by Robin Rossie
For a few years now, UF has been experimenting with the high school/Associate of Arts (HS/AA) admissions process. The current practice is for this population to first be screened as freshman applicants. Those who are approved for freshman admission are classified as BD, are assigned the college and major listed on their application, and are expected to complete an undergraduate degree in 2-4 years. Those who are not approved for freshman admission are automatically (and without notification to the student) referred to a college for further consideration as transfer applicants. Those who are approved for transfer admission are classified as J, and are expected to complete an undergraduate degree in 2 years.
Do you consider this current practice to be a “best practice”? How can we improve the admissions process for this growing population of HS/AA applicants? What issues are we seeing in time-to-degree and in retention of these students who are admitted as BD or as J? What is your college’s policy on change-of-major for HS/AA J admits, and do you agree with that policy?
HS/AA applicants have taken full advantage of the accelerated mechanisms available to them, and rightfully so. The intent of accelerated mechanisms is to shorten time to degree. Why, then, with two years completed, are these students afforded an additional 4 years to complete bachelor degree requirements? There are many ways to approach this question. As a parent, you may want your child to take full advantage of all academic opportunities (while minimizing out-of-pocket expense). As a Florida resident feeling the pinch of State budget deficits, you may want to minimize State spending on these students. As an academic advisor, you’re inclined to base the decision on the individual student’s interests and goals . . . but, as an academic advisor in a unit governed by the RCM funding model, you also have to weigh your unit’s interests in minimizing excess credit hours for the student in your college, while maximizing enrollment in courses offered by your college.
As an institution, can we develop a common approach? What’s your unit’s approach? What do you think the advising community can do to be most equitable, effective, and efficient without seeming simply officious?
Let’s blog about it. Please post a comment below!
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In order to have a meaningful conversation I feel it necessary to clarify a few points.
ReplyDeleteFirst, as stated, HSAA applicants are reviewed first as freshmen and either admitted, denied or forwarded for transfer consideration. HSAA applicants are not "automatically" referred to the College for consideration as transfers. Only those HSAA students who have met the necessary transfer requirements for their indicated major are referred. All other HSAA applicants, not admitted as freshmen, are denied.
Second, all students who are referred as transfer students are notified of this fact via our online application status page. While a paper notification is not mailed to the student our internet savvy applicants are fully capable of finding this information on the admissions website.
Third, HSAA applicants admitted as freshmen or transfers are "expected" to work with their college advisor to determine the appropriate amount of time needed to complete their degree.
I hope the stated points of clarification offer valuable insight on how the process works.
Best regards,
Zina L. Evans
Assoc Provost for Enrollment Management
Catalog year assigned is another issue that this raises. With degree reqts differing depending on catalog year assigned. What are some of you doing with these students as far as cat yr assignment? Jaime Little SB-WCBA
ReplyDeleteTransfer AA students are assigned the most current catalog year by SASS. This allows the student to benefit from the most current curriculum being offered.
ReplyDeleteStudent’s can decide to go under their original catalog year based on continuous enrollment & must see an advisor to do so. Being place under an older catalog year could result in some of the curriculum no longer being offered.
Roxanne Barnett
Zina, thanks for the input. This is a useful forum for clarifying these and other admission policies.
ReplyDelete-Robin Rossie
Zina, regarding your second point about applicants who aren't eligible as freshman but are eligible for transfer referral to colleges being notified via the online application status page...can you tell us what the status page actually tells them? This is a more complicated process than standard freshmen admissions....just wondering what our message to these students is....? Thank you.
ReplyDelete--Jill