GPAs of Junior Transfers

[dukedg]

This is really a question for advisers, though others may have noticed the same... At the school I currently advise (UC Davis) we have a Junior quota; there are a lot of Junior transfers. I am noticing a definite trend that the Junior transfers we pledge have a lot of academic difficulty compared to the non-transfer Juniors and compared to all other classes (Freshmen, Sophomores, occasional Seniors).

Has anyone else noticed anything similar?

It is not a guarantee that the Junior won't make grades, but the chance is very high, let's say over 50%. We look at GPAs before recruitment, but obviously if you were accepted as a transfer student, you have a high GPA from somewhere else (often a community college). Has anyone dealt with something similar at their campus? Do you have any good suggestions/tips for what worked for you?

[AZTheta]

We do not get many junior transfers coming through recruitment, BUT I know that we took one last fall (which was totally surprising, but everyone loved her); she'd spent two years at a community college and had a very high GPA from the community college. AND, she was a legacy. Her first semester GPA was well below a 1.0, and she resigned her membership.

Curious to hear from the CA schools as I know that there are many more junior transfers into the UC system. Expecting to see an increase here in AZ due to the rising tuition costs.

[HQWest]

The trouble is there is often a big disparity in the quality and rigor of courses at junior college. Plus, there are a lot of distractions here. It can be hard to get help when you need it or to stay focused and juggle coursework.

Usually if they didn't transfer here as a sophomore, they are not likely to get picked up in formal recruitment. We usually pick up a handful of sophomores or juniors by credit during formal recruitment. Very few juniors go through recruitment here in general, but they are more likely to get a COB. (Unless they are an athlete or something?)

On the other hand, the sophomores who pledged elsewhere and then affiliated here have been awesome.

[Mevara]

I think the academic level of courses is very different from a community college to a 4year. To make it more difficult we are on the quarter system where all the cc are on the semester system.

I know when I was in school there was a junior in my Spanish class who had just transferred from a local cc. I was paired with her for my final exam where we had to do a conversation/presentation. In the middle of our presentation she broke down crying from all the stress. She just went on about how it was so much more difficult because the classes where squeezed into a shorter period and at a higher standard.

I think some people who are not on top of things can get overwhelmed.

[AlphaFrog]

I thank God for my prep school which was much harder than anything my university threw at me (except Honors Marine Geology - that was a bitch). My community college classes were on par with my university classes, but that could have been because they were mini-mesters, so you're literally cramming a whole semester in one 40 hour, 8 hour a day week per class.

I was looking at my transcripts the other day, and my last semester I failed a class I don't remember taking (could be why I failed). I'm totally blaming it on being pregnant and morning sickness. Blah.

[FSUZeta]

The chapter I advise rarely takes juniors, and in the unlikely event that they do, it is usually an established student at the college, not a transfer, she knows lots of chapter members, is active on campus and has a stellar GPA.

[KDCat]

I was a junior transfer when I pledged. It was not easy. My grades were okay, but not great. I had the lowest GPA in my pledge class. (3.01 - Looking back that's not that bad, but I was really embarrassed to get anything less than a 3.5.)

I had a great GPA when I transferred, but I struggled at my new school. I did my prereqs at a less demanding school and then transferred. When I got to my new school, I immediately started taking upper level classes that were very demanding, without the "warm-up" of having taken lower level classes at the same school. Professors cut freshman slack and help them get ready for the demands of upper level classes. Transfer students don't get any slack. (Nor should they.) No one at my chapter thought to give me advice on study skills or time management, because I was a junior. I should already know all that stuff, right? I probably would not have listened, either, because I thought I already knew all that stuff. I wish somebody had kicked me in the butt a little.

[carnation]

I wonder if it's any different in Florida and California, where a lot of transfers come in from community colleges.

[Mevara]

Originally Posted by carnation

I wonder if it's any different in Florida and California, where a lot of transfers come in from community colleges.

I would almost say in California ALL transfers come from a community college. It is VERY difficult to transfer between UCs/state schools. Many of the UC campuses have agreements with community colleges to make it easier to transfer in.

At my UC campus 25% (2010) of the new students are transfer students. Roughly 20% of those who sign up for recruitment are Juniors.

[Cheerio]

The chapter I worked for 20-30 years ago had the same issue with transfers from both from 4-yr and community colleges.

We pledged women from all four classes (3.0 GPA for pledging) and I'll note most CC transfers had CC degrees but were often required by our 4 yr school to take three years of our classes to graduate.

We tried each year personally giving extra help (and tutor referrals for on-campus help) to women who lacked proper study-training. Journalism majors paired with transfer journalism majors to suggest classes and readings.

We encouraged students to speak in-person to their professors regarding classwork.

Study hours at the house did not work. Why? Women tended to gossip among themselves--the house was noisy--it took 45 minutes wasted time by bus to get to our home--etc.

The atmosphere of studying varies greatly campus to campus. Number, and availability, of libraries vary (some libraries limit perusing to those enrolled in specific majors). These can be factors in a student's failure to adjust.

Because we waited to initiate until grades were in, we added no 'dead-weight' to the chapter GPA rolls. This meant a few women weren't initiated until one year after pledging, but it kept our GPA high enough we were at/near top on campus and won Scholar Awards from our Natl HQ.

I can't say NEVER lower your required pledging GPA, but a small increment helps bring in numbers if you need (we went 3.0 to 2.8 for a year).

[KSUViolet06]

I find that transfers who come from another 4 Year tend to fare better with sorority life than those from CCs.

When CC transferring goes bad, it usually has to do with the student's changing courseload, new living arrangement, and working.

CC Transfer Girl lives at home with mommy and daddy, takes like 2 lower level CC courses, and works like 10 hours. Easy peasy.

CC Transfer Girl gets to college, takes a FULL LOAD of upper division courses in a major she just declared, moves out, and works more.

She is new to college, so she's all OMG I WANNA BE GREEK!!! She pledges. Seems cool.

But remember, she JUST started like 15 hours in her new major, a new college town job, and is now living away from mommy.

She's stressed. School was so much easier when it was just Psych 101 & Sociology 101 at the local CC, there was no rent to pay, and she was working like 10 hours a week at the mall.

Now she's taking Analysis of Quant Research, Child Psych, etc., has like 30 hours of work, and an apt.

Sorority is fun, but after like 3 weeks, she realizes that sorority = time and money that she really doesn't have. She is also sinking fast in school and struggling with courses that the other juniors who started out at a University are okay with because they've been prepped for it and are used to the coursework.

Cue depledging by week 4.

Should CC Transfer Girl NOT depledge, cue grade-related probation or other sanctions during her first active semester. Followed by termination by the end of school year.

[dukedg]

Thank you all for sharing -- at least it confirms that I'm not crazy! I'm still not totally sure what we can do about it (I don't know if there are enough non-CC-transfer Juniors going through to have any choice and still make Junior quota). I do like the idea of setting up separate resources for them if we do end up pledging more this fall.

I have definitely heard some of the above (switching to quarters is hard, jumping right into upper level classes is difficult, etc.). More than anything, I feel for these women because I can tell they are really trying, but completely overwhelmed by everything going on and being on probation the entire time you are in your sorority doesn't help!

[KDCat]

In classes that I did better in, here's what helped:

1. Having a sister in the class to talk to. Seeing how someone else was handling a project or an assignment helped a lot.

2. If there was no sister in that class, talking to a sister who took that class before.

3. Having access to old notes, files, tests, whatever from that class.


Maybe you could get a class list for the Junior transfers (and other NMs, too!) and circulating them so that older members can be say "I had that class" or "I have that class" and be used as someone for the NM to talk to..... The scholarship chair could make it a point to check in with Junior transfers once a month or so and encourage them to use the other sisters as resources. If it's too much, and you have enough transfers, maybe appoint an assistant scholarship chair, just to help the transfers.

[DubaiSis]

I don't have direct familiarity with this, but would it be worth any effort to have a chat with this group of girls after pledging and say 1-we love you 2-we know that the odds of you not making grades are 1 in 4 (or whatever) and 3-we WANT you to succeed. We know you did great in CC or else we wouldn't have chosen you. But we also know that the process of time management and study habits is different here at CSUXX and we would like you to do the following things... Maybe handling it head on would help a few girls? No, some girls are going to know way more than you, but maybe you can save a few from the embarrassment and tribulation of not making grades.