Factors that influence transfer students' success in Iowa State University's journalism and communication program

Abstract

<p>This study aims to determine the demographic and academic profiles of students who transferred to the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University. The three-part questionnaire sent out in an e-mail census of all transfer students in the School by the end of AY 2005-2006 also assessed the level of preparation they received in their basic reporting and writing course, their satisfaction with the academic climate in the Greenlee School in particular and Iowa State in general, and identified what factors influenced their success at a four-year undergraduate program as measured by their GPA. The electronic questionnaire was sent to 147 transfer students. The response rate was 32.65%.;The results show that journalism and mass communication transfer students were relatively young (average age is 22 years old), mostly Caucasian females who were single and had no children. They came from all over Iowa, but mainly attended the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) before coming to ISU, and had an annual income of less than 20,000 per year. Over 60 percent of them took the basic reporting and writing class at Iowa State, about a third had high school media experience, and close to half were involved in college media. Their average grade point average was 2.85.;Those who took basic reporting and writing outside ISU rated their experience more favorably than those who took the course at the Greenlee School. The largest variance in the evaluations of the course was in the areas of computer and problem-solving skills acquisition.</p>