TCC's transfer program lives up to the hype

Leonard Retter took a gamble and applied to only one college, the University of Virginia. He figured if he didn't get in, all would not be lost.

A Tidewater Community College representative had stopped by his Virginia Beach high school and promoted a program that helps students secure guaranteed admission to U.Va. and other four-year colleges around the state.

Retter knew that if U.Va. initially said no, he could get there with time through TCC.

He was right. Two years later and with a 3.7 GPA at TCC, Retter was admitted to his dream school, though he ultimately decided instead to go to the College of William and Mary because of its pre-law reputation. He is scheduled to complete his bachelor's degree there this month, he said.

A TCC transfer program has been around since the school opened in 1968, officials say, but many people were unaware of its extent until 2003, when TCC began aggressively marketing the initiative. Since then, TCC has seen a spike in enrollment in its transfer program, according to statistics from the college. The numbers also show that the majority of those who graduate from TCC go on to four-year institutions in the state.

"When they get that four-year degree, it doesn't have an asterisk on it that says TCC," said Curt Aasen, TCC's director of institutional effectiveness. "It says U.Va. It says William and Mary."

When Deborah M. DiCroce became TCC's president in 1998, she said she believed the comprehensive transfer program was "the best-kept secret in town." Students take classes equivalent to those required of freshmen and sophomores at four-year institutions and can earn associate degrees. Once at four-year schools, DiCroce said, they traditionally do as well academically as other students.

DiCroce also recognized another key advantage of the transfer program: Two years of schooling can cost twice as much at a four-year public institution as they would at TCC. Retter estimates that his family saved $35,000.

DiCroce said it was her idea to market TCC's transfer program. The campaign, "From here, go anywhere," continues today on billboards, print ads and television commercials featuring colleges including Virginia Tech and William and Mary, to name a few.

Retter agrees there's truth in the advertising. "I did get exactly what I wanted from TCC," he said. "I saw it as a stepping stone to my future plans, and that's basically what they're selling. It played out for me and for a lot of people I knew."

From fall 1999 to fall 2010, TCC statistics show, enrollment in the school's transfer program grew 52 percent, to 14,714 from 9,658.

DiCroce said the spike correlates with the marketing campaign and a rocky economy. She also cited a significant increase in admission agreements with four-year colleges, a result of a 2005 state law aimed to restructure higher education.

In 2009-10, for example, 958 - or 63 percent - of TCC's transfer-program graduates enrolled at four-year institutions the following fall, according to Aasen. That's up from 62 percent, or 865 students, the previous year, he said.

That number is about in line with community colleges around the state, according to statistics from the Virginia Community College System. Of the 7,434 students statewide graduating from the transfer program in 2008-09, about 66 percent enrolled in four-year institutions within a year of graduating.

Those figures don't tell the whole story, though. DiCroce said a number of students transfer to four-year institutions without officially completing transfer-program studies at TCC.

For instance, of all students entering TCC for the first time in fall 2006, 21.4 percent left TCC for a four-year institution within four years without completing an associate degree.

"For some students, they are not going to graduate," DiCroce said. "They may opt to go on immediately at some point in their program to a four-year institution."

The majority of TCC's transfer students stay in the area. Last year, Aasen said, 57 percent went to ODU; a total of 15 percent moved on to Norfolk State, Virginia Wesleyan or Regent; and 28 percent enrolled in colleges outside South Hampton Roads, including U.Va.,, William and Mary, Virginia Tech and out-of-state schools.

Locally, Norfolk State and ODU report that about half of TCC transfer students who came to their schools in 2006 and 2007 completed their degrees. According to NSU, transfer students not in the graduating pool might still be enrolled, might have left higher education, or might have gone on to other schools.

In 2009, Tracy Wall graduated from TCC with a 3.7 GPA and the same year transitioned to ODU, entering as a junior, she said.

She now has a 3.75 GPA, she said, and is on target to graduate with her bachelor's this summer. She then plans to pursue a master's in social work at Norfolk State.

She found the only real difference between her TCC and ODU experiences was that she had to learn a new writing style.

"But that was the only thing that was brand new and a little bit different for me," Wall said. "Otherwise, I felt everything else was the same."

Cheryl Ross, (757) 446-2443, cheryl.ross@pilotonline.com