College of Charleston welcomes record number of transfer students

Transfer students can often times feel like second-class citizens because they didn’t start as freshmen, but that’s not the case at the College of Charleston. Thanks in part to the Transfer Resource Center, which began in 2018, and the Transfer Mentor Program, which began the following year, the College has set a record for transfer students for the fall 2021 semester.

The approximately 636 new transfer students represent a nearly 20 percent increase from last fall. The number of transfer students coming from out-of-state is even higher with approximately 30 percent of the new fall 2021 transfer students coming from out-of-state – up 22% from fall 2020.

“We are seeing more students transfer to CofC because we have a designated place on campus to help them understand their transfer credits, connect them to campus resources and help them meet other transfer students,” says Lisa Chestney, interim university registrar and director of the Transfer Resource Center.

The Transfer Resource Center offers pre-transfer advising by pairing each prospective student with an advisor to discuss their transfer credits and pathway to graduation. Transfer mentors, like John Broome, also provide guidance, advice and support during new transfer students’ first semester at the College.

“The Transfer Mentor Program helped me so much that I wanted to return the favor,” says Broome, who transferred last fall from a small, private college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. “I act as a resource for my mentees in whatever they may need to help them feel welcome and at home at the College. This can vary from telling them where buildings are located and the best places to study, to where is the best place to get a good dinner off-campus downtown.”

Sophomore Jack Meyer, who is studying elementary education, is very pleased with how the whole process went with his transfer this fall from Ithaca College in Upstate New York.

“The school was very helpful in the transfer process,” he says. “Once they got to my file with all of my transcripts, things moved pretty swiftly. I chose CofC because I had heard only great things about it and had always wanted to go to school in the South.”

Broome, a junior double majoring in history and political science, came to CofC because he loved how much history is woven into the fabric of the city and the reputation of the professors.

“I had heard that there were amazing professors that truly cared about the success of their students, and that they wanted to see lives changed and transformed through the power of a quality education,” he says. “I am so glad that I decided to come to the College. The opportunities that I have had to learn and grow both inside and outside of the classroom have helped transform me into the student that I am today.”

Broome was one of the first to take advantage of the mentor program during its inaugural year.

“It means a lot to me that there are programs like this to help what I feel is an underrepresented student community,” he says. “It gives transfer students a place to meet other transfer students who have been through the same experience. We may all have various backgrounds and stories on why and where we transferred from, but at the end of the day we still share that one common bond, and that is that we are transfer students.”