TRANSFER STUDENTS provide the University with a different perspective and social dynamic that could not be achieved in an environment of exclusively traditional students. Attracting applicants searching for less expensive alternatives to their current institutions and high achieving students from lower ranked colleges and universities, the transfer program adds another important facet to the University community and diversifies the student body. However, with a Virginia law mandating that all four-year institutions maintain guaranteed admissions programs with Virginia Community Colleges, these new transfers need not demonstrate high academic performance other than a 3.4 GPA and the completion of the core class equivalences such as 12 credits of math or science, a non-western perspective, etc. to gain admission to the University.
With such a low standard for guaranteed admission to one of the nation's top public universities, the proposal of placing these students on academic probation their first semester at the University seems to be a viable option.
In an interview with Greg Roberts, associate dean of admissions, he stated that just like traditional first year students, transfer students perform the weakest in their first semester. He also noted that by graduation, the average GPA of a transfer student is about 3.0 in comparison to the 3.1 of traditionally enrolled students. While these statistics demonstrate that transfer students in the past have not been academically inferior to their traditional counterparts, the guaranteed admissions program is too new to have demonstrated a continued trend in the equal success of both types of students. In fact, Roberts said that only 10 percent of last fall's 503 transfers came from the guaranteed admissions program since the program is so new that many students did not have time to complete the specific requirements of the program.
The academic performance of guaranteed transfers, due to their low population on grounds, has yet to be seen. Even if their average grades prove comparable to other students, a probationary first semester for all guaranteed transfers will compensate for the fact that with any form of non-subjective admissions policy, unqualified students can gain admission. Roberts, when asked if the University had ever denied a valedictorian or a salutatorian, replied, "Sure."
However, if a valedictorian is not guaranteed admission, then why should anyone have that privilege? Roberts, in respect to the new program, said, "It was not something we actively pursued. It is a bill that states that all four year institutions must have a guaranteed program." He added that, "since it is here, we want to make an agreement that is as fair as possible."Given that the school has only created this new program to obey the law requiring all four year institutions to implement such a program, I wonder why the requirement of a 3.4 GPA was chosen as "fair." If it is fair to deny valedictorians, then it also seems fair to require perfect grades in another institution for a guaranteed acceptance letter to the University.
Strong transfer students should have the ability to apply and gain admission to the University and that even grades less than a 4.0 usually deserve admission, but as the guaranteed admission program should not exist in the first place, a 4.0 GPA requirement would effectively obey state law while effectively eliminating most students who gain guaranteed admission. This policy grants the admissions office the right to subjectively evaluate each applicant and therefore maintain integrity and selectivity in the admissions process.
Roberts said that if the academic performance of guaranteed transfer students falls obviously below that of other transfers, then changes will be made raising the requirements for guaranteed admissions. He said that the bill "is allowing us to admit the same transfers that would have previously been admitted," and that it is not a "sacrifice of quality." However, even if the GPA requirement is raised slightly and the program allows admission to many applicants who would have received admission beforehand, anything below a 4.0 requirement unfairly favors transfer applicant over traditional applicants because perfect grades in high school still offer no guarantee of admission.
To ensure that guaranteed admissions transfers from VCCS perform on the same level as other students, they should also be on academic probation their first semester as a clear message that poor academic performance will not be tolerated. Unlike first-year students, transfers have college experience, and should know to work hard enough not to fail the requirements of academic probation. This probation should not be placed on applicants from other institutions or applicants from VCCS who applied based on a subjective review of their application, but only to those who were granted guaranteed admission as a trade off for the unfair, irrational law passed by the state legislature. Roberts stated that such an idea would not be as effective as increasing the GPA requirement slightly to perhaps a 3.5 or 3.6, but raising this requirement to a 4.0 in conjunction with probationary first semester counteracts the state's legislation that makes a mockery of the University's admission selectivity by mandating a guaranteed program.
Only by doing all in its power to sidestep the guaranteed admissions program will the University uphold the integrity of its admissions process. In truth, most applicants from VCCS with a 3.9 should be granted admission without the need for academic probation in their first semester, but I believe that it is the duty of University officials to do all in their power to stop as many applicants as possible from receiving guaranteed admission because it goes against the very philosophy of selective admissions that has guided the University for so long.
Greg Crapanzano's column runs Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at gcrapanzano@cavalierdaily.com
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