First-time Transfer Student Enrollment at Eastern Illinois University

Fall Semesters 1998—2000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By:

Larry Larvick, Ed.D.

Transfer Admissions Counselor

Eastern Illinois University

Charleston, Illinois

July 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

First-time Transfer Student Enrollment at Eastern Illinois University

Fall Semesters 1998—2000

 

Transfer students have been an integral part of Eastern Illinois University’s overall undergraduate student enrollment.  As reported in “A Guide for Transfer Students 2000-2001,” over 40 percent of Eastern students have transferred from other colleges and universities.  The purpose of this research was to study the fall enrollment patterns of all first-time transfer students as well as transfer students from community colleges and select two-year colleges in Illinois.  These Illinois institutions were chosen because they represent the largest number of first-time transfer students who enrolled at Eastern during the years of the study.  For the purposes of this study, references to Illinois community colleges will always include data from two private Illinois two-year colleges, Lincoln College and Springfield College.  Also, references to associate degree will only mean the Associate in Arts (AA) or Associates in Sciences (AS) degrees and other baccalaureate-oriented transfer degrees.

The study data for this report was obtained in February 2001, from the Office of Planning and Institutional Studies and retroactive to the 10th day enrollments for the 1998-2000 fall semesters.  Enrollment data and tables were also obtained from the Office of the Dean of Enrollment Management.

The 10th day enrollment data were chosen because they were “a snapshot in time” and represented the total enrollment on- and off-campus for day and evening classes.  These data were retrieved from EIU’s Student Master File and remained fixed and unchanged.  The 10th day enrollment data were the official enrollment headcount and full-time equivalency (FTE) reported to the Illinois Board of Higher Education by all public community colleges and state universities.

 

Limitation of Study

As with any study, this research report has limitations.  The listing of Eastern majors and first-time transfer student enrollment information was obtained from the Office of Planning and Institutional Studies from data collected, coded and reported as 10th day enrollment for each of the study years.  Some majors may not appear in the table listings because over the three-year study, students did not select that major.  In addition, there were student enrollments reported for majors that may have been deleted or combined to create new majors.  This was found mainly in some of the majors from the College of Business and Applied Sciences and Biological Sciences within the College of Science.  For research purposes, student enrollment in majors was kept consistent with the data received and interpolation, as to enrollment in current majors at the time of this study, was left to the reader.

There were slight differences in the Office of Planning and Institutional Studies files in regard to each fall semesters’ total enrollment figures for all first-time transfer students as reported in Tables 1 through 4 and 6.  The transfer college history file tape, from which data were used for this study, did not include first-time transfer student data from the enrollment file tape when there was a missing code indicating a specific transfer college attended.  The differences in totals for all first-time transfer students between these two files for each of the three years of the study were as follows:

 

Fall Semester

Transfer College

 History File

Enrollment File

Difference

2000

                  911

            926

-15

1999

                1072

          1093

-21

1998

                1013

          1035

-22

Analysis of Data

Over a ten-year period, beginning with the 1991 fall semester, transfer enrollment has averaged 40 percent of the undergraduate enrollment.  Since 1995, however, on-campus undergraduate transfer student enrollment has dropped below 40 percent each fall semester; and for the 1998 fall semester it was 36 percent and the 2000 fall semester, 35 percent (see Appendix D).

A comparison of all first-time transfer students enrolled at Eastern, on- and off-campus, to first-time transfer student enrolled from Illinois community colleges and select two-year colleges for the same time period is shown in Table 1.

 

TABLE 1

A comparison of all first-time transfer students on- and off-campus 10th day fall semesters

1998, 1999 and 2000

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

10th Day

All first-time

Transfers

First-time Ill - CC transfers
Difference

CC’s

Percent

CC’s

Fall 2000

                  911

                   673

           -238

       73.9%

Fall 1999

                1072

                   800

           -272

       74.6%

Fall 1998

                1013

                   772

           -241

       76.2%
TOTAL

                2996

                 2245

           -751

       74.9%

 

Over the past three years of the study, the data revealed about three-fourths (74.9%) of the total first-time transfer students enrollment were comprised of transfer students from Illinois public community colleges and select two-year private institutions.  It is interesting to note that the percentage of Illinois first-time community college transfer students has decreased every year when compared to all first-time transfers for those same years.  The largest decrease in all first-time transfer student enrollments was between the fall 1999 and 2000 semesters.  All first-time

 

TABLE 2

THE NUMBER OF CREDIT HOURS TRANSFERRED AND THE AGE OF ALL FIRST-TIME TRANSFER STUDENTS

WHO HAVE ENROLLED AT EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY THE 1998-2000 FALL SEMESTERS

 

Fall 1998 Semester

Characteristic

N

MEAN

STD DEV

MINIMUM

MAXIMUM

HOURS

1013

57.35

22.94

3

167

AGE

1013

21.68

05.06

17

54

 

Fall 1999 Semester

Characteristic

N

MEAN

STD DEV

MINIMUM

MAXIMUM

HOURS

1072

57.71

23.76

0

185

AGE

1072

22.18

06.01

17

62

 

Fall 2000 Semester

Characteristic

N

MEAN

STD DEV

MINIMUM

MAXIMUM

HOURS

911

57.48

23.45

0

193

AGE

911

21.91

05.60

17

63

 

TABLE 3

PREDOMINATE ETHNIC BACKGROUND (PEB) OF ALL FIRST-TIME TRANSFER STUDENTS WHO ENROLLED

AT EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY THE 1998-2000 FALL SEMESTERS

 

Fall 1998 Semester

PEB

FEQUENCY

PERCENT

CUMULATIVE FREQUENCY

CUMULATIVE PERCENT

Unknown

21

2.07

21

2.07

Native American

2

0.20

23

2.27

Black

43

4.24

66

6.52

Asian

6

0.59

72

7.11

Hispanic

18

1.78

90

8.88

International

2

0.20

92

9.08

White

921

90.92

1013

100.0

 

Fall 1999 Semester

PEB

FEQUENCY

PERCENT

CUMULATIVE FREQUENCY

CUMULATIVE PERCENT

Unknown

31

2.89

31

2.89

Native American

4

0.37

35

3.26

Black

51

4.76

86

8.02

Asian

10

0.93

96

8.96

Hispanic

25

2.33

121

11.29

International

2

0.19

123

11.47

White

949

88.53

1072

100.0

 

Fall 2000 Semester

PEB

FEQUENCY

PERCENT

CUMULATIVE FREQUENCY

CUMULATIVE PERCENT

Unknown

21

2.31

21

2.31

Native American

2

0.22

23

2.52

Black

47

5.16

70

7.68

Asian

7

0.77

77

8.45

Hispanic

24

2.63

101

11.09

International

1

0.11

102

11.20

White

809

88.80

911

100.0

 

transfer students decreased by 161 students, 1072 to 911, while Illinois community college transfer students decreased by 127 students, 800 to 673, respectively.  For the fall 2000 semester, less than 50 students were first-time transfer students from out-of-state colleges and universities.  The remaining first-time transfer students were predominately from other colleges and universities in Illinois (See Appendix A).

The number of credit hours transferred and the age of all first-time transfer students who enrolled at Eastern Illinois University in the 1998 through 2000 fall semesters is shown in Table 2.  Over the three years of the study data, the average number of credit hours transferred and the average age of the transfer students remained relatively constant.  Students transferred about 57 credit hours each fall semester with the highest being 193 credit hours and the lowest zero.  Students who did not transfer credit hours were included, as transfer students because they attended another college but the course(s) they took were not transferable.

 The average age of all first-time transfer students who enrolled at Eastern during the years of the study data was approximately 22 years.  It is interesting to note that the transfer student age ranged from 17 to 63 years old.

The predominate ethnic backgrounds (PEB) of all first-time transfer students who enrolled at Eastern during the fall semesters of the study are shown in Table 3.  The study data reveals that the PEB percentage has remained relatively in the same proportion for each of the fall semesters.  The predominate ethnic backgrounds designated by almost 90 percent of first-time transfer students was White followed by approximately five percent who indicated Black.  About two and one-half percent of the transfer students denoted Hispanic.  The PEB’s of Asian, Native American and International transfer students were all under one percent.

 

TABLE 4

ALL FIRST-TIME TRANSFER STUDENTS ENROLLED AT EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

By Major and College, Fall 10th Day

                      CHANGE

                                                                                             YEAR                                 2 YR (1998-2000)                 1 YR (1999-2000 )

COLLEGE / MAJOR

1998

1999

2000

#

%

#

%

African American Studies

0

2

0

0

n/a

-2

-100%

Art

17

28

23

6

35%

-5

-18%

English

39

23

27

-12

-31%

4

17%

Foreign Languages

2

3

1

-1

-50%

-2

-67%

History

36

32

32

-4

-11%

0

0%

Journalism

17

15

20

3

18%

5

33%

Music

11

10

11

0

0%

1

10%

Philosophy

0

0

0

0

0%

0

0%

Speech Communication

36

32

26

-10

-28%

-6

-19%

Theatre Arts

3

8

3

0

0%

-5

-63%

COAH TOTALS

161

153

143

-18

-11%

-10

-7%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accounting

42

37

28

-14

-33%

-9

-24%

Admin Info Sys

12

15

8

-4

-33%

-7

-47%

Business Administration

0

7

6

6

600%

-1

-14%

Business Education

2

6

5

3

150%

-1

-17%

Computer Management

29

21

24

-5

-17%

3

14%

Finance

25

23

22

-3

-12%

-1

-4%

Management

47

65

48

1

2%

-17

-26%

Marketing

38

38

32

-6

-16%

-6

-16%

Pre-Business

6

6

2

-4

-67%

-4

-67%

BUSINESS SCHOOL TOTALS

201

218

175

-26

-13%

-43

-20%

 

Fam/Consumer Sci

33

35

34

1

3%

-1

-3%

FAM/CONS SCI SCHOOL TOTALS

33

35

34

1

3%

-1

-3%

Career and Tech Ed

0

0

5

5

500%

5

500%

Career Occupation

10

22

8

-2

-20%

-14

-64%

Industrial Technology

12

14

13

1

8%

-1

-7%

Technology Education-TC

2

1

1

-1

-50%

0

0%

TECH SCHOOL TOTAL

24

37

27

3

13%

-10

-27%

COB/AS TOTALS

258

290

236

-22

-9%

-54

-19%

 

 

Table 4 (continued)

CHANGE

                                                                                             YEAR                                    2 YR (1998-2000)                 1 YR (1999-2000)

COLLEGE / MAJOR

1998

1999

2000

#

%

#

%

Earl Childhood Education

19

15

16

-3

-16%

1

7%

Elementary Education

129

151

114

-15

-12%

-37

-25%

Special Education

38

32

32

-6

-16%

0

0%

Middle Level Educ

7

6

10

3

43%

4

67%

Physical Education

41

43

39

-2

-5%

-4

-9%

Health Studies

6

7

2

-4

-67%

-5

-71%

Recreation Administration

16

17

8

-8

-50%

-9

-53%

COE/PS TOTALS

256

271

221

-35

-14%

-50

-18%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biological Sciences

0

40

48

48

4800%

8

20%

Biological Sci-TC

10

0

0

-10

-100%

0

0%

Botany

2

2

0

-2

-100%

-2

-100%

Environmental Biology

10

0

1

-9

-90%

1

100%

Zoology

18

24

3

-15

-83%

-21

-88%

BIOLOGICAL SCI TOTALS

40

66

52

12

30%

-14

-21%

Chemistry

6

3

4

-2

-33%

1

33%

Clinical Lab Science

0

3

2

2

200%

-1

-33%

Comm Disorders & Sci

11

13

13

2

18%

0

0%

Geography

4

1

0

-4

-100%

-1

-100%

Geology

0

4

0

0

0%

-4

-100%

Mathematics

16

17

13

-3

-19%

-4

-24%

Mathematics & Computer Sci

7

3

0

-7

-100%

-3

-100%

Physics

2

3

0

-2

-100%

-3

-100%

Pre-Engineering

6

5

5

-1

-17%

0

0%

Pre-Chiropractic

0

0

0

0

0%

0

0%

Pre-Dentistry

2

0

0

-2

-100%

0

0%

Pre-Medicine

1

0

2

1

100%

2

200%

Pre-Nursing

0

1

0

0

0%

-1

-100%

Pre-Occupational Therapy

0

0

0

0

0%

0

0%

Pre-Optometry

1

0

0

-1

-100%

0

0%

Pre-Pharmacy

0

0

0

0

0%

0

0%

Pre-Physical Therapy

3

2

0

-3

-100%

-2

-100%

Pre-Veterinary Medicine

1

0

0

-1

-100%

0

0%

Economics

2

1

3

1

50%

2

200%

Political Science

10

7

10

0

0%

3

43%

Psychology

71

61

73

2

3%

12

20%

Social Sciences-TC

8

6

5

-3

-38%

-1

-17%

Sociology

24

23

22

-2

-8%

-1

-4%

COS TOTALS

215

219

204

-11

-5%

-15

-7%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BOT

39

46

44

5

13%

-2

-4%

Guest

0

1

0

0

0%

-1

-100%

Undeclared

84

92

63

-21

-25%

-29

-32%

UNIVERSITY TOTALS

1013

1072

911

-102

-10%

-161

-15%

 

NEW ENROLL BY MAJOR.xls        Data: Planning_Institutional Studies (5/2001)

The major areas of study and clusters all first-time transfer students enrolled at Eastern during the fall semesters of the study are shown in Table 4 (See Limitation of Study).  The 1999 fall semester had the largest number of enrolled transfer students when compared to the other two years of the study.  There were 161, 15 percent, fewer transfer students enrolled the 2000 fall semester compared to the 1999 fall semester and 102, 10 percent, fewer students compared to the 1998 fall semester.

Eastern Illinois University offers degree programs in four colleges.  The Board of Trustees degree is available through the School of Adult and Continuing Education.  The Colleges in descending order, starting with the largest enrollment decline in transfer students from the 1999 fall semester to the 2000 fall semester were:

 

         Fall                         Fall                Student         Percent      

Colleges            1999                2000                Decrease                Change

                Business & Applied Sci.                290                          236                            -    54                     - 19%

                Education & Prof. Studies                271                          221                            -    50                     - 19%

                Sciences                                  219                          204                            -    15                     -   7%

                Arts & Humanities                               153                          143                            -    10                      -   7%

TOTAL                                     933                          804                             - 129                      -  14%

The decline in transfer student enrollment in the colleges from 1998 fall semester to 2000 fall semester were:

         Fall                         Fall                Student         Percent      

Colleges            1998                2000                Decrease                Change

                Education & Prof. Studies                256                          221                            -    35                     - 14%

                Business & Applied Sci.                258                          236                            -    22                     -   9%

                Arts & Humanities                               161                          143                            -    18                     - 11%

                Sciences                                  215                          204                            -    11                      -   5%

TOTAL                                     890                          804                            -    86                      -  10%

Majors with the largest decline in first-time transfer students from fall semester 1999 to fall semester 2000 were:

         Fall                        Fall                 Student         Percent      

Major          1999                2000                Decrease                Change

Elementary Education       151                         114                      -    37                   - 25%

Undeclared                        92                            63                      -    29                   - 32%

Management                       65                            48                      -    17                     - 26%

TOTAL                          308                         225                      -    83                     - 27%

 

Psychology first-time transfer majors increased the most, 12 students or 20 percent, during this same time period.  However, the total number of first-time Psychology transfer students for the 2000 fall semester, 73, was only two larger than the 1998 fall semester enrollment of 71.

First-time transfer student enrollment from Illinois community colleges and select two-year colleges is shown in Table 5.  According to the three-years of study data, the largest first-time community college transfer student enrollment, which was 800, occurred in the 1999 fall semester. Community college transfer student enrollment increased 28 students from the 1998 fall semester (772 total) to 1999 fall semester (800 total) but decreased 127 students from the 1999 to the 2000 semester (673 total).  In two years, the first-time community college enrollment decreased by 99 students. 

 

TABLE 5

FALL 10th DAY  FIRST-TIME TRANSFER STUDENT ENROLLMENT

FROM ILLINOIS COMMUNITY COLLEGES AND SELECT TWO-YEAR COLLEGES

College

Fall 1998

Fall 1999

Fall 2000

Change 99-00

% Change

BLACKHAWK COLLEGE

5

7

6

-1

-14.3%

CITY COLLEGES OF CHICAGO

 

 

 

 

 

    RICHARD J. DALEY COLLEGE

6

5

1

-4

-80.0%

    KENNEDY-KING COLLEGE

0

0

0

0

0.0%

    MALCOM X COLLEGE

0

0

0

0

0.0%

    OLIVE-HARVEY COLLEGE

0

0

0

0

0.0%

    HARRY S. TRUMAN COLLEGE

0

0

0

0

0.0%

    HAROLD WASHINGTON COLLEGE

1

2

0

-2

-100.0%

    WILBUR WRIGHT COLLEGE

0

4

3

-1

-25.0%

DANVILLE AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

51

75

31

-44

-58.7%

COLLEGE OF DuPAGE

49

29

36

7

24.1%

E. St. LOUIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE CTR.

0

0

0

0

0.0%

ELGIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE

13

11

17

6

54.5%

WILLIAM RAINEY HARPER COLLEGE

35

28

18

-10

-35.7%

HEARTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE

1

4

0

-4

-100.0%

HIGHLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE

1

1

2

1

100.0%

ILLINOIS CENTRAL COLLEGE

40

18

15

-3

-16.7%

ILL. EASTERN COM.COL.(GROUPED DATA)

101

84

73

-11

-13.1%

ILLINOIS VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

10

9

16

7

77.8%

JOLIET JUNIOR COLLEGE

33

35

20

-15

-42.9%

KANKAKEE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

7

8

9

1

12.5%

KASKASKIA COLLEGE

19

29

28

-1

-3.4%

KISHWAUKEE COLLEGE

3

2

1

-1

-50.0%

COLLEGE OF LAKE COUNTY

20

15

4

-11

-73.3%

LAKE LAND COLLEGE

112

137

137

0

0.0%

LEWIS & CLARK COMMUNITY COLLEGE

7

7

8

1

14.3%

LINCOLN LAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE

19

24

12

-12

-50.0%

JOHN A. LOGAN COLLEGE

2

2

4

2

100.0%

McHENRY COUNTY COLLEGE

9

3

13

10

333.3%

MORAINE VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

36

56

61

5

8.9%

MORTON COLLEGE

3

4

4

0

0.0%

OAKTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE

5

2

3

1

50.0%

PARKLAND COLLEGE

56

52

47

-5

-9.6%

PRAIRIE STATE COLLEGE

21

21

14

-7

-33.3%

REND LAKE COLLEGE

18

9

5

-4

-44.4%

RICHLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE

9

15

10

-5

-33.3%

ROCK VALLEY COLLEGE

6

8

10

2

25.0%

CARL SANDBURG COLLEGE

0

3

2

-1

-33.3%

SAUK VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

4

2

3

1

50.0%

SHAWNEE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

0

1

0

-1

-100.0%

SO. SUBURBAN COLLEGE OF COOK CO.

13

11

12

1

9.1%

SOUTHEASTERN ILLINOIS COLLEGE

6

4

7

3

75.0%

S'WESTERN ILL. COL. (Belleville Area)

24

28

16

-12

-42.9%

SPOON RIVER COLLEGE

1

1

3

2

200.0%

TRITON COLLEGE

1

5

5

0

0.0%

WAUBONSEE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

9

8

7

-1

-12.5%

JOHN WOOD COMMUNITY COLLEGE

3

1

1

0

0.0%

LINCOLN COLLEGE

13

27

7

-20

-74.1%

SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE

0

3

2

-1

-33.3%

TOTALS

772

800

673

-127