By Robyn Dexter

In-depth Editor

Although Eastern is seeing a decline in the upcoming spring semester’s transfer rate, the Office of Transfer Relations is processing more than 400 applications.

Rita Pearson, the transfer coordinator for the Office of Transfer Relations, said the transfer student rates for Spring 2013 reflect the statewide enrollment decline that has been taking place.

“Many students have cut back to being part-time students,” she said. “We do tend to follow that statewide trend as well.”

Pearson said it is taking students longer to move through the system because they are only part-time and take longer to graduate.

“About three or four years ago when that recession hit, there was a huge movement to go back to school,” she said. “We had an increase and we were excited to see a rise in transfer students as well.”

Unfortunately, Pearson said not as many students transferred to four-year institutions as were expected.

“They just couldn’t afford to stay in school or went into a technical program and were finished in two years,” she said. “The funding just isn’t there.”

Pearson said the previous peak is just now starting to level out.

“We had a record high last year of 1,150 transfer students in the fall,” she said.

The Office of Transfer Relations does not track spring transfer rates as much over the years because it usually stays around 300 students, Pearson said.

“Spring tends to have less transfer students than in the fall,” Pearson said. “We have lots of incompletes because we’re still processing.”

Pearson said the reason they are behind on the processing is because of the number of applications.

“There’s no way of knowing who’s going to matriculate, so we have to wait and see,” she said.

The number of applicants will differ from the number of students who actually come to Eastern in the spring, as not everyone who applies to Eastern will attend.

Enrollment for community colleges and four-year institutions has seen a decline in enrollment over the past few years.

Pearson said she expects a lower transfer rate because of the decrease in community college enrollment.

Pearson said efforts are being made to improve the transfer rates by doing calling campaigns and checking up with students who have been applying to see where they are at in the application process.

“We send out notifications to community colleges as to when we’re going to be there as well,” she said. “We’ve doubled our visits to feeder schools.”

Pearson said many students who transfer to Eastern have met all the requirements for their associate degree, but they never applied to receive it and make it official.

“They really should get the credit for what they’ve done, so we encourage students to do what we call reverse transfer,” she said.

In this process, students can get their associate degree while continuing to take classes at Eastern.

“They can take their few remaining classes, send an Eastern transcript back to their community college and not delay starting their sequence here,” she said. “We don’t want them to waste any time.”

Pearson said she has seen the number of students who do the reverse transfer process increase.

Though the numbers for spring transfer students will not be in until the 10-day count in January, Pearson said she is optimistic about the number of transfer students that will come to Eastern.

She estimates somewhere between 200 and 300 students.

“We have about an 80-percent show rate,” she said. “Transfer students yield at a higher rate than freshmen.”

Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or redexter@eiu.edu.