What is Changing Colleges?

College Transfer is the process of Changing College.  Transfer students make up 60% of college students attending college today.  They just don't change colleges one or two times.  Today, transfer students also move course credits from one institution to another and petition for course credit with tests and exams.  They apply with prior learning and expect institutions to respect what they know and have learned outside the classroom before enrolling.

College Transfer comes in many forms and is an academic transfer or movement of students across institutional borders. Traditionally, it is the acceptance of students and their academic course credits from one college to another, as students seek to complete one or more college degrees or credentials. It also is a term that covers the institutional support services including the academic, enrollment and advising required to help steer students through the complexity of changing institutions, programs of study and understand the impact on requirements for degree completion. Usually, college transfer is between independent institutions. But, it can be planned between related or sister colleges within a large university.  Related to Changing Colleges is Changing Major. Often, when students transition from one school to another, they also change majors.
Many have studied the various patterns of transfer students. AcademyOne, the company that powers this website, has identified nine classifications (nick names really) as a means to understand the different processes and patterns impacting academic credit portability. As we said, we can dissect college transfer to help identify the common processes so they are not clouded by confusion and unknowns. You can belong to more than one classification. Each type of college transfer persona can use the tools and information on CollegeTransfer.Net in a slightly different way. We hope we can show you how as we progress through Side Door Strategies:

• Bankers take course work across institutions focused on gaining expertise.
• Switchers move laterally across four year institutions.
• Finders seek a course or two to satisfy their degree requirements at their home institution.
• Changers seek a new career and change of major.
• Movers tend to change college as they move around for job or country.
• Traders follow Transfer Agreements, saving money along the way.
• Explorers start programs of study and rarely finish because they are in search of what interests them.
• Jumpers test out of college level courses by exam.
• Climbers scale course requirements with work and life experience.
• The forms of College Transfer share a common process we call the "petition for credit". Schools will call this the "course articulation process" of prior learning. It is usually handled by enrollment management functions including the academic registrar. 

Check out the CollegeTransfer.Net Glossary to get familiar with what lingo everyone in academia uses.

Learn from other adult learners and traditional students about how they found their way through their challenges and obstacles of College Transfer. Use the Side Door Strategies published on CollegeTransfer.Net to asses your current circumstances, determine your goals, choose your path and complete your college degree - faster and for less money.

You can do it. Finish you College Degree faster by following proven steps we itemize for you. Use CollegeTransfer.Net's self assessment tools including the Student Passport to compile your academic history and to find your best transfer college or university ranked by how many course credits they will accept.