Ivy Leagues bridge transfer gap with San Jacinto College
Naturally, when people think of the Ivy Leagues and other highly selective universities, the best and brightest students come to mind. However, despite that community colleges nationwide indeed have some of the brightest students looking to transfer into these prestigious institutions, there are few pipelines for community college transfer students to be noticed by these universities.
San Jacinto College has been selected as one of nine community colleges nationwide — and the only Texas community college — invited to participate in the Transfer Scholars Network, a new national initiative seeking to build a pipeline like few before it.
The program aims to connect low-income high achieving community college students with 12 partnering highly-selective four-year universities, laying the foundation for those who meet Transfer Scholars Network and respective institutional admission criteria to receive substantial scholarship and financial aid packages and ultimately obtain their bachelor's degrees. Partnering universities include ...
- Amherst College
- Bowdoin College
- Cornell University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Mount Holyoke College
- Pomona College
- Princeton University
- Smith College
- Spelman College
- Swarthmore College
- Williams College
- Yale University
Students are nominated by their community college and are asked to fill out a Transfer Scholars Network application, where they indicate the universities they are interested in. They are then connected with admissions staff from these 12 institutions and/or the ones they selected and receive assistance with the formal university applications, financial aid applications, and other required application processes.
"The Transfer Scholars Network provides a great opportunity for our students to explore transfer opportunities at these prestigious universities," said Sonia Townsend, San Jacinto College director of student support services. "The individualized assistance they receive with admissions staff from these institutions is such an amazing resource. They can walk them through the application process and help ensure that they have everything prepared correctly so that they have an opportunity to stand out in the transfer student application pool. We are thrilled to be part of this transfer initiative for our students."
In addition to the Transfer Scholars Network, the College hosts transfer webinars with a number of colleges and universities throughout the year. Campus tours are available, along with meeting opportunities with university transfer representatives.
For more information about the Transfer Scholars Network and additional transfer opportunities for San Jacinto College students, visit sanjac.edu/support/transfer-support.
