Julie Shields Rutyna: [00:00:00] Well, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Julie Shields Rutina, and I am the Senior Director of College Planning, Education and Training at MEFA. And I’d like to welcome you to this afternoon’s MEFA Institute webinar about Mass Transfer. And we’re so lucky to have Art Esposito with us to give you all the ins and outs.

Uh, he is the Director of Academic Affairs and Student Success, um, at the Department of Higher Education, and will, um, be sharing so much with you today. Let me say that we are recording this, and we, so we will also send you the recording, um, t- probably tomorrow. So you’ll have that if you have to leave early or something like that, or if you’d like to share it with friends who haven’t been able to, um, to be here today.

And I, I will also, I can answer some questions and [00:01:00] behind the scenes, and I can pose those to Art as we go along. But, um, other than that, I’m gonna turn it right over to Art, and welcome, and thank you.

Arthur Esposito: Thanks so much. Um, hi, everybody. Um, like Julie said, my name’s Art Esposito. I’m the director of, um, I’ve got the longest title in the world.

The Director of Academic Policy and Student Affairs, or Student Success at, uh, Department of Higher Education. Um, lots of items in my administrative portfolio, but the primary one that, that people focus on is Mass Transfer. Um, I’ve been with the department a short time, but, uh, only since 2023, but the previous five years I spent at Cape Cod Community College as Director of Advising and, um, and Student Readiness.

And then the previous 20 years I spent on college campuses as either instructional faculty or in advising and, and, and advising leadership positions. So, um, I’ve brought to the department a lot of years of, um, academic success, academic support implementation on [00:02:00] campuses and, and now it’s, it’s one of my primary, uh, portfolio items to focus on.

Um, I don’t, I don’t like to build slide decks when talking about, um, when talking about Mass Transfer. I usually just, you know, take us right to our webpage, um, i- in part to sort of let the audience know where they can get a lot of information about us, but also because I’ve been tweaking it and configuring it for the last few years, um, to make it a good stand-in for a slide deck.

So, um, it’s, the, the website, the web address is pretty simple, mass.edu/mass transfer. Um, and the best place to jump in is the About tab. Um- So Mass Transfer has been a thing in Massachusetts, um, a formalized thing called Mass Transfer since around 2008. And there are lots of [00:03:00] bits of functionality, um, that, uh, that support the overarching policy and legislative language now.

Um, but in general, it was the most recent rebranding of interinstitutional transfer work that’s been going on in the Commonwealth since sometime in 1970s. So, um, the public system of higher education, the 15 community colleges, the nine state universities, and the four, um, UMass campuses have always worked really well together to support vertical transfer, so transfer from a community college to a baccalaureate institution.

And the Mass Transfer program and the website just sort of… Our goal is to be, um In part a policy driver and, [00:04:00] um, in part a sort of universal articulation agreement so the institutional dyads don’t have to create a new agreement for each degree that they map. There are some universals that the, the, um, mass transfer policies and protocols, um, guarantee, uh, and, and those are the things that usually go into individual articulation agreements.

So, um, I like to start on this page because it represents the, the component benefit provisions of mass transfer as a stepped sort of reality, starting off with the Gen Ed Foundation. Um, this level of benefit is awarded to, um, to community college students who transfer prior to having earned their associate degree.

Um, if they complete the 11 courses of the Gen Ed Foundation[00:05:00]

Um, if they complete these requirements, then the receiving institution that they’re transferring to waives the graduation requirement of completing their general education foundation. Then the institution does a course-for-course equivalency, um, a- and, and builds the student’s new degree audit, but with the graduation requirement of completing the core as already checked off.

Um, this page on our, on our site, um, lets students at the community college identify which of their courses satisfies the distribution of credits in each of the categories. The only one that doesn’t show up here is English Composition because it’s two courses, six credits, and they’re the same two courses and six credits anywhere.

It’s Comp one and Comp two. Um, so that’s the, that’s the initial level of [00:06:00] benefit for Mass Transfer. Um, and again, that’s for students who haven’t completed an associate degree. Um, the next level is for students who have completed an associate degree, and the benefit provisions are based upon… First of all, they get the, the previous level.

They get the Gen Ed Foundation if their associate degree c- contains the Gen Ed Foundation, and most Associate of Arts degrees at the community colleges contain the Gen Ed Foundation. Advisors are very well aware of this and are ex- extremely focused on helping students understand this. Um, so when the student finishes the associate degree, um, at the community college, then we, we jump to the associate to bachelor’s, or A to B level benefits, and these are all based on the student’s GPA.

So in addition to the Gen Ed Foundation and the, the Gen Ed being waived, if a student has earned a 2.0 GPA for the associate [00:07:00] degree, the cumulative GPA, um, admissions and application fees are waived, essays are waived, letters of requirements are waived. Um, they’re guaranteed an acceptance of a minimum of 60 credits, so, so a minimum of the, the s- a minimum of 60 credits of anything that’s on their, um, associate degree transcript is going to be accepted.

We can’t guarantee whether it’ll be a major requirement, a general education requirement, or an elective, but all the credits will be re- uh, will be accepted, and the student will be admitted with the registration status of junior. Um- That key turn of phrase is important. The registration of status– The registration status of junior does not say that they will be in lockstep with juniors who started the major at the institution.

Um, it’s just to say that when it comes time for registration, [00:08:00] registration windows open based on the number of credits that you have, and they will be in lockstep with the junior class in terms of credit accumulation. We can’t guarantee lockstep with the major because each major is different at each institution.

But we have, um, we have pathway maps that help students identify the number of courses in the major that they really ought to take in order to be more closely aligned with, uh, students in the major in terms of a junior. Those pathway maps are found on this page And just to put the case in point, we’ll say the student is starting at Bunker Hill and they want to see where their Communi- th- where their business degree will transfer to any of the state universities or [00:09:00] UMass campuses.

And they say, “Show us map pathways.” Um, Bunker Hill to, let’s say Framingham. No, wait, I’m gonna do

Let’s make it a little bit more realistic. Let’s do UMass Boston. And this is a pathway map Um, these are the recommended courses to take within the major, and we see that a student who takes Accounting 101 and 102 at Bunker Hill will have those courses accepted as, um, Accounting 210 and, and three business- and three credits of business electives.

Um, so there’s an equivalent in content, but there’s not an equivalent in courses. Um, versus the management class. Management 105 directly [00:10:00] transfers as Marketing 301. So on the, the left side of the map, we have the courses at, at the sending institution. On the right-hand side of the map, we’ve got courses at the receiving institution.

Um, so the pathway maps are helpful at making sure the student is awfully close to in lockstep from a course perspective with juniors who started at the institution residently. Um, back to the benefits. If they complete that degree with a 2.0 GPA, again, these, uh, fees, essays waived, credits guaranteed, and transfer.

If they complete with a 2.5 GPA, then admission to the university is guaranteed. That’s not admission to the major, that’s admiss- admission to the university. Some majors have, um, special admission requirements. Performing arts majors would have to do an audition. Visual art majors would submit a portfolio.

Um, [00:11:00] some bachelor’s degrees have higher GPA standards than the community colleges that the student’s transferring from. Any of those unique and special admission requirements will still need to be satisfied by the transferring student, but they’ll be accepted into the university with all of the same provisions as, um, as previous, um, provision levels.

Um, and then finally, if they transfer with a 3.0 GPA, then they become available. They, they become eligible for the MassTransfer Tuition Credit or Tuition Waiver program. Um, and this, um, th- this program, uh, if students are eligible for this benefit, the baccalaureate institution will waive the equivalent of resident tuition, um, in-state resident tuition for that student.

So they will pay no tuition. They will pay fees, but they will pay no tuition. So it’s a tuition-free [00:12:00] bachelor’s degree for two years. Um, it’s a pretty good benefit. Um, the, the 3.0 GPA, uh, can be on the high end, um, but, you know, no student ever, um, uh- – stretches to reach a, a low, um, threshold. So not bad to push students, not bad to expect high expectations.

Um, so that’s the, that’s the A To B pathway level benefit. Um, and then the next level of benefit is something called the Commonwealth Commitment. This was added to Mass Transfer, and it’s an enhancement of the A To B pathway, um, program. If a student, um… Well, there are some, some heightened benefits, um, but there are also some, some heightened requirements.

Um, so following the Mass Transfer Commonwealth Commitment, um, if a student identifies [00:13:00] the major they wish to pursue and the baccalaureate institution at which they want to earn the degree, um- And they commit to enrolling as a full-time student and maintaining a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA, um, then they receive, uh, the following benefits.

First of all, as soon as they parti- they start participating in the program at the community college, their tuition at the community college and the tuition at the baccalaureate institution that they, um, transfer to in the future, tuition is frozen to the date that they start in the program. So that’s the first semester of their community college, uh, program.

Um, the second benefit is that each semester they maintain that 3.0 GPA, they will get a rebate check at the end of that semester, um, for the amount of tuition that they paid the previous semester. [00:14:00] And then finally, um, eligibility for the Mass Transfer, uh, tuition waiver is, is built into it because they’re earning the 3.0 GPA.

Um, these other two levels of benefit, the reverse transfer and the-

Julie Shields Rutyna: A- and Art, before you get into that, can I ask one question?

Arthur Esposito: Of course you may.

Julie Shields Rutyna: Uh, sorry, I should have a- so we have one question and I, I think it applies here, but if you’re gonna get to it, we can hold it off, but I’ll just- No, that’s

Arthur Esposito: okay.

Yeah, let’s hear it. I’ll just

Julie Shields Rutyna: read it. Yeah. Yeah. Are there new recommendations for how d- dual enrollment or early college students navigate Mass Transfer A to B and Commonwealth Commitment? The most recent recommendation this person heard was for the student to apply as a first-year student. But any, any, anything you can share about that.

Arthur Esposito: Th- that has not changed. There are, there aren’t new guidelines, um, uh, m- It, it’s tricky, um, because, uh, there [00:15:00] are, there are cases in which, and there have actually always been cases in which, um, students can acquire or accumulate a large number of credits in transfer at the same time that they’re earning their high school diploma.

Um, it happened at Kitt Peak only where a student would have earned an entire associate degree as a dual enrollment student. This is possible and, and, um, it gets a little bit tricky i- in terms of timing. Um, when a student– When a typical high school student, well, actually any high school student, when they’re applying to a baccalaureate institution, typically their, their application deadline is, is in the middle of their, the fall semester when they’re still a senior in high school.

And if they’re going through dual enrollment courses or early college courses, um, in the spring of their senior year, their transfer transcript is not gonna be finalized [00:16:00] until the August before they start classes at the baccalaureate institution. So they need to apply as a first-year student in terms of timeline.

And then in terms of the, the support that they need to transition from secondary education and success at the secondary institution level- To success at the post-secondary level is significant. So they need all the same advising support and basic needs support and learning transition support as a first-year student, regardless of the fact that they’ve earned a lot of college-level credits.

So all of the institutions are encouraging students, if they’re applying to a baccalaureate institution, to apply as a first-year student regardless of, of the number of credits they’ve earned, um, [00:17:00] in dual enrollment or early college. So that, that recommendation is still the same.

Julie Shields Rutyna: Thank you.

Arthur Esposito: You bet. Um, so in terms of reverse transfer and the non-Mass Transfer options, these aren’t literal provisions of benefits of the Mass Transfer program.

The reverse transfer process is, is a long conversation, uh, that, um, that students who have already completed their associate, uh, their community college to baccalaureate transfer. So not anything in the world that y’all would be dealing with, so we don’t need to really spend a lot of time on that, and it’s really just a workflow that our web flow man- uh, that our website manages, not really a provision of a benefit.

And then the non-trans- the non-Mass Transfer options, this can be interesting to dig into, but I think the, um, the [00:18:00] most meaningful observation to make about this is that, um, the New England Board of Higher Education, distinct from the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, who, who I work for, the New England Board of Higher Education has built s- functionally the mirror image of the Mass Transfer program for community college, uh, for, for community college, um, to private institution transfers.

Um, the Mass Guarantee is what the program is called. Um, and on this page, you can search for, um, any of the private institutions in the Commonwealth that have signed on to provide the same Mass Transfer benefits to students from the [00:19:00] public community colleges, um, as the, the public institutions do. Um, in this case, when you identify the, the community college to baccalaureate dyad, the recommendation is to, um, communicate with the transfer admissions office at the receiving institution.

So there isn’t much, there isn’t as much- Um, information-rich functionality on our page for the Mass Guarantee as there is for the Mass Transfer program. Um, but, uh, it’s good to know that it exists, and if any of your students are thinking about, um, going to a community college and, and making the transition to, um, a private institution, um, the A to B level and the, uh, the gen ed foundation level benefits are similar with Mass [00:20:00] Guarantee.

Um, getting back to the more Mass Transfer-y stuff, I wanna talk about some tools that we have on the website. Um, one of the big ones is our course equivalency database. Um, back in 2008, almost 20 years ago now, when this website was first conceived of, instead of going down the road of trying to get all 28 institutions to rewrite all of their academic programming and rewrite all of the, um, the computer-based student information systems and degree audits, uh, so that we could create some sort of common course numbering system, um, the more Current and active decision was to stand up a searchable database of course equivalencies.

So from this page, you can select any community college, um, and [00:21:00] you can either select any and all departments, or you can zero in on one particular department. You can select all of the courses taught at the community college in that department, or you can pick one. You can select any of the community colleges or baccalaureate institutions, or you can say, “Show me how my courses transfer to any of them.”

I don’t want to tap our resources that much, but let’s just say the students at Cape Cod and they want to transfer to Bridgewater State a- and they’re looking at business courses. And the website will bring up a list of ac- action… Pardon me, it’s easy for me to say. A list of active, um, articulation agreements course for course that Cape Cod Community College and Bridgewater State enjoy.

Um, in a lot of cases, we’re seeing [00:22:00] elective. In many cases, we’re seeing, um, course, uh, direct course equivalencies. And you can do it again with, with any or with all subjects. We do it with, with any subject, of course the list is going to be quite a bit longer. Um, and again, we’re seeing either elective or direct course equivalency.

Um, the, the plus here is that the credit is not being denied. They’re not losing this credit if they take this course. It just means that Bridgewater State doesn’t have a culinary arts program. Still, Bridgewater State is acknowledging that they’re awarding a student for, for credits, um, and they’re allowing that student to use those credits towards their bachelor’s degree completion.

So it’s not a loss of credit, it’s just not the most useful because if they’re transferring from a culinary arts program to Bridgewater State, there’s no [00:23:00] culinary arts program there. They’re going to have to change their major. At least they don’t lose the credits, even though they’re not that functional in, in satisfying major requirements.

Um, the other tools that we have, I think the biggest other tool that we have, the searchable database of, um, mass transfer pathways, um, is the other live functioning, uh, uh, research tool that we have to help students think about the way that thing, the, the way that things transfer. Um- I think that that really, I don’t know, puts a, puts a pretty fine point on the general outline of mass transfer benefit provisions.

The only other th- thing to say about the idea of mass [00:24:00] transfer specifically and vertical transfer in an overarching, um, perspective, um, is to, um, is to bear in mind some, some data that I pulled. When I, I… When I did this, um, presentation last week for students, I got some advanced questions shot to me, and one of them was asking about, um, um, data on how much more likely the, the mass transfer program made it for students to complete a bachelor’s degree after transferring.

Um, and that’s a significant question. The two primary questions in the national dialogue on vertical transfer or community college to baccalaureate transfer in the US are whether or not the student is transferring and executing a lossless credit transfer. And the second question is, how likely is a student to complete their bachelor’s degree [00:25:00] after they transfer?

And while we have no specific data on the difference between a mass transfer student and a non-mass transfer student, we do have data on, um, students who complete an associate degree versus students who do not complete an associate degree. So students who transfer without an associate degree in the Commonwealth, um, are at around a 51% post-transfer degree completion ratio When compared to students who complete an associate degree, that number jumps up to 69%.

So a significant increase in, uh, post-baccalaureate degree completion after a student, uh, uh, completes an associate degree. And those data are, um, are similar and, and, um, actually I think even a little bit higher when w- when we look at the national numbers and the national [00:26:00] data across the US. Students who complete associate degrees are way more likely to complete their bachelor’s degree.

Uh, they’re also far more likely to have higher GPAs. Um, they’re far more likely to complete their degree in a timely manner. Um, in higher ed we haven’t yet figured out how to guarantee bachelor’s degree or associate degree completion, um, in two or four years, um, because we haven’t figured out a way to eradicate the need to be a part-time student.

Um, the new demographic in higher education is that the previous non-traditional student, the student who had to work and can only attend part-time, the student I was 40 years ago when, when I graduated high school, um, we haven’t figured out a way to eradicate that. Students now, many of our students are experiencing time poverty.

They have at least one job. Many of them have two jobs. [00:27:00] Most of them have families to support. So they’ve got, they’ve got great distractions when it comes to the amount of time they can dedicate to higher education, and that’s not just time in the classroom. You know, ’cause in higher ed they’re in class half the time that they are in, in secondary ed.

Doesn’t mean they’re doing half the work, that just means that more of their learning is on them, and they’ve gotta do it at home. So add that to the reality of someone who has to work at least one job, maybe two, has home healthcare, uh, uh, requirements, and just doesn’t have the time to dedicate to studying They have to reduce the number of credits that they’re carrying.

That means that they’re not going to graduate with their bachelor’s degree strictly two years after they transfer. It’s going to take them a little bit longer. That’s not a bad thing in higher education. For a number of years, we’ve been, we’ve been kind of fighting a, a sort of imaginary [00:28:00] battle. Um, th- there are only two ways to lose money and waste time in higher education, and the two ways are to take the wrong courses or to do poorly in those courses so that you have to retake them.

Those are the only two ways to waste time and money. I understand the argument that the sooner you complete the degree, the sooner you’re out in the world of work and you’re earning. However, it’s not, it’s not equivalent to say that the longer you spend in higher education, the more money you’re spending.

Um, so it’s, it’s a, it’s a tricky balance. Um, the current recommendation is if you can’t be full-time enrolled, if you have other requirements, that’s not a problem. It doesn’t mean you’re going to fail out. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to complete. But you should be as enrolled as you possibly can. So use summer sessions.

All of our community colleges have multiple sessions throughout the summer in which [00:29:00] students can take as many as nine credits in each session. So it’s, it’s entirely possible to treat the two summer sessions as though it was one full semester. So there are ways to shrink that extended timeline by doing things like using summer sessions to your, to your advantage because it gives you the opportunity to, um, to complete a larger number of requirements, to acquire a larger amount of learning and to, to, to graduate in a timely manner, um, as prepared as you would have been were you able to do 15 credits per semester Um, I think that’s it.

Julie Shields Rutyna: Well, that’s super, Art. Okay. Really, really great information, all of it, and, and just hearing you from your experience talk ab- talk about that for, for students. And I really appreciated seeing, um, exactly what [00:30:00] students and counselors can see when they go in to the site and all that. I’ll give about 30 seconds or a minute if…

Does anyone have any questions that weren’t answered? Uh, feel free to pop that in the Q&A. But, uh, I think it was so thorough, and I’m very appreciative. Okay, let’s see Okay. I have, I have one. Um, what if students decide to change their pathway in the middle of their first semester? What is the advising support like for a student in this position?

Is it easy for them to switch? Is that going to impact their transfer into the four-year university? And is there a family income limit for Commonwealth Commitment? So that, that’s a lot of questions in one.

Arthur Esposito: That’s okay. A- and many of them are easy to answer. The, the last one’s the easiest. There is no family income limit.

If, if the student can, um, if the student can commit to full-time registration, [00:31:00] um, earning the, the 3.0 GPA, um, they get the benefit. There’s no question about, um, about family income. Th- that is, um, the… So the, the financial benefits of Mass Transfer are managed by our Office of Student Financial Assistance.

A- and those are all, um, all the eligibility is, is based on a student’s eligibility for Massachusetts Federal Aid. So if they’ve done the, um, what do they call? They call it the MASFA. That’s the, that’s the Massachusetts version of the FAFSA. Um, so, um, all, all that, all the financial pieces are, are managed through OSFA.

But I know enough to say that there is no family, um, income limit on the, the Mass Transfer financial benefits. Um, the question of major change is a little bit more complex. Um, and the question about what sort of advising support is a little bit more complex. [00:32:00] Um, if a student is going to change their academic pathway, the best time to do it is as early in the process as possible.

What that means is that, um, really this is a, this is another instance in which one of the biggest transitions to post-secondary education is the student becoming an active participant in their educational opportunities. Um, the best thing a stu- any student can do, starting at any institution, public, private, Massachusetts or California, the best thing any student, any first-time student in college can do is meet with an academic advisor as early and as often as possible.

Um, there’s data on that as well, um, that students who meet with their academic advisor regularly are, like, 80% more likely to complete their degree in a timely [00:33:00] manner. They’re, they’re at least- I think 20% more likely to have higher GPAs. It’s because they’ve- they’ve made a connection with someone at the institution who knows how to support them through this significant transition.

So meeting with academic advising at, uh, uh, as early as possible and as often as once a month is optimal. Um, the- the language in the national dialogue on vertical transfer, um, really encourages institutions to help students make a concrete decision on the pathway they want to follow and- The, the transfer institution at which they want to complete the bachelor’s degree.

They should make that decision within their first one or two semesters. Um, the [00:34:00] Commonwealth Commitment requires a student to choose the major in their first semester. They shouldn’t do that alone. They should always do that with an academic advisor at the community college. If they can get access to one at the baccalaureate institution that they’re thinking about, that’s even better to, to do both.

Um, but at least talk with the advisor at the institution to get on the right pathway and, um, and if they want to do the Commonwealth Commitment to, to sign the, the participation form. If they realize at the end of their first semester or the end of their second semester, or really even third or fourth semester, as soon as they realize it’s not a good fit, they need to talk to an advisor and they need to get into the right fit.

Usually what’s telling them it’s not a right fit is that they’re academically underperforming because they made a decision that isn’t matching with the learning style that they’ve been able to come to at the post-secondary level. And [00:35:00] history has shown that students that are stubborn and determined about that, if they aren’t matching that with A behavior modification, they’re not gonna start doing any better in that wrong fit major.

So it’s better to find the right fit sooner. Um, it depends on what they’re transferring from and what they’re transferring to. Obviously, if they’ve chosen, um, a biology degree and they’re, and they’re changing their major to a liberal studies degree that has nothing to do with STEM, some of those credits might only be useful for completing the associate degree.

They might be electives. Um, but it really depends on, um, the, the, the field of study that they’re leaving and the field of study that they’re entering. Um, there can be great flexibility in transfer at the community college level, but it can also be pretty tight. Um, you know, [00:36:00] I mean, if, if they’re, if they’re transferring the other way, if they’ve started a, a, I don’t know, philosophy degree and they decide they wanna be a nursing major, that’s gonna be steep because from the get, the STEM fields and the nursing and the pre-health fields are, um, are very rigidly structured.

And if you’re not completing the several courses from your first semester, you’re gonna be behind. You’re not gonna be in lockstep with the cohort that started when you were a first-year at a different discipline. Um, it varies. It doesn’t have to be undoing. And the language in, in all of the mass trans- implementation guidelines is that it’s not disqualifying.

It might be more complex and a larger number of credits might shift to the elective category than the student is comfortable with, but it’s not disqualifying. The benefits will remain the same. Did that help? [00:37:00]

Julie Shields Rutyna: Yes, I think that, I think that’s great. Thank you.

Arthur Esposito: Yeah.

Julie Shields Rutyna: And let’s see. We might have one more question.

Um, yes, the person who asked the question verified that, uh, that was, that was helpful, so thank you again. Yeah. Well, thank you. All right, and thank you to all of you, uh, for being here today, and I will just add that, um, please come back to MEFA often for these, these terrific webinars on… That are very informative, and also just let us know if there are topics that you don’t see, and we’re happy to add those.

And yes, you have something else to say, yeah?

Arthur Esposito: If any other questions come up, Julie has my email address. Feel free to reach out, um, and I’m happy to, to… You know, I, I can, I can come to your school and talk with your entire counseling team if you’d like. Happy to… You know, I’ll, I’ll take it on the road, and I’ll show students as well.

I- I’ve done a couple of presentations down, um, in Canton actually, uh, uh, for, for some of the high school students. You know, come talk [00:38:00] to juniors and, and seniors just starting the process and starting to think about, um, think about the higher ed transition. So happy to go on the road, happy to answer emails.

Reach out.

Julie Shields Rutyna: That’s so wonderful. Thank you for that as well. You bet. All right. Have a good afternoon, everyone. Bye-bye.

Arthur Esposito: Thanks, everybody.

Julie Shields Rutyna: Bye.