Community college presidents from Missouri recently met with University of Missouri-Columbia officials to discuss the challenges that some students face when transferring to MU. Last year, more than 1,100 students transferred to the MU to continue their studies, many of those from community colleges.
“We want to create a seamless experience for transfer students coming from community colleges in Missouri,” said Lori Franz, interim provost. “These discussions are the first step in that process. We need to continue to help community college students, who are intending to transfer here, learn about MU’s requirements.”
“Under the new administration here at the MU campus, the community college sector has noticed that there have been some serious and honest attempts to reach out and collaborate with us,” said Terry Barnes, president of Mineral Area Community College.
“More than 8,000 community college students transfer to 4-year schools in Missouri each year. We really cherish the relationship that we have with MU because we consider MU as the flagship institution in the state. Many of us here today have sent our own children to MU. It’s vitally important that we have ongoing conversations to ease the act of transferring between community colleges and MU.”
MU administrators met with 16 Missouri community college presidents and discussed many issues, including MU’s general education requirements, transferring general education credits to MU, dual credit from high school courses, transferring more than 64 hours of credit from community colleges and other schools, the best ways to educate community college students on the transfer process and requirements, and scholarship support.
Currently, MU awards $700 to any community college graduate with an Associate of Arts degree and a 3.0 grade point average. MU also offers $1,750 to two graduates from each Missouri community college with an Associate of Arts degree and a 3.25 grade point average.
“We welcome any opportunity to form educational partnerships with every regionally accredited college and university in Missouri, and we hope that this discussion leads to improvement with the transfer process for many of our incoming students,” MU Chancellor Brady Deaton said.
“Today’s forum was very illuminating and thought-provoking. We will be taking steps to address these issues in the near future. I hope to schedule future events at the community colleges to continue our work.”
Community college presidents also had an opportunity to speak with MU officials from many departments including financial aid, admissions, enrollment management, student affairs, and the College of Arts and Science. Deaton accepted an invitation to meet with some of the community colleges presidents at their schools in the near future.
Currently, students seeking to transfer to MU must have a C (2.0 grade point average) average with 24 or more hours of college level course work from a regional accredited college or university. Some degree programs require a grade point average higher than 2.0 for admission.
If a student holds an Associate of Arts degree and has a C average or better, the student is accepted at MU as having junior standing and having completed the general education requirements. If a student has less than 24 credit hours, the student also must meet MU’s freshman admission requirements.
These requirements will change for Fall 2006 admission. For details on the new requirements, please visit: http://admissions.missouri.edu/applying/transfer/requirements_and_deadlines.php