Predicting community college transfer student success: The role of community college academic experiences on post-transfer adjustment

Community college students who transfer to four-year universities face a variety of academic, social, and psychological challenges as they adjust to new postsecondary institutions (Laanan, 2001; Townsend, 2008). Student success through the transfer process is positively influenced by accumulated knowledge, skills, and experiences from the community college environment, characterized as transfer student capital (Laanan, Starobin, and Eggleston, 2011; Moser, 2012). Because community college students are less likely to interact with their institutions through structured out-of-classroom living-learning communities, it is especially important to examine the role of classroom experiences on educational outcomes for this population (Tinto, 2000). The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of academic experiences in the classroom and with community college faculty members on transfer student outcomes at four-year universities, specifically self-efficacy/intent to persist and academic adjustment. A hypothesized structural model of academic forms of transfer student capital and their relationship with self-efficacy/intent to persist was tested using Laanan-Transfer Student Questionnaire (L-TSQ) data from community college transfer students at two public universities in the Midwest. The results of this study provide insight about the influence of specific forms of student-faculty interaction and classroom experiences on academic adjustment at four-year universities. The associated implications for research, policy, and practice presented in this study provide information that will help community college and university educators and policy makers to promote successful completion for increasing numbers of community college transfer students