but we need to start talking about why transferring is so common and what we as a collective whole can do to fix it.