Transfer Shock in an Academic Discipline: The Relationship between Students' Majors and their Academic Performance

Abstract

The study described in this report involved associate's degree recipients who were traditional age and enrolled full-time at a two-year college before pursuing their same majors at a four-year liberal arts college. Based on their majors, students were placed into four discipline categories: fine arts and humanities, mathematics and sciences, social sciences, and professions. The authors analyzed students' preand post-transfer GPAs using a 2 x 4 mixed model ANOVA to determine that no significant differences existed among mean community college GPAs relative to students' majors, and no significant difference existed between twoand four-year college GPAS for the entire sample. The ANOVA did indicate, however, an interaction between location and major on students' GPAs: Tukey's HSD tests revealed a significant decline in the mathematics and sciences mean GPA from the community college to the four-year institution. The authors conclude by defining avenues for further research.