Transfer-in student

Institutions identify transfer-in status from transcripts and application data. Fall Enrollment collects the number of transfer-in undergraduates. Outcome Measures tracks their award status at four, six, and eight years and, for those without an award at eight years, their enrollment status (still enrolled, enrolled elsewhere, or unknown).

Example: a student completes 30 credits at a community college, then enrolls full-time at a four-year university. That student is a transfer-in (non-first-time). A student who earned 12 dual-enrollment credits in high school and then starts at the four-year university with no other college attendance is first-time, not transfer-in.

First-time students have no prior postsecondary enrollment (with the high-school dual-enrollment exception). Transfer-out students leave the reporting institution and enroll elsewhere; they appear in transfer-out rates and in Outcome Measures enrollment-status categories. Transfer credit is the academic credit the receiving institution accepts; transfer-in status is the student’s enrollment classification.

Counting dual-enrollment high-school students as transfer-ins. Including transfer-ins in the first-time graduation-rate cohort. Assuming every student who brings prior credit is reported as non-first-time without checking the official definition.