Treffer: Increasing Campus IQ: A Transfer Success Innovation

This article presents the term "Campus IQ," defined as student awareness of the social, generational, financial, bureaucratic, and academic environment factors contributing to success on campus. Campus IQ is specific to the institution's context, organizational structures, and culture. Most institutions of higher education direct a large number of financial and personnel resources towards the Campus IQ of first-year students, including admitted student days, pre-college advising, multiday orientations, welcome events, residential life programming, and first-year experiences embedded within the curriculum. Transfer students are often expected to know how to navigate the campus without receiving the benefits of these programs, contributing to transfer shock, a temporary dip in grade point average for transfer students during the first or second semester at a new institution that results in decreased graduation and retention rates. This article describes how the authors accomplished significant structural and cultural changes at their institution, aiming to connect transfer students to the community while increasing Campus IQ and easing transfer shock.

ERIC