About 900 students transfered to CMU from MMCC last year
Casey Rowe is one of many students who has transferred from Mid Michigan Community College to Central Michigan University.
The Mount Pleasant sophomore said he started his college career out at MMCC because it was a lot cheaper than CMU. He has since transferred to the university.
“I transferred from MMCC to CMU because I wanted the feel of a university more than a community college,” Rowe said.
Matt Miller, executive director of college advancement at MMCC, said the exact number of students who transfer from MMCC to CMU are not counted, but of the 7,000 students who took classes last year, more than 900 are now at CMU.
Miller said there are a variety of reasons why students transfer between the institutions.
“Some start at MMCC and then transfer to CMU because of cost or convenience,” Miller said. “Others may not know exactly where they want to go after high school so they start at their local community college until they decide.”
Rowe said there are good and bad aspects to both the community college and the university.
Although MMCC was cheap, had smaller classes and was more similar to high school, there were less classes to pick from and less preparation, he said.
“(CMU) has a greater selection of classes to pick from, greater diversity amongst students, chances to meet people and (a student) has to really take responsibility of themselves,” Rowe said.
He said the downsides to CMU are cost of attendance and if a student is not disciplined they can fall behind easily.
“I am going back to MMCC because I messed up this semester,” Rowe said. “I have to get myself back on track academically.”
Miller said a lot of students transfer from CMU to MMCC for academic reasons.
CMU does not track why student leave the institution, said Mary Meier, assistant director of institutional research. Students may go to another four year college, a community college, take a semester off, or drop out of school entirely.
“We don’t have any data on students who leave CMU,” she said. “We don’t do exit surveys.”
Miller said students may have been struggling at CMU and need to transfer to a different institution to improve their grades.
“MMCC’s academic support services can help these students with tutoring, small group instruction and study skills training.”
MMCC has a great relationship with CMU, Miller said. The institutions work together to make sure that transferring is a simple and relatively seamless process.
“Going from MMCC to CMU, I simply filled the application out and went to orientation,” Rowe said. “Going from CMU back to MMCC, I just had to meet with the counselor and pick my classes.”
