By Cara McClintock
Princeton University has recently launched two programs, the Teaching Transfer Initiative (TTI) and the Transfer Scholars Initiative (TSI), that partner with New Jersey community colleges to help community college students prepare to transfer to a range of excellent colleges and universities.
The Teaching Transfer Initiative
The Teaching Transfer Initiative provides support for community college students who wish to transfer to selective four-year institutions with high graduation rates. TTI hires recent Ph.D.s, trains them as visiting faculty members and sends them to partner New Jersey community colleges to:
- Teach community college courses and Princeton-accredited courses on their community college campuses.
- Design and lead hands-on workshops for community college students about the transfer process.
- Offer community college students individual transfer consultations.
- Organize and lead trips to various types of four-year schools, including research universities and liberal arts colleges, to broaden students’ exposure to their transfer options.
The Princeton-accredited courses are offered for free to accepted students, and students earn a Princeton transcript upon completion of the program. In this way, TTI acts as a bridge program that helps community college students identify a range of colleges that might be a good fit for them and strengthens the pathway between community colleges and a variety of outstanding four-year institutions.
“During my experience in the TTI program, my excitement to transfer… grew even more,” one community college student shared. “This class opened my eyes to the endless possibilities that universities like Princeton can offer.”
Currently, TTI partners with Mercer County Community College and Rowan College of South Jersey.
The Transfer Scholars Initiative
While TTI brings Princeton to community colleges, the Transfer Scholars Initiative, its sister program, brings community college students to Princeton. TSI enrolls high-achieving community college students in an eight-week, on-campus summer academic program.
Students take two Princeton-accredited courses and participate in a transfer success curriculum designed to facilitate informed, successful transfer to selective four-year institutions that fit their educational and career goals.
“TSI gave me the building blocks I need to start figuring out what I want my future to look like,” on participant reported. “I’ve learned how to put my big feelings and lofty aspirations into words, and those words into plans.”
TSI is offered at no cost to accepted students, and students receive a stipend while in the program. A limited amount of on-campus housing is available for students for whom the commute to Princeton would be prohibitive.
Students return to Princeton in the fall for National Transfer Student Week to participate in a weekend Application Boot Camp to prepare their materials for upcoming transfer application deadlines. TSI launched in the summer of 2023 with 40 students from seven New Jersey community colleges, and this summer expects to enroll approximately 70 students from eleven partner community colleges.
Cara McClintock is the associate director of the program for Community College Engagement at Princeton University’s McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. She can be reached at cara.mcclintock@princeton.edu.
Learn more about TTI and TSI
- Cara McClintock – Associate Director, Community College Engagement