Perceived Barriers to Transfer that Rural Community College Students Experience when Transitioning to a Regional University

This exploratory, phenomenological study explored how rural community college students perceived barriers from the transfer process and the support services they had needed for their successful transfers to 4-year universities in rural Texas. Transfer shock and transfer student capital were the two frameworks employed to model sampled students’ transfer experiences and the barriers to transfer. Data sourced from questionnaires and one-on-one interviews with 15 representative transfer students illuminated major barriers in academic advising and financial aid, which mirror the experiences of urban transfer students. Results also indicate that sampled students wanted more remote options and infrastructure (e.g., internet) for learning in rural areas. Most striking among the study’s findings was the nature of personal barriers experienced among the nonwhite students sampled, their unique challenges suggested there may be demographic differences among minoritized sub-groups in rural areas as they held different types of transfer capital and experienced transfer shock differently.